Death Race 2050

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.

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 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.

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.