Death Race 2050

It's a sequel/remake of Death Race 2000... and while it's not as good as the original it has a lot of fun, and there are some great moments.

I'm guessing most of the really negative reviews are from people that actually sat through the newer sequels to Statham's Death Race, and would never have enjoyed DR 2000.

The cars look naff, the acting and script is appalling, and the CGI and explosions are terrible. This is Cormanesque cinema at it's best, un-apologetically entertaining trash and unafraid of our seeing the 'wires' where the obvious budget limitations gave way.

Some films you have to have low expectations going in to them to enjoy. Given this is being true to Death Race 2000 and not the modern remakes this film nails the schtick very well.

I gave it a 6 because I love Death Race 2000, but it would be blasphemy to give such a shiny turd anything more than that. But it is fun, and stupid, and entertaining - you just have to get over 'America' being entirely populated with Hispanics, and looking like Mexico... All part of the charm of this dodgy little film.

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.

My quick rating - 3.9/10. If you look at my database, you'll notice I kept this. Not because it was good, but because it tried to go back to the schlocky nonsense of the original (1973. of course, the year I was born). So the movie is the same ole, post apocalyptic world where a way to trim the population, even though they don't much bring attention to that, is by allowing drivers to kill people on the roads for sports and ratings. In doing so, this movie also tries to take jabs at the tech and always connected world along with politics. These attempts are slightly amusing but mostly fall flat. The effects are a joke, and the action is choreographed by a blind man (no offense if he/she was actually blind). This is what made the original so great, and what makes this pretty bad. It just needed to take this campy feeling and do something slightly different with it. Back to my original point, the cult classic is just that, and this belongs in the collection just because of its existence. So if you feel that way as well, check this one out. Nods to Mr. Corman for bringing that campiness back.

OK. So it is cheap. The effects are terrible. The acting OK. The music choices vary in quality. Now that I got that out of the way....

This remake was fantastic and amazingly true in tone to the original making many improvements along the way. No spoilers here except to say that the updates made sense, the characters were fun, and everyone seemed to be having a good time making it. Malcolm McDowell did what he does so well playing the villain.

It was episodic, but so was the original. You get the feeling that the director studied the original for what worked, then brought that and a lot more into the remake. Roger Cormen and his daughter produced, so you know it was made by the right people (Cormen produced the original as well)

If you did not like it, you would not have liked the original. It was a worthy remake that reminds us what a lot of imagination can do on a limited budget. Cormen devotees should be thrilled.

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.