Death Race (Theatrical - 2008) Universal / 2008 Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson Written by Paul W.S. Anderson Cast: Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Ian McShane, Tyrese Gibson Review by Mike White In the future, television is going to be great! CBS will play host to “Rollerball” while NBC runs the American remake of Dutch hit “The Arena.” ABC keeps chugging away with “The Millons Game” and the CW has a mid-season replacement of “The Running Man.” Of course, there’s a lot of market share to be found on the Internet with broadcasts of “The Condemned” and “Death Race” vying for subscribers. If you like your entertainment violent, just wait a few years. Movies have guaranteed a sheaf of cathartic gladiatorial game shows on the horizon. “Death Race” is a three day event wherein a handful of drivers square off on the circular track at Terminal Island prison. Racing a variety of tricked-out vehicles, armed with 30 caliber machine guns and various defense mechanisms (oil slicks, smoke screens, napalm), the prisoners cum racers try to gain their freedom by winning the event five times. Those are the ground rules of Paul W.S. Anderson’s Death Race. They’re simple and don’t leave much room for surprises; that’s a fitting description of the film as a whole. Obeying far more conventions of the prison subgenre (Brubaker, The Shawshank Redemption, Escape from Alcatraz) than the coastal race subgenre (Cannonball, Gumball Rally, The Last Race), the racing sequences are simple substitutes for prerequisite shanking scenes. With “power ups” dotting the track, the race transforms into a live action video game. It’s telling that Anderson’s slated for a film version of the classic video game “Spy Hunter” for his next project. Death Race is a rough draft for this subsequent film. Death Race shares part of the title of Paul Bartel’s Death Race 2000, a character named Frankenstein, and little else. It has absolutely nothing to do with Ib Melchior’s short story, “The Racer,” the basis of the Bartel film. The “theme cars” of Death Race 2000 have been replaced by a United Nations of thugs—a Chinese Triad, a Russian mobster, a Mexican Sureno, an African American gangsta, et cetera—to ensure that Death Race adheres to prison and racial stereotypes.

Taking the race off of the streets of America, removing the slick commentary, and eliminating the camp effectively neuters the film; making a subversive cult classic into just another mindless matinee. But, hey, at least it’s better than The Condemned!

“This race is fueled by pure adrenaline!”

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