Review: Death Race

The Info Bit

Genre: Action
Starring: Jason Statham, Ian McShane, Natalie Martinez, Joan Allen
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Run Time: 1hr 45mins
Rating: 15
Year: 2008
Production Company: Universal Pictures

Jason Statham seems to be in every average action film under the sun these days and Death Race has added to the list.

First a brief plot overview, Jason Statham plays Jenson Ames a former race driver who is sent to jail for murdering his wife. The jail in question runs a competition called Death Race, basically ten inmates get souped up muscle cars with armour plating and guns and proceed to race said cars against each other with the winner of five successful races earning their freedom. Simple.

I have to say that despite its flaws (of which there are a few) this film is undeniable watchable. The race sequences, although occasionally to long for my liking, always have lots of great explosions, crashes and various stunts in them none more so than the first two races, and with a film like this it’s what we’re all after to be honest. The dialogue and plot at best throwaway but its not really something that I can say hampers the film much.

Onto performances, Jason Statham does what’s required of him in this role, he doesn’t talk a lot and has a permanent frown on his face but on a side note when he does talk he talks with his ‘put-on’ American accent which annoys the hell out of me! Ian McShane is good as the car mechanic/team leader but despite being one of the top stars on the billing he doesn’t actually feature that much in the film. The main female roles are played pretty well (for what they are), Joan Allen playing the head of the prison and race organiser does a pretty good job of playing the two faced liar with a ruthless heart and mind, to sum up she plays a bitch, but again its not really the dialogue that gives off that, its just the way she performs it. Finally the beauty of the film is Natalie Martinez (no I’ve not heard of her either and probably won’t again), she plays a female inmate and navigator for Jason and successfully pulls off what every attractive woman in these films is there to do, walk slow mo, look sexy and help the good guy with a bit of romantic sub plot.

To sum it up I quite like this film (even though you might not be able to tell with the amount of criticism above) but I like it for what it is, which is a film you can chill out and watch with a beer and some popcorn on a lazy evening.

Stars out of Five: 3 1/2