Death Race 2

Death Race 2, the prequel to the 2008 Death Race, shows how Death Race came to be. The movie for being a straight to DVD release looks likes a high budget Hollywood movie with 1/4 of the budget of the first one. The acting is not top notch but does have a interesting cast with Sean Bean and Dan Trejo. If your a fan of the dark gritty style of the first Death Race then you'll enjoy this film, however, i do feel that they could have been more original and changed a few things to make this film stand apart from the original.

pros- Good action sequences

good cast

very well put together

cons- could have been more original

some of the acting could have been improved

Be honest, was the 2008 Death Race film (itself a remake of the 1975 B movie Death Race 2000) actually avant garde cinema? No it was not! It was a loud, visceral, simple action movie; all style, little substance in the grand Paul WS Anderson tradition. This cheap direct to video prequel, not a sequel as the "Death Race 2" title might seem to imply, is just more of the same. Heck even the main characters looks the same only with different names.

Now fans of the 2008 crash and burn thrill ride of a movie are in for a treat here. In Death Race 2, we discover the origins of the dangerous game; how it went from a simple prison fight caught on camera to full blown TV ratings dependent gladiatorial combat and then, to boost ratings, the brutal Death Race. Anybody remember the cool sounding masked Driver "Frankenstein" who appeared at the beginning of 2008's Death Race? Well here is his origin story too. Before he became the famous Frankenstein, Carl Lucas (Luke Goss) was a getaway car driver for a crime boss Markus Kane (Sean bean). A heist gone wrong landed Carl a life sentence at Terminal island penitentiary, a prison famous for its broadcasts of "Death Match". With ratings of Death Match plummeting, one of the organizers "September Jones" witnesses Carl's driving skills and decides to revamp the games into "Death Race". Nine cars, three rounds, five wins to freedom. The no holds barred car-nage has just begun. As Carl puts his skills to the test, his former boss is planning his death, and he has someone on the inside to do it.

Sound familiar? To say that the writers were lazy is an understatement. They basically took the exact same character types from the 2008 film and changed their names to be new characters. In other words, we got all the uninspired lines, one dimensional (and slightly racist) characterization, and minimal character development of the original show, but none of the star power the likes of Jason Stratham and Tyrese Gibson. Star power alone was what made the original character bearable and now with that gone, they are not as interesting to watch. Fans would recognize Robin shou and Frederick Koehler reprising their roles of "14K" and "Lists".

The main attraction here has always been the cars and the carnage. Despite having less than one third of the budget of Paul WS Anderson's 2008 film, Death Race 2 does a wonderful job of replicating all the excitement and adrenaline of the races. Perhaps too good a job as some scenes look 100% copied and pasted from that film complete with similar camera angles, same chain of events and even similar lines of dialog. The cars themselves and the sets do not look as well designed as its predecessor but remember, this took place before the 2008 film and as such cars get rebuilt and the place gets upgraded as the days go by.

With the target audience being those who loved the brainless 2008 Death Race, Death Race 2 delivers no more than what they expect. If you thought its predecessor was bad, Death Race 2 would not change that impression. It is fun, it is violent, it is a glorified B movie just like Roger Corman's DeathRace 2000 and Paul WS Anderson's remake, and it is surprisingly well shot for a direct-to-video film. Definitely worth at least a rental but do familiarize yourself with the 2008 movie before jumping into this.

Firstly, this shouldn't have been named "Death Race 2" as it is a prequel (Does this mean the previous entry would now be the 3rd chronologically?).

Surprised to see Luke Goss in the lead, thankfully, he has a good supporting cast around him, who do the best they can with the material given.

At first, I expected this to be terrible. The first 10 minutes were pretty pointless, thankfully, once we get to the prison, the movie picks up.

It's always tough to do a prequel, as you have to show the history of things already established in the series (thanks to George Lucas, prequels have become a popular thing), however, this was actually pretty well done, and thankfully there's no glaring mistakes like not recognising droids!

This movie excels in the action sequences, as did the Statham one, and this is exactly why we watch these types of movies. It's not Shakespeare, it's not cognitive, it's switch your brain off and enjoy the carnage and the attractive women.

I went into this with low expectations. I didn't even know about this until I was in the mood to watch the Statham one, and when I couldn't find it to stream, I decided to buy the bluray and was surprised to find a trilogy box set. I expected 2 and 3 to be utter garbage, but this pleasantly surprised me and now I've got a bit more hope for the 3rd when I watch that next.

Okay, first of all, why did the world need a prequel to the 2008 movie "Death Race", which was a re-make of the classic 1975 movie "Death Race" (aka. "Death Race 2000"). This 2010 prequel was rubbish.

First of all, let's break it down into bits. The story - total rip off of the 2008 version. Nothing new to be seen here, and in fact there were so many similarities to the 2008 version, that it was just painfully embarrassing to look at. Made you wonder if the producer of this sequel was upset about not making he 2008 version, so he just copied that one and changed bits here and there.

Then, of course, there were the mistakes in the movie. The woman states there are 9 cars, and the prisoners rush and fight each other to get to the cars, fair enough. And remember, this is supposed to be on live TV. Yet for some magical reason, the producers had managed to create these segments with the drivers and the cars they were in, sort of presentations of the car and whose driving them. Wow, what a ridiculous mistake that was. I laughed so hard when they started to flash these sequences. It was an epic fail.

Now, don't get me wrong. The movie wasn't all bad. There was a lot of action and explosions in the movie, but it hardly made it worth the effort of sitting through it. "Death Race 2" is nothing more than a cheap rip off of the 2008 "Death Race" movie.

A sad, sad day for movie history. If you liked the 1975 or 2008 versions, stay well clear of this 2010 version, trust me. I am sure "Death Race 2" will appeal to new viewers, but for those having seen one or both of the previous movies, this is a slap in the face.

Even with names like Danny Trejo, Sean Bean, Ving Rhames, Robin Shou, and Luke Goss on the cast list, this movie fails to impress. And how these people agreed to do this movie is beyond me. Haven't they seen the 2008 version? Didn't they read the script? Didn't they catch on to how much of a knock off of the 2008 version this was going to be?

I must say that this movie was a major disappointment, and in my opinion, the movie shouldn't have seen the light of day.

I know that like most of you, as well as I, were not expecting much from a straight to DVD sequel from a theater movie which included a few famous actors & had a great budget while this sequel had fewer actors & budget.

The entire movie as you will all know is a prequel explaining the beginnings of Frankenstein. The story flows quite nicely and explains a lot about the origin of Frankenstein while a little bit of the guy who becomes Frankenstein.

The movie is well worth the watch if you're interested on learning more about the back story to Death Race 2. That's what this film is for, not to deliver a sequel that brings more action, blood & gore (although it does) but it brings in quite a story.

I don't want to spoil anything as far as the climax, but overall the whole movie is like any typical straight to DVD sequel. Has some action here, talking there, all flows like a regular movie.

What made my jaw drop, and I mean drop even the second time I watched it, was the ending. The ending is phenomenal, truly amazingly executed. It leaves you with no questions (as long as you followed the story) and leaves it set up for Death Race 1.

Overall, worth the watch if you got the time.