Death Race: Movie Review

A lot of gamers or probably mostly boys might remember Twisted Metal. Twisted Metal is a game in which players try to kill off each other inside a play area using their amped-up modified vehicles. Think of it as a demolition derby with rockets and explosives-galore. It was dark, gritty and hell, was it really violent. Upon seeing Death Race, this is what we saw and imagined; a Twisted Metal-esque movie. Honestly, we did not expect much due to this fact. But did it really live up to our low expectations and maybe even went beyond it?

The plot is really simple. It is 2012 and America had a recess with its economy. It became so bad that people committed crimes just to live through the day and the prisons became really crowded (they should see how our situation here in the Philippines look like). Prisons were then too costly for the government so private institutions bought them and maintained them for profit. This is where Death Race was created; a race in which prisoners compete using cars with weapons and if they get five wins and they get out of prison. It is streamed live on the internet and it gave huge bucks to the owner of the prison. Jason Statham's character, Jensen Ames, was setup by a masked man and was imprisoned for "killing" his wife. Now, he has replaced a dead racer, the famous Frankenstein, and only needs one win to get his freedom and daughter back.

Our verdict for Death Race? Well it's a mixed bag. Some people will surely like it and some will surely rant about it for ages. First for the positives is its very simplistic story and development. It's truly an action flick where plot goes and adrenaline takes the podium. The whole time we were really off our seats, especially during the races. Just take our word when we say it's rather cliche-ish and very predictable. For the negatives, well we believe it was violent. Really violent that some people will see it as disturbing (there's probabla a reason why it was rated as R-13 anyway). The acting to was really not that good also. We know Jason Statham could have done better as well as the other actors. The Death Race could be an exhilirating, death-defying ride or it could be the death of you.





Rating: 3 reels




Why you should watch it:
- it's simple, quick. meaning it's not boring!
- mindless fun for everyone.

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- it might be too violent for some.
- acting is rather so-so in this one.