Death Race - Inferno

Luke Goss returns from the second film as the heroic convict in a future world where prisoners must race each other to the death (with the world tuning in on PPV, natch). He replaced Jason Statham's character (who clearly has better things to do) thanks to a convenient gimmick. Both of them raced under the handle "Frankenstein," wearing a metal mask supposedly hiding their hideous facial injuries. The gag comes from the Roger Corman original, but it holds up well, and we accept Goss as our new go-to guy with only a minimum amount of plot exposition.

They also find a new hook for the race itself, after a corporate sleazebag (Dougray Scott) buys the company in charge of the whole thing. (Ving Rhames shows up to collect a check as the former owner, supposedly outfoxed in a subplot that no one need pay any attention to). Goss's Frankenstein soon finds himself shipped off the South Africa, home to a new Baja-style Death Race that the company eagerly wants to use him for. His pit crew Lists (Fred Koehler), Goldberg (Danny Trejo) and Katrina (Tanit Phoenix) come with him, and soon find themselves embroiled in the usual intrigue surrounding the race. The end of the film sets up has an attempt to make another Death Race film.

"Death Race: Inferno" is an Action - Sci-Fi movie and the third movie of the "Death Race" franchise, in which we watch Carl Lucas, aka Frankenstein being only one win away from his freedom.

After watching the second movie of the franchise I have to admit that I did not have any expectations by this movie. I was surprised after watching it because I actually enjoyed it. The plot was mostly the same as in the two previous movies but there were also some differences. The interpretation of Luke Goss who played as Carl Lucas was good and in this movie he made the difference. In addition to this, there were also some other interpretations that have to be mentioned such as Danny Trejo's who played as Goldberg, Tanit Phoenix's who played as Katrina, Dougray Scott's who played as Niles York and Ving Rhames' who played as Weyland. All in all, I have to say that "Death Race: Inferno" is a nice action movie to spend your time and far better than the second movie of the franchise.

Don't be put off by the IMDb score, or any negative reviews, this movie is a more than worthy successor to Death Race 2, and has earned its place in the franchise.

Lots of subtle humour, stylish action and surprisingly memorably characters, all combined with sufficiently varied and suitably over-the-top set pieces make this feel more like a cinema release than a direct-to-video offering.

Sure, the plot gets a bit silly at times, and there are clichés and stereotypes liberally scattered throughout, but I still found the new setting, the new (if often short-lived) characters and the tidy wrapping up of the story arc to be effective and entertaining.

Dougray Scott shines as the enthusiastic antagonist, relative unknown Jeremy Crutchley provides a great Russell Crowe-esque caricature, and even Luke Goss manages to steal some good moments.

All of the actors look like they're having lots of fun, and I too thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Dig it up and give it a go. Watch all three movies back to back for the full experience!

This is another solid five star film that is entertaining if you like this genre, which I do. It is, however, just a rehash of Death Race 2. The film setting goes international, moving the prison setting to a prison in the South African desert. The race is through the harsh & deadly desert, the prisoners are tracked with locator implants, and anyone deviating from the race's route is eliminated with a missile that tracks their implants. Similar rules and challenges as DR2 are hyped up with more, and larger, vehicles, guns, explosions, wrecks, and gore. The company knows that Goss/Lucas/Frankenstein is the reason for the high viewer ratings & magically transform Goss from a third degree burn victim with no ears or lips into 95% of what he looked like before he was burned, and he is racing again in a only a couple of weeks. The over reliance on CGI makes parts of the movie little more than modern Saturday morning cartoons. The major subplot is lots of deceptions, backstabbing, treachery, and double-crossing. No T&A shown, which should be heavily included in order fill out the testosterone driven needs of the demographic group drawn to this type of movie. You will see more T&A watching girls beach volleyball. Entertaining and light with lots of action. Enjoy!

Let me start by stating that I loved DR1, and found DR2 a surprisingly (and unusually) well-made and entertaining sequel, even if (clearly) not of the same caliber as the first movie. As such, I admit I had fairly high expectations for this third film, although I was not hoping for anything more than just a plain, good ol'fashioned, B action fest.

What you get instead is a badly edited piece of manure that lacks coherence, but is rich in really poor and amateurish performances, stuffed with mostly mediocre (and occasionally outright pitiful!) f/x. I cannot understand how the same director (and largely same cast) responsible for DR2 could end up with this mess! Sure, most of the problems - 'snipped' action sequences, scenes sequenced so quickly and randomly that they resemble a meaningless collage of music videos, nonsensical dialogue that makes you think the actor/actress is responding to lines cut from the final product, words dropped/missing, incoherent scenes, confused camera work etc. - could be explained by a hatchet-job in editing. Still, no matter how bad the editor may have been at his/her job, it cannot possibly explain the amateurishly exaggerated performances from virtually all the actors/actresses involved, very much including Ving Rhames, Luke Goss, and Danny Trejo, all of whom have proved themselves before (to a greater or lesser extent) to be able to carry their lines and scenes rather well.

This movie obviously had a much smaller budget, and did not have the benefit of inheriting the original cars (and probably some sets) as DR2 did. It is all the more surprising, then, that the director did not even make full use of the f/x and explosions/kills that they did spend money on, oftentimes opting to cut away from them and not letting them play themselves out on the screen!(?) There are a few genuinely nice (sometimes even beautiful) shots (courtesy of the stunning desert location) a few somewhat interesting cars (though most are entirely too reminiscent of those in Fast Five) and Eugene Khumbanyiwa (the actor who played the Nigerian warlord in District 9) is as deliciously psychotic as ever - but they are the rarest of exceptions in this otherwise confused, utterly amateurish endeavour. I found myself beginning to yawn about halfway through, and could not help but feel that DR3 compares to DR2 much the same way as, say, the Nemesis sequels compared to the original Nemesis.