Film Review: “Death Race”

In the near future, the American economy has collapsed and prisons have become arenas for bloodsports. Jensen Ames, a disgraced race car driver, is laid off from his job and framed for the murder of his wife, all in a plot to get him to drive in the Death Race, a vehicular slugfest dreamed up by prison warden Hennessey. Think The Running Man with cars and you’d be on the right track. While the plot is predictable and the characters paper thin, that’s not why you go to see a movie called Death Race. With that in mind, what’s left is an entertaining, if mindless, summer popcorn movie. The action is frenetic, the crashes are visceral and explosions abound. Then again, I’ve always been a sucker for dystopian futures and cars with machine guns mounted on them. My only complaint is that the racing sequences can be hard to follow in parts due to overly jittery camera work and frenzied editing. One last note: keep an eye out for the Dreadnaught (my favorite part of the movie). Start your engines.