Sometimes I like to work out by riding
a spin bike while watching a movie. For those occasions, the film
doesn't really need much in the way of plot or character development:
just enough to be tolerable. The important things are fast action
and upbeat music. “Death Race” is a perfect work-out movie!
Jason Statham plays Jensen, a factory
worker who gets framed for murder. The private, maximum-security
prison he is sent to makes money by pitting the inmates against each
other in deadly car-races. Driving souped-up, armored vehicles
fitted with machine-guns, smoke, oil slicks – basically all the
weapons from the old Spy Hunter video game – the inmates race for
the chance to win their freedom, and the audience laps it up. Jensen,
a former race-car driver, is offered a chance to race, which gets him
thinking about what a coincidence it is that an ex-racer would get
framed for murder. With help from his pit crew (including Ian
McShane, from “American Gods”), Jensen wins a series of races,
while figuring out how to get revenge on those who framed him.
As basic as the plot is, “Death
Race” actually manages to slip in a few surprises. The cast is
also reasonably good. Statham does his normal, Jason Statham, thing.
Ian McShane is actually kind of awesome. Joan Allen is a bit too
mustache-twirly as the evil warden, but Natalie Martinez is fairly charming as the standard-issue, vaguely-latina
hottie-in-a-crop-top. You don't watch “Death Race” for the
performances, though, nor for the plot twists. You watch it for
high-speed car crashes and gatlin guns, basically racing and death,
and the movie delivers both in spades.
If you start googling “Death Race,”
you'll find that there are a bunch of these movies. The original 1975
film, “Death Race 2000” is a cult classic. 2008's “Death Race”
revived the concept, and there have been a few sequels since.
3.5 stars out of 5
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