The month of August usually sees the cinematic backwash of the summer and Paul W.S. Anderson has given us another B-movie full of violence and mayhem.  That’s always fun.  Anderson who’s from the Resident Evil franchise has written and directed Death Race.  An ex car racer is framed for the murder of his wife, then is thrown in jail to participate in the Death Race; A series of violent races by the inmates of a prison for public entertainment.  This movie stars Jason Statham as Jensen Ames, Joan Allen as Hennessey and Ian McShane as Coach.  Also starring is Tyrese Gibson and Natalie Martinez.

Likes:

• The races in this movie are pretty awesome.  They remind me of Twisted Metal.  Remember that game?  The second game was the best. They’re definetly violent and they’re definetly cool. 
• The races are presented in a video game fashion which usually isn’t a good thing but it for some reason works in Death Race.  For example the car has to run over icons to activate weapons, just like in video games.  Also the drivers have character flashes when being introduced.
• There several funny one-liners in this which is something that I didn’t expect at all.

Dislikes:

• The movie in general isn’t good.  There isn’t a story to speak of not that I was expecting any.
• I was hoping for a little more when it came to the races like more charaters, cars and weapons but there is so much you can do in a movie.

There isn’t that much more I can say about Death Race.  It’s completely brainless and it has cool action but other than that… it’s an empty film, just like almost everything that has come out in August, I don’t suggest seeing this in theaters.  Your best bet is to hold off until it hits DVD, grab yourself a snack and kill some time.  The best I can do is give Death Race a 5 out of 10.

-Phil