{"id":2639,"date":"2008-09-04T21:05:42","date_gmt":"2008-09-05T01:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinemacrazed.wordpress.com\/?p=2639"},"modified":"2008-09-04T21:05:42","modified_gmt":"2008-09-05T01:05:42","slug":"death-race-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/04\/death-race-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Race (2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The world is in shambles. The country is on the brink of depression. Millions are out of work. Violence is now considered entertainment. Convicts are now reduced to television stars for our own sick amusement. And we\u2019re now on the brink of revolting against a corrupt disgusting government run by a madman. But enough about modern times, right now we have \u201cDeath Race\u201d! A film that barely covers any of those issues beyond using it as a back drop for the basis of the death racing, where as Corman\u2019s original was so ahead of its time, it perfectly encapsulates what this generation is all about and it was made in the seventies!<\/p>\n

What Paul WS Anderson has accomplished is convincing people \u201cDeath Race\u201d is an actual remake, when it\u2019s only just an adaptation of the popular death racing game \u201cTwisted Metal\u201d where weaponized automobiles are used to race and destroy each other with assorted tricks. Meanwhile Anderson and co. also manages to squeeze in a remake of \u201cThe Longest Yard\u201d and \u201cDeath Warrant,\u201d to boot. Anderson also takes the predictable angle in remaking \u201cDeath Race 2000.\u201d Gone at the points system, gone is the symbolic violence, gone are the colorful personalities, and gone is the general prevalent and timeless social and political commentary all replaced in favor of big guns, loud cars, and absolutely tedious foreshadowing. I didn\u2019t think it was possible to do so, but Anderson actually turns makes Jason Statham boring!<\/p>\n

Give Anderson credit, because that takes a special talent. He even manages to take a potentially wonderful cameo from the original Dr. Frankenstein and completely wastes it with a disappointing car chase that ends in rubble and eye rolls. With the sudden appearance of the original Frankenstein with David Carradine behind the mask, there’s an obvious confusion as to whether writer Anderson is trying to decide no whether this is a remake or a sequel. It certainly can’t be both. If that\u2019s not enough, \u201cDeath Race\u201d is a basic video game, constructed with cut scenes that pass as story, set up that passes as characterization, and there\u2019s even a sequence explaining the assorted racers, all of whom pose with their cars like player profiles. There\u2019s even a coin system for drivers to earn points, and an announcer explaining the assorted stages.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s appalling that this is what\u2019s become of action movies, but it\u2019s really not too surprising that this is what\u2019s become of remakes. At least there\u2019s honesty to \u201cDeath Race.\u201d Anderson knows this remake–erm–sequel is just an ATM machine to pad his fat wallet, and he knows that people will come far and wide to see this regurgitated bologna. If you\u2019re in to that then that\u2019s your cross to bear, friends. I\u2019ll stick with Roger Corman\u2019s original cult masterpiece, thanks. Is it a remake, is it a sequel? This multi-purpose piece of wannabe science fiction fodder is a painful imitation of Roger Corman’s cross country racing flick sans the intelligence, disturbing violence, entertainment value, energy, and… well everything else that makes movies good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world is in shambles. The country is on the brink of depression. Millions are out of work. Violence is now considered entertainment. Convicts are now reduced to television stars for our own sick amusement. And we\u2019re now on the brink of revolting against a corrupt disgusting government run by a madman. But enough about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,71,104,249,384,835,840,906,974,1087],"class_list":["post-2639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-apocalypse","tag-d","tag-future","tag-remake","tag-revenge","tag-science-fiction","tag-sports","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}