Death Race 2050

Death Race 2000 was an original cinematic charm. A timeless gem with great casting and raw implementation. This one tries too hard to capture the original magic and fails. Everyone's trying too hard without the same natural charisma. The characters in the first were cast as naturals, but not here, which is the flaw. Loved the original. Perhaps a concept that does not replicate well, but this one's not even close to the original. The first, a classic; this one, forgettable.

You can watch this in two ways - as a straight-forward (semi)gorefest and/or as a satire on America and the American dream/way of life.

Both work.

It's fast-paced, there's lot of action, but some of the lines just dig between the strata of American society so if you watch it with that in mind you'll get twice as much out of it, assuming you understand irony which may rule out a few million of the people it's aimed at.

Ah well... To those, just watch the heads fly and hope that the good guys win.

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 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.

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.