Today's Mini-Review: Death Race

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:

 

Today's mini-review: Jack the Giant Slayer

Here's a quickie for ya. Saw this movie two months back but didn't get around to post stuff about it.

Jack the Giant Slayer: ***/*****, or 7/10

Bryan Singer's reimagining of the story about the farmboy Jack who fought savage giants mixes the cheerful British fairy tale Jack and the Bean Stalk with the darker and more violent related tale of Jack the Giant Killer, resulting in a hybrid which incorporates the key narrative elements of both for its own plot purposes. The result is an entertaining adventure flick which sadly looses some of its pleasuring punch by trusting in overly trite but true fairy tale signifiers too much. Simple country boy Jack (Nicholas Hoult, X-Men: First Class) meets gorgeous princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson), who prefers adventure over the boring life of royalty. She gets more than she bargained for when she seeks shelter at Jack's home during a stormy night, just when alleged magic beans he spilled take root and quickly form a giant bean stalk, rising to a strange land above the clouds and sweeping the girl along. The King sends a rescue party to retrieve his daughter, and Jack volunteers to save this girl that's oh so out of his league despite their mutual attractions. Unfortunately for their young love, the land in the skies is inhabited by a race of brutal giants, who were exiled there in ages past so their taste for human flesh would no longer plague mankind. Of course, upon learning a new connection between their two worlds has been established, the monsters soon plan to make use of it to return to Earth and scour the land for human snack food. Thrown in the mix is a subplot regarding a treacherous count (Stanley Tucci) set to marry Isabelle, who only wants to use her to become king himself, and eagerly turns towards controlling the giants via a magic crown to achieve his goal. A solid and simple plot, devoid of surprises, and regrettably hindered by cliché character building, clearly delineating the good guys from the bad, while centered around a fairly boring love affair that all too typically rises above class dinstinctions. It's all a tad too 'Disney' for a capable director like Singer, but there's still a few things to enjoy here. For one thing, there's the abundance of good character actors the likes of Ian McShane and Ewan McGregor (with intriguing facial hair!) that take good care of the supporting roles, but unfortunately can't make the bland performances by the main couple more lively. For another, there's the impressive array of nasty giants that make for a formidable enemy and fun action scenes galore, as well as a bunch of morbidly gory instances of suspense. It's clear the huge budget went first and foremost to the FX departments, who did a hell of a job with the overall design of the vicious creatures – the grotesque two headed giant leader particularly – and their grandiose final battle against their favorite food. If only Singer had spent more time finetuning the story to make it feel a little less old-fashioned and predictable, this movie might have done more slaying at the box office.