Death Race

A really excellent piece with sharpened visuals and excellent special effects. Jason Statham as the wrongly convicted Jensen Ames ruthlessly dispatches all the "competition" in an army-equipped Mustang, even manages to get his revenge while trying to break free again, aided by the beautiful Natalie Martinez. The choice of music is also praiseworthy. A very strong 4 stars. (03/27/2009)

The routine direction here is really masked by frantic editing, which is not really representative of 21st century action. It's just that I enjoyed the film so much because it doesn't play so incredibly close to the vest, plus after eleven years Anderson has finally made a film that has balls. That truck scene would have given even a Wynorski film at least two stars. (11/09/2010)

Anderson's unacknowledged adaptation of Carmageddon and the admitted remake of Death Race 2000. If Death Race were not so bitter and humorless, it could have easily competed with this season's B-movie king, Doomsday. Here, too, B-movie is synonymous not with a lack of craft, but with genuine entertainment. Albeit dumb entertainment (but not executed in a stupid manner), but at the same time stylish, energetic and constant, though somewhat repetitive. (09/20/2008)

A well-made B-movie with musclemen racing in cars that at last I wouldn’t be afraid of trying out on Czech roads. And Statham’s musculature again rekindled my desire to make regular trips to the gym a New Year’s resolution. Otherwise Mr. Anderson performed exceedingly well, everything about him was A-grade (B-movie A-grade), but he’s going have to try harder for me to be able to forgive him for Alien vs. Predator. And who would have guessed that Joan Allen as the warden would outdo all of those navigator beauties. (01/01/2009)

A computer game turned into a film without a joystick, but incredibly self-aware. Anderson surprisingly put effort into it and brilliantly succeeded, starting with computer “competition” inserts, and ending with excellently filmed action scenes. I saw the unrated version and blood was definitely not spared. So what if it's silly to the point of misery? It's not about that, and as pure action entertainment, it's a showpiece. There’s plenty of shooting and aggressive driving, and even though the whole thing sometimes feels a bit repetitive (only one track), Paul occasionally engages the imagination and beautifies the slightly emerging stereotype with some quality and proper bloody accident. The tanker crash is absolutely spectacular! (01/04/2009)