I've got one word to describe Death Race 2000: Satisfying. Everything I wanted to happen in this movie, totally happened. Set in a crumbling futuristic America, the film details the gruesome cross-country race invented and exploited by the current president to take bloodthirsty citizens' minds off of the failing economy. Racers Frankenstein (David Carradine), Machine Gun Joe (Sylvester Stallone), Calamity Jane (Mary Woronov), Matilda the Hun (Roberta Collins), and Nero the Hero (Martin Kove) compete in a race that focuses not only on speed, but on the amount of human kills each driver can accumulate. An anti-race rebel resistance movement sends Annie (Simone Griffeth) to infiltrate it by becoming Frankenstein's navigator (meaning she'll also double as his sex partner during pit stops). As the race progresses, she learns that Frankenstein isn't in fact the president's puppet (as the resistance had assumed), but a man of some morals (though skewed) who governs his own destiny.
Death Race 2000 is certainly an amped-up, violent, exploitative flick: there are a number of gruesome deaths, explosions, boobs, goofy costumes, more boobs, and of course high speed antics. All of these elements are handled deftly and in good measure, resulting in a well-paced and extremely fun film with a bit of sex thrown in. The characters are fantastic, with the actors relishing their crazy themes and vicious mean streaks. It was great to see Mary Woronov again (after recently catching her in the under-appreciated Night of the Comet), and her smack-talking, Wild West-inspired Calamity Jane was my favorite character. I dug the snarling, authoritative David Carradine as well, who imbued the character with an appealing and gruff mysteriousness. And naturally Stallone is comfortable as the yelling, abusive, and trigger-happy Machine Gun Joe.
The futuristic setting isn't fully elaborated, but the hints of America as a ruined amoral wasteland are cleverly inserted through various scenes with reporters and members of the resistance. I was legitimately surprised by how smart and just well done this film is. It's not this deep rumination on a possible future and it isn't exactly subtle, but the way the story develops is thoughtful and wildly entertaining, and its effects and visual design are pretty decent. It never drags and it left me slightly agape at how awesome it becomes. It's just a Really Good Movie.
4.5/5
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Death Race 2000 (1975)
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The remake of this movie grated on my every nerve. It was basically the display of everything that annoys me: horrid acting, worse dialogue, even worse characters, some amped up *cool* stuff (which basically boils down to slow motion and random over the top deaths), and a plot so contrived and badly directed every director in history rolled over in their grave.
ReplyDelete... It was one of the few case I gave a film less than a 3.
So all that side stuff said, I'm not sure I'll ever have the courage to watch this.
I really enjoyed this surprisingly enough. I gave it an 8/10 which is only a point lower than your score. It's one of those ridiculous bad B-movies that's just so good.
ReplyDeleteUnivarn: I was very wary of this movie too, after just seeing trailers for the remake I was like ugh everything relating to Death Race must be awful. But after reading a stellar review of Death Race 2000 I had to give it a chance, and I'm glad I did! It's a lot better than I expected, but I'm sure it still isn't everyone's thing.
ReplyDeleteAnswerMVP: It was a surprise to me too! Glad you dug it.
I watched the remake and thought it was OK, but then I watched this film. It blew the remake out of the water. It was so many kinds of awesome and you're dead right, satisfying :)
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