The end of the summer movie season is here, and here come the stragglers that didn't pack the punch to be released in June or July. Death Race is here.
The year is 2012. The American economy has collapsed, and crime is rampant. The prison system is overrun, and it has been privatized for profit. Enter Warden Hennessy (Joan Allen.) She is a beautiful, tough as nails prison warden of the Terminal Prison. She has invented this TV show called Death Race. Convicts drive these tricked out death cars, and the whole idea is to kill the other drivers first. If you win five races, you are given your freedom. It is a pay per-view show, that has about 50 million viewers a week, paying 99.00 a show.
I am always so confused why every movie made that deals with our future is one of gloom and doom. According to DR, America will become a police state with a grim and dire environment. No one is happy, every one is broke and death and despair is all around. Package that up with a video game feel to it.. and you have DR.
DR is ultra-violent and chaotic to watch sometimes. There is plenty of action, and hard driving scenes. Lots of shoot-em up, blow-em up and just plain death for everyone. With all that aside, the dialogue is really awful, everyone talks like a robot with bad oratory skills, and every scene is more grim than the last. Joan Allen is a wonderful actress who has a nice track record of movies behind her. You do get to hear her use words you never thought she would ever use, in a role that could have been mailed in by someone 1/3 the cost with no reputation to uphold. I have no idea what she was thinking making DR.
But at the end of the day, DR does not wear out its welcome. It is short and concise just about 90 minutes. It totally testosterone laden, and it really is a young guys flick. Not really date material either. This movie speaks to a younger video game generation and will probably do it with success. It has the feel of other drive-em up movies like Torque, and Fast And The Furious.
Death Race. A rental in February, not 10 bucks in August.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment