Synopsis:

It’s the year 2020. To combat prison overcrowding, the powers-that-be have devised a brutal 3-day car chase, with the winner gaining their freedom. Forced to choose between the deadly race and spending the rest of his life at the notorius Terminal Island prison, Speedway champion and ex-con Aimes (Statham) chooses the race. Forced to wear a metal Frankenstein mask, Aimes gets behind the wheel of a car loaded with deadly gadgetry, including flame throwers and machine guns. But, even with his nighttmare-on-wheels, it’s going to take all his skills to make it to the finish line of this race alive. A remake of the 1975 film Death Race 2000.

Our Thoughts:

The first time I heard about this, I was a bit underwhelmed. After all, the original film, Death Race 2000 - now with some campy appeal thanks to David Carradine and a youthful Sly Stallone popping up in the film - isn’t actually that good.

Then we’ve got the two leads - Jason Statham and Tyrese Gibson. While Statham has managed to pop up in some decent action flicks (The One), he doesn’t exactly inspire confidence when he becomes the lead character of the action film (The Transporter (2002), War (2007), etc. - with the recent The Bank Job (2008) possible being the exception).

As for Tyrese, well, the last movie he was racing cars in was 2 Fast 2 Furious, if that gives any indication. Yikes.

So with these two uneven leads getting behind the wheels of this remake, I’m already hesitating about seeing this one in theaters. Sure, Joan Allen is usually good, and the special effects are sure to be impressive, but with Statham and Tyrese in the driver’s seat, I might skip this ride until it speeds onto DVD.

And, unless the trailer really hypes up interest in Death Race, chances are good the journey from theaters to DVD may be a short one for this remake, so at least most of us won’t have long to wait until we rent it.

 

You Might Also Like...