Death Race
By Marhall Fine
Rating:
Who's in it: Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Natalie Martinez
What's it about: In this futuristic action-thriller, prison inmates with life sentences can gain their freedom by winning deadly car races staged for broadband pay-per-view.
Drive-by: Inspired by a cult 1975 film, this reworking goes straight for the jugular, with splattery violence that will make you flinch. Statham ("The Bank Job") plays a steelworker wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, who is forced to join the Death Race by the vicious prison warden (Joan Allen). There's a subplot involving that murder but, really, it's all about those lethal racecars - which come equipped with machine-guns, rocket-launchers and other weapons (along with armor). The stunt-driving is breath-taking, as the cars zoom around a bombed-out industrial racetrack. Sure, the story is familiar - "The Longest Yard" meets "The Fast and the Furious" - but Statham may be the most charismatically gruff action star since Clint Eastwood hit the big screen. Martinez, who plays Statham's navigator, does the best she can with what she's given.
Long story short: Sure, it's silly - but it has killer action.
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