Friday, December 24, 2010

Death Race 2


I love these kind of 'prisons gone gladiatorial' type movies and this one moves at a wicked fast pace that leaves you no time but to get into the action.

The time is the near future when the prisons are out of control with gang violence. The government turns all operations of the prisons to private corporations to run for profit. (How is that different from the way things are today, exactly?)

One corporation learns that televising gladiatorial games is the best way to get ratings and earn huge advertising dollars. When even the fights to the death are not enough they create the DEATH RACE that pits drivers together in one, inside the prison car race where the cars are supercharged and armed to the teeth with machine guns and other offensive and defensive weapons.

Except for Sean Bean, Ving Rhames, and action favorite Danny Trejo the cast are mostly unknowns and that is a plus. It's nice to see Danny as a good guy who gets most of the funny throw away lines. He plays part only half Mexican/half Jew in the joint (as he says it) and is part of Goss's pit crew.


Main star Luke Goss plays Carl Lucas and is a David Statham look alike and fills the role well as a tough con loyal to the gangster out to kill him before what the con knows can get him a deal out of the hellish Terminal Island prison(a set that can be used to make a hundred of these types of 'hell on earth' battle to the death movies). Sean Bean is the crazed gangster paranoid about what former friend Goss can burn him with.


Lucas has a female navigator played by Tanit Phoenix and they have great chemistry together as a team who both trust and respect each other for no other reason initially than physical attraction.

But she is his kind of girl, tough, smart, and creative and they share a nice loyalty to each other that doesn't seemed forced by situation in the film. He has a code of honor that instantly seperates him from the scum she usually deal with.

Why can't more romantic comedies build their relationships is such 'real' ways instead of the contrived (and I get this is a prion death race movie) ways they usually build couples.

They advertise this on the box as the movie that gives us the origin of the 'Frankenstein' character who is the main man in the other two 'Death Race' movies.

Of course, in the original Roger Corman made 'Death Race', David Carradine made the twisted and damaged driver a hero, something that the recent David Statham movie re-introduced. I hope that makes sense and should if you are up on your 'Death Race' movie trivia and there is no sane reason why you shouldn't be because these movies are a lot of hard fighting, and hard driving fun.

The way they handled the creation of 'Frankenstein' combined perfectly with the finale of the film. I am giving nothing away by saying that for a film with a heavy revenge element, the ending does not disappoint.

Finally, someone actually cared enough to put some time and thought into a script that was about a stupid prison death race. The topic never matters....EXECUTION and EFFORT, however, always do and these guys got this one right.

This is another movie that surprised me. Like so many recent DIRECT TO DVD releases, this film could have made their money back easily if released to theatres originally. I learned about them with minimal marketing on the Internet which should not have stopped the filmmakers from wider releases (if fear of little return on a large marketing campaign was the fear of the filmmakers)


There is an audience for what called a 'leave your brain in the car movie' and there always will be. Why not reintroduce the 'double feature' with and A movie and a B movie like this one? The only really complaint I had is that I wish the cars themselves had more personalities and differing abilities, looks and strengths. This is a live action cartoon after all.

This movie reminded me of a classic 'grind house' feature that were staples of the days of the drive-in (something else I lament the loss of. If I could choose one thing that was super cool about my generation then it was the drive-in. I am sure all my 'people' out there will agree with me).

Add your silly 3-D effects if you want to further interest the kids out to the cinemaplexes because if you don't change your business model soon, then movie theatres as we know them will die the way of the video rental store and drive-ins.

There is something special about a night out to see a film and something needs to be found to protect that experience.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tanit is unbelievable in this film.. A Goddess, fierce and sexy, yet, she has a very real emotional side to her. I am completely in love, will follow every movie she does from now on!

Kal said...

This is why I hate Anonymous commenters. I want to know someone who GETS IT on a first named basis.

Tanit is so sexy and talented an actress that the creators of that film (which went straight to video - WTF?) realized that she could pull off the relationship they wanted between their two leads.

EVERY action film has a pretty girl and a tough guy fall in love but few succeed in making us believe it.

With just a look or smile she makes convinces you that their attraction is real. You care about what happens to both her and him.

The sacrifices she makes for him and he for her are genuine.

That's right people, all that depth is in a movie called DEATH RACE 2.