Rating:
***/*****, or 7/10
Starring:
Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Ian McShane
Directed
by Paul W.S. Anderson
USA/UK:
Universal Pictures, 2008
A good
remake keeps the message of its predecessor intact, just altered to
fit and reflect the times that influenced its own production. Since
Paul Bartel's and Roger Corman's original exploitation movie Death
Race 2000 didn't pretend to have a message to speak off, but
instead aimed to be a simply entertaining action flick hellbent on
giving spectators a gory thrill ride filled with absurdist jokes
making fun of politics for the heck of it, there was room for
negotiation in that regard when the time was deemed right to tell the
story again. The good-humoured gags and slightly satirical and
subversive elements were brusquely traded in for a more serious
approach, as the new Death Race is set in a bleak world where
the economy is in such a shambles the huge masses can only be
appeased by watching other people, worse off than they are and pushed
into a life of crime, engage in excessively risqué driving behavior.
Inmates are offered a chance to reclaim their freedom in return for
surviving a race where they must win by avoiding lethal obstacles and
more importantly, each other as the goal is to viciously dispatch
other contestants. Enter Jason Statham, who by now is well known for
playing tough characters who won't tolerate such conditions and fight
back with a vengeance.
Statham
plays Jensen Ames, an honest man skilled in driving who lost his job
and subsequently his wife, quickly framed for her death and sent to
serve for life in jail. The wicked warden of the prison, an ice cold
Joan Allen, obviously with a sinister agenda of her own, offers him a
potential way out by competing in her 'Death Race' programme under
the guise of a recently deceased racing legend called Frankenstein, a
favorite of the crowd. Of course Ames turns out just as efficient a
driver as he works his way through the game, brutally taking out many
an adversary along the way and annoying his most fierce opponent,
Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson). As he discovers there's more to his
inclusion in the race than simply his established skill set and the
warden may have been involved in the murder of his wife, Ames'
objective evolves from winning the race to escaping it. Names and a
general premise are about as much as this film and its Seventies'
counterpart have in common. Very different in style, the modern
version is an effective popcorn flick of an action film, but lacking
a character of its own and feeling a tad generic overall. No poking
fun at politics here. Prison clichés cannot be avoided, as is the
case of sidekick typecasting (an old mentor, a nerdy technician, a
hot dame as co-driver, you get it). About as inventive as the
character set-up gets is Joe's status as a (black) homosexual, a
notion with which nothing is done in the course of the film. Why
would it anyway? The film is all about racing kick-ass cars making
kills.
What
Death Race lacks in terms of characters it more than makes up
for when it comes to its real stars, the four-wheeled (or more)
monstrous machines that form its main attraction. Various grizzly
hot-rods adorned with all kinds of deadly accessories have been
assembled by a clearly enthusiastic design and stunt team,
guaranteeing quite the spectacle as they are pitted against each
other in road racing, asphalt blazing fury. The plethora of grotesque
vehicles – including an impressive monster truck loaded with
ingenious weaponry – steering and hacking their way through a
course of rusty, rundown warehouses makes for an eerie, hopeless
post-industrial look reminiscent of such classic action fare the
likes of Mad Max 2: The Road
Warrior, except with the constant attention of the
panoptical media at its back dominating every move of the race to
ensure audience attendance. And despite the blandness of their
characters, the cast does a solid job making this grim world feel
convincing, Statham doing what he does best (and we wouldn't have it
any other way). However, under the direction of action specialist
Paul W.S. Anderson (not that Paul Anderson, as this one is not
known for his carefully balanced quality storytelling), the movie
never conveys the idea that it might revolve around more than just
decently dynamic action scenes. If it's butch cars you want, it's
butch cars you get, might as well have been the film's tagline. All
else is merely secondary.
As a
whole, the major differences between this latest Death Race and
the original are the result of a bigger budget and scope. A true
message is still not a thing of note. The 2008 version simply looks
cooler and feels slicker because it had the money at its disposal,
but it plays it safe by staying in its comfort zone, solely
delivering action while devoid of surprise, instead of throwing
oddities and black humour in the mix like the original could afford
for being a smaller, independent production. Nevertheless, its
tactics proved successful enough to spawn two direct-to-video
sequels, and so the premise returned to its more exploitative roots
(just not in a particularly good way).
And if you don't like disturbing race car driving, there's always this new Game of Thrones Season 4 trailer to drool over:
