DEATH RACE
2 out of 5 stars

when you first glance at the director’s name, you may think to yourself: is this the guy who directed there will be blood? because if you didn’t know this already…paul w.s. anderson is QUITE different from paul thomas anderson… p.t. directed movies like boogie nights and magnolia, where w.s. directed movies like mortal kombat and resident evil. different genres and certainly different styles… is one a better director than the other? OH YEAH… was this movie better than there will be blood? HELL NO… :P



apparently, this movie takes place in the not-so-distant future…circa 2012. the penal system is totally run on corporate funding, which means the corporations in charge can do whatever they want with it. so, they decide to create a car racing competition between the inmates, and it is RACE TO THE DEATH. (hence, the title… didn’t see that one coming, did ya?) there’s a masked racer named frankenstein, who is an audience favorite, but when he is killed, the warden in the form of evil bitch hennessey (played by joan allen- remember her from the bourne identity movies?) decides to bring in a retired racer named jensen ames (jason “i only star in car movies” statham) to take on the role. so, it basically becomes the transporter vs. bourne identity bitch…


BUT, it wouldn’t be a car movie if tyrese wasn’t in it! (remember him from fast & the furious 2?) oh, and there’s ian mcshane (from nbc’s kings) who you see reduced down to only a supporting role (so sad…), and the columbian druglord guy from nip/tuck is also a driver. (pretty much the same role…) i almost felt like i was watching fast & the furious: prison edition because that’s pretty much what this movie is. however, at least fast & the furious was fun! this was just taken too seriously, which is funny because the whole idea of the movie is ridiculous to start with. (tricked out cars with machine guns and grenade launchers, i can understand… but, hot female inmates?) but, i mustn’t be too harsh… the plot is only semi-predictable, which has a semi-redeemable quality to it.


LOL on a side-note: this weekend is actually my alma mater (rice university)’s annual bike race called beer bike. wishing brown college TONS of luck to finish in first place for the main event! BSWB, biatches… ;)