Death Race (2008)

Director:

Paul W.S. Anderson

Writers (WGA):

Paul W.S. Anderson (screenplay)
Paul W.S. Anderson (screen story)

Release Date:

22 August 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Get ready for a killer ride.

Plot:

Ex-con Jensen Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in our post-industrial world's most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.

Plot Keywords:

Warden | Murder | 2012 | Armored Car | Title Appears In Writing

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Wed. Dec. 30

8:15 PM

MAX

Cast

Jason Statham	...	Jensen Ames
Joan Allen	...	Warden Hennessey
Ian McShane	...	Coach
Tyrese Gibson	...	Machine Gun Joe Mason
Natalie Martinez	...	Elizabeth Case
Max Ryan	...	Pachenko
Jacob Vargas	...	Gunner
Jason Clarke	...	Guard Ulrich
Frederick Koehler	...	Lists
Justin Mader	...	Travis Colt
Robert LaSardo	...	Hector Grimm
Robin Shou	...	14K
Benz Antoine	...	Joe's Navigator #1
Danny Blanco	...	Joe's Navigator #2 (as Danny Blanco Hall)
Christian Paul	...	Joe's Navigator #3

Also Known As:

Death Race 3000 (USA) (working title)
Corrida Mortal (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Course à la mort (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Ölüm yarisi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Carrera Mortal (Argentina) (DVD title) [es]
Death race - Wyscig smierci (Poland) [pl]
Death race - kuolonajot (Finland) [fi]
Dirka smrti (Slovenia) [sl]
Koursa thanatou (Greece) [el]
La carrera de la muerte (Peru) [es]
Smrtonosna utrka (Croatia) [hr]
Surmaralli (Estonia) [et]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and language.

Runtime:

USA:111 min (unrated version) | 98 min (theatrical version)

Country:

USA | Germany | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44430) | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15 | Ireland:16 | Malaysia:18SG | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:18A (British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Finland:K-15 | South Korea:18 | Netherlands:16 | Portugal:M/16 | New Zealand:R16 | Japan:PG-12 | Sweden:15 | Australia:MA | Brazil:16 | Germany:18 | France:U | Argentina:16 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Cité du Cinéma, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Each car cost an estimated $250,000 - $300,000 to detail for the film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the intro to stage 3, we see the close up of Frank snapping Pachenko's neck then the camera changes to a wide shot of Frank and a dead Pachenko. This is how the audience viewing Death Race saw it, yet since it is included in the preview to stage 3 the in-movie audience sees, they see a close up shot of Frank killing Pachenko, then a wide shot which shows there was no camera in place to take the earlier shot.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Case: [while being shot at during Death Race] Damn it!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Spike's Guys Choice (2009) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Click Clack

Fun, Fun, FUN!

Now here's an exploitation film that knows what a solid B-movie is supposed to be: an action-dense, amped-up, gore-soaked killfest. It's the cinematic equivalent of eating that entire box of Red Vines you bought at the snack bar, using them as candy straws to suck down your extra-large Coke.

As a fan of the original "Death Race 2000," I was pleased to see just enough of a shadow of the original movie inhabiting the skin of the new one. Roger Corman's name on the producing credits gave me hope at the start, and his seal of approval seemed to mean something, perhaps as counterweight to Paul W. S. Anderson's track record of shooting mediocre video game adaptations. Surprisingly, Anderson rises to the occasion, effortlessly elevating a cliché-rich but fast-moving script to the level of a satisfyingly adrenalin-fueled confection aimed like a bullet at the A.D.D.-addled brains of the short-attention-span generation.

Set in an "Escape From New York"-style dystopic prison-culture (that sounds suspiciously like current American society), slaughter happens, stuff blows up, and the weak are culled like bunnies caught in the headlights of gas-sucking American muscle cars. Fans of the "Twisted Metal" video game will love the newest wrinkle in the race, the addition of weaponry – a needed bloody bump for version 2.0. And what a bump it is, with each car's chugging machine guns indiscriminately spewing hot rounds at every foe, shredding Detroit steel like it was used Kleenex. It's unabashed gun fetishism at its gleeful best, and it makes you want to strap an M60 to the hood of your Prius in order to cut your commute in half.

Jason Statham does his standard tough-guy job as the scowling Frankenstein, Joan Allen plays a ball-busting warden (perhaps a bit in the mold of Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched), and Ian McShane of "Deadwood" has a solid cameo as the prison-wise mechanic, Coach. Even Machine Gun Joe gets a new incarnation in the form of Tyrese Gibson, who thankfully is nothing like Stallone's blustering Italian meatball.

I loved it, and can't wait to see it again in a theater with enough bass to pump up those impact crunches to the bone-jarring level they deserve.

Yeah!