“If you stay here in this Death Race it will be the most unselfish act of love I have ever seen…..” … and cue the laughter. Not from any of the actors on screen mind you, but from a room full of people screening the new Jason Statham movie. At least that’s what happened when I saw the movie and the above line was spoken by one of the film’s main characters. My hunch tells me that you don’t need any context to think it’s funny either, and the best part is the movie is chock full of them. This blog should bring up an interesting question: Can a movie that probably knows it’s bad from the first frame really be criticized? Let me put it this way, I had fun watching Snakes on a Plane. In all of its stupid trashy glory, I actually (don’t laugh) shared an ‘experience’ with the people I saw it with. I felt like we had gone through something together. After Death Race, I just had a headache.
America’s first filmmakers did much to convince the tide of critical opinion that their art-form was more than just mindless dribble. Had Death Race been on the docket way back when, it would have done little to advance the cause. Walking out, I wondered to myself how a summer full of mostly decent movies could have taken a turn for the worse in less than an hour and a half.
We learn from the opening title frames (best not to waste precious on-screen time with things like plot, but get straight to the mind-numbing action sequences) that the story takes place in the near future. Times are rough and the economy is even worse. A steelworker named Jenson Aimes (Jason Statham, on-screen master of the cold, icy stare) is wrongfully accused for the murder of his wife and sent to Terminal prison. Prisons like Terminal, we learn, are privately owned corporations in which big bucks are made broadcasting pay-for-view car races on the internet. The inmates race to the death in a kind of roman gladiatorial blood-bath that the public consumes gleefully. Win 5 races, and an inmate is allowed to walk free. The souped up armour cars muscle around the track in a relentless barrage of sight and sound upon the cerebrum. The beautiful Joan Allen's talent is wasted on her performance as the warden who tries to manipulate Statham’s character into staying and participating in the races. One scene in particular probably owes her the award for the most creative use of profanities in a single sentence. (Trust me, when you hear it, you won’t forget it, and chances are you’ll be scratching your head like I was).
If the plot seems simple enough that’s because it is. In fact, it’s simple enough to do exactly what it is supposed to do and that is to act merely as a vehicle to set up the action sequences themselves, which are heavy on the violence and low on the excitement.
Though it will no doubt do well at the box office, this movie is ultimately nothing more than an assault on not only the senses, but on reason as well.
1/5
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