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Director : Paul W.S. Anderson
Producer : Roger Corman, Ryan Kavanaugh, Paula Wagner
Screenwriter : Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring : Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Tyrese, Gibson, Ian McShane, Natalie Martinez
Movies like Death Race exist so critics will have something to put on their year-end
"Worst Of" lists.
Technically, it's a remake of Paul Bartel's schlocky Death Race 2000 from 1975. But director
Paul W.S. Anderson also uses his gig as an excuse to revisit every innocent-man-behind-bars
cliché that has been introduced from then 'til now.
Set in the apocalyptic future of 2012, Death Race imagines a flawed and brutal penal
system where private corporations run prisons for profit and inmates at the Terminal
Island Penitentiary are forced to compete in a televised, NASCAR-esque sprint to
the death. Jensen Ames (Jason Statham, on auto-pilot) is a decent man who's framed for murdering
his wife because Hennessey (Joan Allen, slumming it), Terminal Island's cold-blooded
warden, needs a replacement driver on the eve of a major race.
I wouldn't hire Anderson to helm a beer commercial, but then again, I don't work
for Universal. The studio had to know what they were getting, however, once they
handed Anderson the keys to this vehicle. The Brit filmmaker is the thinking man's
Uwe Boll, his illustrious credits including video game adaptations of Mortal Kombat and
Resident Evil. This helps explain why Death Race resembles an Xbox game that we want to
control (or, at least, turn off) but can't.
Stock characterization and predictable developments are expected. But couldn't Anderson
at least nail his race footage? Erratic editing and horrific zooms butcher already
repetitive racing sequences. Washed-out production values and a bleak color scheme
often make it hard to distinguish which menacing road warrior is leading the race.
The gratuitous violence is sadistic in nature, pausing only when Anderson's misogynistic
camera lingers -- in slow motion, of course -- on Natalie Martinez and her curvaceous femal
e co-stars.
So why, pray tell, is Allen agreeing to be in garbage like this? It could be something
as simple as the paycheck. Allen isn't the first Oscar nominee to tolerate genre
trash for the good of a beachfront-condo mortgage, and she won't be the last.
Or maybe Allen had such fun biting heads off in the Bourne franchise that she relished
the notion of once again playing a villain who is, to quote one of Anderson's scripted
gems, "judge, jury, and executioner." But Allen needs to be careful. Put too many
of these stinkers on the resume and it's her career that could be sentenced to death.
Linger away.
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" Unbearable "
Rating: R, 2008
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