Runtime:
79 minutes
Directed
by: Paul Bartel
Starring:
David Carradine, Simone Griffeth, Sly Stallone, Mary Woronov
From:
New World Pictures
I
decided that the first movie I should watch now that I have Netflix
Instant back for the month is a motion picture I had seen before,
awhile back. It was something I enjoyed, flaws and all. After seeing
it again tonight, I still enjoy it, flaws and all. I do have to say
that before I started doing this I saw Death Racers, from The Asylum
and starring the Insane Clown Posse and Raven (yes, the pro
wrestler). It was awful, but not even for the ICP factor. It was just
a badly made movie all around, from the performances to the story to
how it was filmed. I haven't seen the 2008 Death Race movie starring
Jason Statham but I have heard it is full of illogical moments and is
just another terrible movie from Paul W.S. Anderson, where the W.S
stands for “Writes Shitty”, to steal a joke. I have heard the two
direct to DVD sequels are surprisingly good so I imagine that
eventually I'll watch all three of those.
As
for this movie, the plot isn't too complex: It's the year 2000 in a
dystopian future. What was then the United States holds an annual
auto race, the Transcontinental Road Race, where several drivers
(with female copilots that pretty much are also there to “service”
the drivers) go from coast to coast and the winner is based on time
AND points based on the number of pedestrians you kill and their
sex/age. The most popular/successful driver is Frankenstein
(Carradine), whose main rival is Machinegun Joe Viterbo (Stallone).
However, this year there is an anti-government group looking to
disrupt the race...
The
movie definitely has its flaws. The real low budget does hurt at
times. You can tell it was all filmed in California despite it being
a cross-country deal. It's goofy and it doesn't always live up to its
big ideas. Yet, the film to me is still fun to watch. When it hits,
it does hit. The performances are delightfully over the top,
especially from Sly. There isn't as much violence as you'd expect but
what you see is still satisfying, and at least there is plenty of
nudity and pretty ladies to gawk at. It's just entertaining to watch and hey, if you don't like it, it is pretty short. The music score is odd but great at the same time.
And the political commentary still holds true, and it really holds true for the lambasting of the media. I mean, just this week with CNN and how they reported the alleged detainment of the suspect in the Boston bombings... sometimes the media needs to be parodied, let's be honest here.
And the political commentary still holds true, and it really holds true for the lambasting of the media. I mean, just this week with CNN and how they reported the alleged detainment of the suspect in the Boston bombings... sometimes the media needs to be parodied, let's be honest here.
The
movie is appropriate for a GOOD remake but I understand that has
never happened as of yet. Hopefully the good remake would have
someone being insulted with the line, “You're one very large baked
potato” and there's a character like Junior Bruce, a loudmouthed
race reporter played by real life loudmouthed DJ The Real Don Steele,
who dresses for the movie in a rather fey manner.
I'll
be back Saturday night.
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