REVIEW: What’s the name of that particular movie showing on a cable channel, Spike or FX or one of those? Isn’t it called “Movie for Guys That Like Movies”? Well, this one belongs in that category. This of course means that I enjoyed it. Tough guys, hot girls, fast cars, heavy artillery, and good ol’ fashioned fights equals a very fun movie. It is intense, action packed, dark, violent, ragged and rough around the edges. What more would you want? Oh, I’m sorry, you want a good story to go with that . . . well, you don’t quite get all you want with this movie. The action is great, sharply captured and displayed, but the story is typical, predictable, and weak. This flick reminded me a lot of The Running Man with the Governor. The premise is just too far fetched and the setting of the story established in the beginning is really unnecessary. But who cares! It’s all about the action, right?
This film really seemed like a life size video game. That is both good and bad; good for the action, bad for the quality of the movie. The acting was as good as you would expect for this genre highlighted by Jason Statham as Jensen Ames, Tyrese Gibson as Machine Gun Joe, Ian McShane as Coach, and the coldest most ruthless prison warden you can imagine, Hennessey played by Joan Allen. You’ll be surprised on how chillingly intimidating Joan is while playing this role. Hard times call for hard games and hard games have to be run by hard people and Hennessey is perfect for the job. For her, nothing else matters but viewer demand for the race, and I do mean nothing. Even though the characters are generally appealing and as varied as the competitors in the Olympics, their development is almost non-existent. We get two or three sentences of background and they are thrown onto the track. I would have liked a little more background on these people. Luckily the actors gave decent performances because the script didn’t help either. It was simple/borderline childish. But then again, it’s all about the action, right? The soundtrack was pretty good though.
You can understand why this movie was made this way once you establish that Paul W.S. Anderson was the Writer, Director, and Producer. With his involvement in one or all of those capacities in such movies as the Resident Evils, Mortal Kombat, and Alien vs. Predator, it is clear how this one follows suit and how it also looks like a video game. He can successfully add this one to his collection. If you are caught up with all the summer blockbusters and it’s your turn to pick a movie to see and you’re in the mood for some down and dirty action, this is not a bad choice. Oh and ladies, even though I mentioned that this is a man’s movie, you do get some eye candy with Mr. Statham. Don’t worry guys, we’ve got a hot new lady to sweeten our vision as well. Remember the name Natalie Martinez who plays Case. Hey, it’s all about the action, right?
Film Review By Cine Marcos
DVD: The DVD is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ration preserving the theatrical presentation of the film. The picture is complemented with a 5.1 Dolby Digital audio tracks in three different languages, English, Spanish and French.
The DVD includes the theatrical and the unrated versions of the movie. The unrated version is 6 minutes longer that the theatrical version. The special features are very slim in this DVD release. It only contains 2 special features, with a total running time of 26 minutes. The first one is “Start Your Engines: Making A Death Race” A 20 minutes documentary behind the scenes in the making of the film. The last one is “Behind The Wheel: Dissecting The Stunts”, in which the cast and crew talk about some of the driving stunts in the film. “Finally the DVD Feature Commentary With Director Paul W.S Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt”, which i found to be the most interesting feature of the DVD.
Release Date: December 21, 2008