Death Race 2000

Starring: David Carradine, Sylvester Stallone, Simone Griffeth
Directed by: Paul Bartel
Rating: R
Genre: Action
1975

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: In the future, the most popular motor sport is the Death Race, a cross-country trek where drivers are awarded points for running over innocent bystanders. The most heated battle is between the crowd favorite, Frankenstein (David Carradine) and Machine Gun

Review:

Tim: This is definitely a 1970s movie. It is in really bad taste (I'm not saying that all 70s movies are in bad taste, only that this film could not get made like this today). I like the idea of "in the future," the national sport being a cross country road race. I lose some enthusiasm for the idea when "points" are scored by killing innocent pedestrians. But, okay, for the sake of this movie, I can go with it.

Death Race 2000 is at least decently entertaining, but incredibly cheesy. Besides the murderous race, there is some convoluted plot about an evil President and a "Resistance" movement. (I am going a bit overboard with the quote marks. Sorry). It is all very silly.

Sylvester Stallone is pretty annoying. All he does is yell and act upset. It is not the most glamorous role, and quickly gets on our nerves. I don't know how he feels about his performance, but looking back years later, I can't help but imagine he feels a bit embarrassed about it. If not, he should.

David Carradine starts off the movie weakly, but his performance and his character grow on us as the movie progresses. He is actually the most enjoyable part of the film.

Simone Griffeth sparkles and is great in her role. Her chemistry with Carradine is excellent. The supporting cast is all decent.

The movie has tons of flaws, most especially that it advocates running over innocent people to score points!! Despite its horrible premise, there are sme positives. Most notably (in a sick fashion) is the "Euthanasia Day" at the hospital.

Watch this film for how ridiculous it is. If my summary doesn't sound like fun to you, you're better to just pass this one by.


Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 4.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: any of a slew of other tasteless movies