Can Somebody Install A Machine Gun On My Car?

Another weekend, another trip to the movies. This time, my dad and I headed out and caught Death Race, Paul W.S. Anderson's remake of the Roger Corman-produced 1975 cult classic Death Race 2000. As someone who enjoyed the utter silliness of Death Race 2000, I have to say I entered the remake with a minor bit of trepidation. They'd made some serious alterations to the original movie's plot and Paul W.S. Anderson is the director, so that's two strikes against it. But in spite of that, I thought it was a relatively entertaining movie.

Death Race is exactly what you'd expect from a movie directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. It's loud, badly filmed and edited, and ultimately hollow. But I can't bring myself to hate Death Race. Call me crazy, but sometimes I just like to watch a movie that's nothing but car chases and explosions. Seriously, that's all there is to Death Race. No deeper meaning, nothing to say about society or anything like that (despite the incredibly overused plot point that Death Race is being broadcast as an online pay-per-view event). The whole movie is just a bunch of cars with machine guns and rocket launchers strapped to their hoods. Sometimes, that's all a person like me could really ask for in a movie.

If you're a complicated moviegoer with complicated tastes, then Death Race isn't going to be up your alley. And even if it is your type of movie, it may be hard to overlook the shaky camerawork, the choppy editing, and the thorough lack of substance. But if you can get past all of those flaws, you'll find that Death Race never once tries to be more than what it is: an excuse to watch cars with machine guns shoot at each other for nearly two hours. And if that sounds like a fun way to spend an afternoon to you, then Death Race is a solid choice. I'm going to give it three and a half stars on my world famous Five-Star Sutton Scale, and a thumbs up. Heck, I'd have given it a thumbs up anyway, just because they gave David Carradine a cameo as the character he portrayed in Death Race 2000. Now if only they could have given Sylvester Stallone a cameo too...