Thank you Jason Statham. While Hollywood continues to churn out big budget turd after big budget turd, you continue to make solidly entertaining films that fly under the mainstream radar. Anyone would be seriously hard pressed to find a terrible film starring Statham. Not all have been great, but they've all been solid.
Death Race represents the end of my streak of bad movies.
No cross country race involving running people over here. This "re-imagining" pits prisoners against one another in a 3 round race with a surprising amount of rules. Why would prisoners compete in something like this? Because any prisoner that wins 5 races wins their freedom. The prison itself is going for PPV buys, ie: money.
Jason Statham is a construction worker who winds up in the joint and is offered a chance to join the Death Races. This leads to a feud with a few other drivers that continues both on and off the track.
A note on the warden and the prison, they really heavy hand the message about our society's thirst for new and more ridiculous entertainment and the corporations' anything goes attitude and greed in providing us that entertainment. It was done much better in The Running Man.
As you can guess, everything is not what it seems leading Jason into a conflict with the evil warden.
The entire movie is paced out very well and the story flows smoothly. There are two moments I can think of where a person's actions didn't make sense, but they are still plausible. Ok, and one moment towards the end is a bit ridiculous in terms of timing (you'll know it), but it was obviously a wink to the audience to make sure they get what they wanted to see.
Did I mention Al Pacino is in this film? Ok, it's not Al, but it might be his clone. The guy does a decent job too.
I'd recommend this to any action fan.
7 out of 10.
Death Race - 2008 version
Thought I had a review here somewhere of Dungeon Siege, but I can't find it.
Even that movie, despite Uwe Boll, wasn't terrible. It was a passable effort at a Lord of the Rings cash in film.
Even that movie, despite Uwe Boll, wasn't terrible. It was a passable effort at a Lord of the Rings cash in film.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell