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August 21, 2008
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Dork vs. Dork: Death Race I’m no Paul W.S. Anderson apologist. He deserves a flogging for the Alien vs. Predator debacle and his contribution to video game adaptations has provided the only argument that the plot of a game could be better than a movie. But c’mon, Death Race? Awesome. Oh boo hoo there is no Stallone or Carradine muddling the satire of the original with their flip-flopping between cheek and seriousness. Who cares — it’s been a while since a good dystopian society flick a la Running Man has hit the sci-fi scene (unless you count HBO doc Recount as sci-fi) and this remake seem to fit the bill. Statham has shwon that he can stand strong in an ensemble cast (Snatch, The Bank Job) and also punch people while driving really fast (The Transporter). Throw in chisel-mugged Ian McShane’s droopy dog sarcasm and I think you can update the commentary away from the Bipartisan party fascist America of the ’75 original to the prison-industrial complex of today without sacrificing the very entertainment that it is sending up. Flip some cars that shoot rockets at 18-wheelers covered in Mad Max accoutrement and driven by psychopaths. It’s like Christmas in August but replace the birth of Jesus with more flamethrowers and high-speed collisions! — Glenn Given Dan Responds Hey, special bulletin, the original Death Race (that one was called Death Race 2000) was not a good movie. Yeah, I know, like Rocky Horror Picture Show and Plan Nine From Outer Space, we all look back on these cult classics and remember them fondly. But then, when you watch them without the haze of college dorm smoke, unwashed hair and black velvet posters, you realize that memorizing the lines of Sylvester Stallone’s “Machine Gun” Joe was really just a huge, painful waste of time. As will be this remake. Why? Because Hollywood is out of ideas. All they apparently have left are painful remakes (Get Smart), awful sequels (Indiana Jones) and Hannah Montana. And the new Death Race ... it doesn’t even have the perfect dystopia attitude of the original, that the Death Race is a national sport, encouraged and supported by the masses. No, in the updated version Jason Stratham (ugh) is an ex-con FORCED to compete by some warden, oh, who cares already! The original director, Paul Bartel, at least had a sense of humor, making a series of offbeat movies like Eating Raoul, Cannonball and Lust in the Dust. And the new Death Race director, Paul Anderson? How about Alien vs. Predator. Yeah. The summer is over, let’s just let it go. — Dan Szczesny Glenn Responds
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08/14/2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars
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