Death Race, a remake—no; from now on, let’s call them “reimaginings”—of the 1975 B-movie classic Death Race 2000. The original was fun because it did not take itself seriously and encouraged the audience to do the same. (I mean, the hero only wants to win the race so he can assassinate the President with a hand grenade that’s really a “hand grenade.” This new version substitutes “relevance” for the satire and takes itself waaaaay too seriously, asking the audience to do the same. (Accepting a future so dystopian a bloodsport like this could be sanctioned, much less become “as big as the Super Bowl?”) Add to that a trailer that doesn’t explain how a British guy ends up driving NASCAR but a reveals every major plot point (We set him up! And he knows it! So we have to kill him! Before he kills us!) and it just The Fast and the Furious: Sudden Death or something. I’m not telling you not to see it, it’s a (mostly) free country and all, but if it’s my turn to pick the movie…
Death Race, a remake—no; from now on, let’s call them “reimaginings”—of the 1975 B-movie classic Death Race 2000. The original was fun because it did not take itself seriously and encouraged the audience to do the same. (I mean, the hero only wants to win the race so he can assassinate the President with a hand grenade that’s really a “hand grenade.” This new version substitutes “relevance” for the satire and takes itself waaaaay too seriously, asking the audience to do the same. (Accepting a future so dystopian a bloodsport like this could be sanctioned, much less become “as big as the Super Bowl?”) Add to that a trailer that doesn’t explain how a British guy ends up driving NASCAR but a reveals every major plot point (We set him up! And he knows it! So we have to kill him! Before he kills us!) and it just The Fast and the Furious: Sudden Death or something. I’m not telling you not to see it, it’s a (mostly) free country and all, but if it’s my turn to pick the movie…
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