Death Race 2050

I like Manu Bennett so when I saw he was in this I decided to give it a shot, and I am glad I did. I see people complaining about it being so low budget, and to them I will say duh it's Roger Corman. They obviously are not familiar with him. Low budget usually means terrible, but every once in awhile a gem is released. If you have seen the original and liked it then you will like this one. If you hated the original then you will hate this one. If you have not seen the original, but you like nonsense, campy, and over the top violence then you will like this. If you do not do not watch. I really thought it was going to be just complete crap, but to my surprise it was crap, but it was fantastic. So I give it the honor of being called Craptastic. Not many movies make my list of craptastic, but when they do they are a must see.

Being a B movie fan, it should come as no surprise that I enjoyed the 1975 Roger Corman production "Death Race 2000". As for the first remake of that movie - the 2008 "Death Race" starring Jason Statham - well, not very much, namely because it took the title of the original movie and not that much else. But when I heard this second remake was out and that it was going to be more faithful to the original movie, I decided to give it a whirl in my Blu-ray player.

It did not take long into watching the movie to realize that the filmmakers had seriously botched things. There are many problems with this movie, ranging from the cheesy special effects to the racing sequences being very poorly directed and edited. But the biggest misstep the movie makes is that it is *extremely* strident in tone. It crams in so many attempts at heavy-handed humor that you'll be wanting some dramatic relief from the comedy.

Actually, had the humor been actually funny, that might not have been a problem. But I counted only three gags that made me smile slightly. The rest of the humor is extremely unsubtle with its writing and execution.

The cast shows signs of talent, but apparently because of director G. J. Echternkamp's command to endlessly mug and shout their dialogue, all the actors come across as thoroughly obnoxious. Not one character in the movie comes across even remotely sympathetic.

The best that can be said of this movie is that it makes the Jason Statham movie look much better in comparison. Needless to say, it makes the 1975 original come across as deserving of multiple Academy Awards.

Death Race 2050 (2017)

* (out of 4)

The second remake of the cult favorite 1975 film has Manu Bennett playing Frankenstein, one of five racers who is in the cross country race that gives its driver bonus points for running down pedestrians.

DEATH RACE 2050 is an extremely lazy, extremely boring and extremely annoying remake that sadly doesn't really get much of anything right. I'm one that is all for remakes but there's no question that sometimes they are disastrously wrong and that's the case for this one. The original 1975 film was a very fun film that's low-budget was used for some campy and it worked. The 2008 version wasn't all that great but it was mildly entertaining for what it was. This one, however, has so many bad things in it that it's hard to recommend anything about it.

There are all sorts of annoying things here but I think the most annoying is the fact that the film tries on purpose to be campy and it just doesn't work. The characters all seem to have been influenced by THE HUNGER GAMES and this too is rather pointless. The film has the majority of the characters either acting stupid or just so over-the-top that you're wishing they'd be killed off. The Frankenstein character, on the other hand, is extremely bland and just doesn't come across as entertaining. It certainly doesn't help that Bennett doesn't add much to the role but to be fair none of the supporting players bring much to their roles and this includes poor Malcolm McDowell who is picking up another paycheck.

The CGI effects are embarrassingly bad and some of them rival what you'd see out of an Asylum movie. The story is stupid, the added melodrama doesn't work and in all reality there's just nothing here. Well, I'd say that the over-the-top gore helps for those who enjoy the red stuff but you're best bet is to stick with DEATH RACE 2000.

I'm not a fan of remakes. If something was good to start with, you don't need to remake it. If it wasn't, you shouldn't try again. This is technically the second remake of Death Race 2000, the first one was a soulless endeavor that missed the point of the original movie.

This one gets a lot closer to the spirit of the original, updated with Virtual Reality and Social Media. So they have a set of alternative racers to try to beat Frankenstein, reflecting modern fears.

Some points- The resistance terrorists in this film aren't as effective as they were in the original, where they did manage to kill several racers. IN this, they manage to kill each other.

Some of the commentary is fun, with Malcolm McDowell playing a Trump-like president and the US being converted into a corporate state.

Where the movie falls down is with Manu Bennett, who has a very limited acting range, which goes between "Brooding" and "Extra- Brooding". Most of the supporting characters are equally weak.

so worth watching? Not so sure. I didn't hate it, but I didn't enjoy it like I enjoyed the original.

In true Deathrace style, Death Race 2050 is a low budget gory 90 minutes of entertainment.

The cars are a bit...cardboard and sticky tape ( well the AI one in particular) but don't let that put you off. Enjoy the film for what it is.

And its another chance to see Jonathan Manu Bennett (Crixus from Spartacus) who is pretty decent.

Yo be fair the acting is pretty decent throughout, cliché in abundance, but good fun.