Death Race

Just watched Death Race tonight and the bottom line is to not expect a good character-driven nor a plot-driven movie but a mindless action popcorn flick.  There are numerous plot-holes, inconsistencies, and bad attempts at acting throughout the film and all of this is forgivable if you take this film as what I've said earlier.  This is not a critic's film.  This is not artistic.  It is just mindless action with cars and explosions.  The intro was very well done and got me hyped up and it's all action-packed from when the race starts.  The special effects do give a convincing appearance of a future where the economy has crashed and everyone is poor while technology still exists.

However, I didn't like the excessive use of those "profile shots" like those you see before WWE or UFC matches or those close up shots of someone's angry face over and over again.  There's also gratuitous shots of Jason Statham working out shirtless and Natalie Martinez wearing skimpy outfits (cause of course, sex sells!).  This film does take a lot of video game concepts (e.g.,, picking up power-ups on the track to activate weapons and defenses equipped on the car) and puts them to film in a way better than Uwe Boll ever will.  In fact, this movie could very well be called Twisted Metal or Hi-Octane (or if you are SUPER old-school, Carmageddon and Death Rally also come to mind).

So for that, I give it a 7 out of 10 as a mindless action flick.

However, if you must consider everything that a film critic wants in a film, then the failed attempts at some sort of character development, emotional acting, and a compelling storyline would warrant a 4 out of 10.  But I already wasn't looking for that the moment I saw the trailer.  And good thing it was $5 Tuesdays!