Death Race (2008)

Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) is a wrongly convicted man who's been framed for his wife's grisly murder. In order to win his freedom, Ames must complete in a brutal three-day car race against fellow inmates. Behind the wheel of a car framed with metal plate, machine guns, spikes, and missile launchers, Ames is competing in a race for his life.

This Mad Max-Le Mans hybrid is remarkably lame. Death Race is a train wreck despite director Paul W.S. Anderson's best intentions. A cast led by Statham also includes Joan Allen as the evil warden, Ian McShane in a role best suited for Morgan Freeman, and Tyrese Gibson can't do anything with this mess.

I'm fine with a plot that is summed up in a few opening title cards and one short sequence. An informed viewer doesn't expect character development here. All moviegoers expected entertainment. Three stages of death racing later and I'm ready to take my own head off. This isn't entertainment. Inept action sequences, graphic-nonsensical mutilations, and monosyllabic dialogue causes boredom to set in quickly.

Death Farce, er Race lumbers along in ignorance. What puzzles me more is how Stephen 'Pop Culture' King can say the film is biting satire of reality TV. As I see it, the only thing this film bites is the dust.