Guest Gallery Update
Friday, August 29. 2008
Four new photos have been added to the gallery courtesy of Mercury1. Check out his combination tow truck/plow yard mule here.
Death Race shares only two things with the original Death Race 2000: character names, and automotive carnage. That was one more than I was actually expecting (I didn't realize that "Frankenstein"and"Machine Gun Joe" would be in it), so it was already one up within the first five minutes. Fortunately the other expectation was well met: the rolling destruction shown throughout the movie was phenomenal.
Not that it was a "good" movie: it wasn't. But it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be awesome, entertaining, loud, and slick, but not necessarily "good." I mean, it's called Death Race. If you went to a movie with that title expecting to see a deep, moving period piece played out by the greatest actors of our time, then there's something wrong with you. You go see a movie called Death Race because you want to see a race that involves death. And it delivers: on-track action makes up the bulk of the movie, and every character that meets his end does so in a spectacular way, using tools of the trade such as napalm, road barriers, gunfire, and C4. My personal favorite was the Dreadnought, an armor-plated tanker truck sporting a cow catcher, machine guns, rockets, flame throwers, and wheel slashers. It was completely over the top, and was responsible for clearing more of the track in part of a lap than the rest of the cars managed in one and a half heats.
Which brings me to my next point: parents, this isn't a kids movie. Much like Wanted, this movie easily earned it's "R" rating with some pretty graphic on-screen deaths and plenty of harsh language. It's perfect for the overgrown kid in us that wants to see stuff look cool and go "boom," but leave the actual kids at home.
If you're looking for a good, mindless action flick that features cool characters doing cool things with cool cars, then you've got a winner here.