DeathRace everything old is new again

DeathRace 2000, a cheezy Roger Corman flick, is being remade and released this year as just "DeathRace". Guess they didn't want to confuse us by setting a firm year?

The original was cheezy fun, with Sylvester Stalone as the villain just before he made it big in Hollywood, and David Caradine as the anti-hero. They and others were racing across the US trying to run over & kill as many pedestrians as possible in their cheeze-ball motif vehicles.

The new movie has reset the series as prison convict fighting for a chance at early release, just trying to kill each other. The year was taken out of the title so as not to date it. Stars Jason Statham (who???) and Ian McShane (the poorman's Gabrielle Byrne).

While the first movie could be sort of a sci-fi cautionary tale with tongue-in-cheek humor, the second one seems more like a post-apocolyptic tarnished-tomorrow action flick with lots of killer car scenes.

 

Man this movie looks bad. Some movies can coast on Statham's charisma alone. I doubt such will be the case here. I've seen the trailer twice and hated it both times.

 

Please don't ever disrespect Ian McShane(Al Swearengen is my God)Yes his choice of roles since Deadwood have been lacking =)

Yes this movie looks awful(I saw the prieview last night). Who keeps casting that R&B singer from four brothers in these movies? They are surely due a flogging. Can't believe they got Joan Allen to do this. Interestingly enough this movie is born of Jason Statham. I like him in alot of movies, even though this is a loser from the jump, its got his name all over it.

 

Uh, sorry, but I loathed Deadwood. I put up with the entire first season because of my wife, but that's as far as I'll tollerate. I thought it was just plain awful and pointless--a soap-opera with foul language and gratuitious and pointless bedroom scenes that make a lot of porn movies seem tame set in the old west. Woo-pet-i-doo.

And I haven't seen any of the Jet Li, Transporter, or other movies mentioned, so that's why I've never heard of him. I just checked his IMDB, and I have scene "The One" and one other movie he was in. Guess he didn't make much of an impression on me.

 

DeathRace2000: an unintentional comedy.
Set in a Distopian future year 2000, 5 racers and their navigators set off on a cross-country race hoping to be the first in New Los Angeles with the highest score. Scoring is done by running down pedestrians. Score of each individual is done by age, based on how much it costs the state to keep that person alive. Men in their mid-20s to mid 40s have the lowest score value (as they are working and producing), and women are worth 10 points more than men in every age category. The United States has fallen on hard times. In 30 years, there was very little technological improvement. Jacob's Ladders are intrigal to a TV signal jamming device. The French, and their stinking European Allies have sabotaged the economy and the phone system. The US Facist State basks in "The Golden fields of Minority Privelege" and runs on Bread&Circuses, with the DeathRace as the all-time most popular sporting event.
David Carradine stars as the State-Sanctioned driver "Frankenstein" who is supposedly the sole survivor of previous races, but is actually just the latest in a string of drivers from an official training center. He and his car have a monster motif.
Sylvester Stalone is the "Bad Guy" racer, who hates everything and everyone (including his navigator--an annoying top-heavy blonde). Naturally, he sports the Chicago Italian Gangster motif (including tommygun ornaments above the headlights and a bayonette on the front of his hood.
Other motifs are the Country-Wester gal, the wanna-be Nazi, and the racer with the delusions of Roman Godhood.

Notes: Rick Moranis (very young here) plays one of the Navigators.

Best scenes: all of the scoring scenes are good for a giggle. Sylvester Stalone getting beaten to a pulp is always fun. The Hand Grenade.

Best Lines:
"What do you expect. Ya leave your navigator lying around, sooner or later someone's going to score him."
"I wonder if someone got points for that eye."
"You know what this means Junior? Race officials from coast to coast will be dropping like flies..."
"Do I do it or do I don't do it. I don' know. No I'd be a schmuck to do it. Here it is. I did it, and I'm no Schmuck" "That's your story."
"Quit moving Cleopatra. My fans want to see me." "They've never seen a has-been before?"
The closing monologe during the credits.

 

Isn't this just a quasi-sequel to that "Condemned" movie last year with convicts on the island?

I think hollywood is trying to cheapen their product anyway they can...cause movie houses are starting to LOWER their ticket prices, cause people aren't coming.

You've either got a date with serious bloodlust...or you are alone because of your own bloodlust...to go see this stuff.

Jason Statham, for about 1 year there, looked like he might break free of his stereotype and become a valid leading man. But this...Crank 2? Transporter 3?

moving on...

 

Death Race is one of the best bad movies ever made. Watching it you can all most feel like you are in the drive in during the 70's. Sly Stallone is hilarious in the film, his performance is way over the top even for him.

 

Wow, this looks horrible.

 

This flick looks so bad it's hard to believe that it even made it through script approval. From what I've seen, there's nothing remotely realistic about it. Won't even have the campy/cheese elements that make the original worth watching. Then again, I have yet to see one movie Jason Statham has been in that is anywhere near a quality flick. But at least it's got that new Mustang in it.

Sorry to come in and hate like this, but I was forced to watch a fifteen minute "Hey look here's the whole movie" behind the scenes promo while waiting for TDK, it was just bad.

-T_S_R

 

Oh come on...The Italian Job wasn't too bad.

Or were you referring to films with Statham as the lead?

 

I loved the original and I know I will hate the new perfect-for-teens version.

 

I was referring to Statham in leading roles. And honestly I'm willing to give the guy a chance if he would just make something that looked remotely watchable. I've heard the Bank Job is good, but it just looks so uninteresting.

I actually went to see The Italian Job in the theater and was so disappointed to find that it was basically a 2 hour commercial for the Mini Cooper. It was just way too silly while trying to remain a serious film and missed the mark. It's not a horrible movie, but it wasn't for me.

-T_S_R

 

The only guy taking that film seriously was Ed Norton...but then, the dude is higher strung then high voltage cable.

and the coopers make sense in light of the original.

 

I know they made sense, they were just too much the focus of the whole story. And Seth Green bugged me to no end throughout.

-T_S_R

 

Ah...I loved the "REAL Napster"...and speakers that blow women's clothing off!...had that on my Christmas wish list for years now!

Which means he's got an even bigger stick up his posterior and plays the role dead serious.

Why anybody likes Ed Norton baffles me.

 

"Why anybody likes Ed Norton baffles me."

Fight Club
American History X
The People vs. Larry Flint
Primal Fear
Death to Smoochy
The Illusionist
Rounders
Red Dragon
The 25th Hour

I think his body of work speaks for itself.

-T_S_R

 

were you supporting me or trying to argue my point?

 

Ok I can see not liking some of those but Fight Club? Come on, that's just one hell of a great flick, man... But to each their own.

-T_S_R

 

I'll spare Rounders on that list...but it's not because of Ed.

 

The illusionist was pretty interesting, in a weird way.
Fight Club would have been better if they hadn't (spoiler)made the two characters inhabiting the same body/schitzophrenia bit. Without that, the ideas that were at the core of the movie would have shone more brightly, and the silly ending would have been better. That part felt tacked on to stretch the movie another 20 minutes.