Film Reviews

Death Race

• Rating:
• Director: Paul W.S. Anderson.
• Starring: Jason Statham, Ian McShane, Joan Allen, Natalie Martinez.
• Details: US / 105mins (16).

A remake of B-movie hero Roger Corman's 1975 violent cult actioner Death Race 2000, Death Race takes the idea but nothing else for the update. That cross-country race relocates to a high security prison in 2012 where Jason Statham's former racecar driver is wrongfully imprisoned for killing his wife. It's here that the popular Death Race (a race between cons in tooled up cars on a course riddled with booby traps and power ups) offers his only way out - survive it and he'll walk free. However, with vicious drivers looking to take Statham out and a bitchy warden (Joan 'what the hell am I doing in this?' Allen) looking to keep Statham in so Internet viewer ratings will be high, our hero is up against it. Days of Thunder meets Oz, meets Super Mario Kart, is the pitch for this one, and if you're a 16-year-old boy this is your Citizen Kane. If you're not a 16-year-old boy there's nothing here (once the set up is over it's just a series of bullets and crashes) to keep you amused. The action sequences, which is where this movie will live and die, has a frenetic pace about them and there's enough gory deaths (of which we get endless replays of) and bullets to keep the lads entertained. If you somehow miss it, don’t panic - the computer game (which Death Race essentially is) will sure enough be in the shops before Christmas, followed by a movie sequel next year, followed by the game sequel, followed by...

Review by Gavin Burke