If a driver wins the race five times without being killed, he’s set free (theoretically, anyway no one has done it yet). This particular prison, managed with ruthless precision by a severe woman named Hennessey (Joan Allen), has made a fortune televising Death Race, in which the inmates are given access to cars that they load with weapons and defenses and use to demolish one another in a three-stage race. It’s the year 2012, the economy is ruined, and prisons are run for profit by corporations. This is a C-movie with delusions of B-movie grandeur.Ī loose remake of the 1975 cult favorite “Death Race 2000,” Anderson’s film stars Jason Statham as Jensen Ames, a former racer who is elaborately framed for murder and sent to Terminal Island maximum-security prison.
#Death race 2000 public domain movie
The race itself doesn’t start until 37 minutes into the movie - and what could Anderson possibly think viewers would care about in those first 37 minutes? The backstories of the characters? Their hopes and dreams and motivations? No sir - or, anyway, not the way that material is presented here, i.e., generically. Anderson (“Event Horizon,” “Resident Evil”), who has never made a good movie and apparently isn’t about to start now. The fact that “Death Race” can’t even manage this one simple task is a testament to the incompetence of its writer and director, Paul W.S. A movie like “Death Race,” in which hardened prisoners drive tricked-out cars and attempt to cross the finish line without being killed by the other racers, has exactly one shot at being enjoyable: It must present the race in a thrilling, dynamic fashion, coaxing viewers into an attitude of “let’s relax and watch these idiots murder each other.”