DEATH RACE 2

In a future very close to our days, American prisons are full of inmates: violence and clashes with prison authorities are an everyday occurrence. A reporter has the brilliant idea of channeling the brutality of the inmates into a show that can attract a massive audience: thus, the death-match is born, and shortly after, the "Death Race", but in order for the public to continue following the show, a character to love and cheer for is needed. Luckily, the doors of Terminal Island have just opened for Carl Lukas, Marcus Kane's right-hand man, a crime boss recently arrested after a botched job. Lukas quickly makes enemies inside the prison, but he doesn't yet know that Kane himself has put a bounty on his head, fearing testimony that could incriminate him. Lukas will have to pull out all the stops to save his skin, and the playing field will be the burning tracks of Terminal Island during the days of the first "Death Race". First came "Death Race 2000" (1975), a B-movie produced by the genre's sultan Roger Corman, starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. Thirty-eight years later, Mr. Jovovich (aka Paul Anderson) arrives and decides to start from scratch with a remake that will turn out to be one of the most tacky films of recent times: cars that shoot from every angle, explosions even worse than Armageddon, 'badass' prisoners from the first to the last, and Jason Statham who, with a mask similar to Jason Voorhees, does some very heavy things. Thus, "Death Race" turned out to be one of Anderson's best works, reiterating the concept that the new face of action remains Jason Statham to this day. The fans' response was positive, as was the more than decent box office performance. We are talking about an American film, so the question arises: "When and how do we make the sequel?" Big ideas probably weren't there, and so when you don't know how to move forward (perhaps because it wasn't necessary), you go back. Hence, "Death Race 2", directed by the mercenary but honest craftsman Roel Reinée (the one from "Taken 2", no shit), goes back to the origins of "Death Race", putting at the center of the story the character of Carl Lukas/Frankenstein and explaining the ins and outs that led to the birth of the bloody sport. And, strangely enough, the film WORKS!!! We are faced with a Direct-to-Video that, while not reaching the heights of the original, turns out to be absolutely enjoyable, (almost) well directed, and fun from start to finish. The classic film to spend 90 minutes with the volume up, to fully enjoy the sound of the engines, the noise of the bullets and the bones breaking, and the crude dialogues that these films must be full of, as required by the second axiom of the perfect Tacky Action Film, contained in "Phenomenology of the Badass Action of the '80s." But do you really want to know what the nice thing is? The nice thing is that "Death Race 2" is, in some moments, even more over-the-top than the original, starting from a notable car chase at the beginning of the film, directed with a certain flair, up to the bloody death-matches, passing through all the wrinkles of Danny Trejo and the look of a soft-hearted puppy but with a shell as hard as tempered steel of Luke Goss, who may have a strange-shaped bald spot but is perfect for the role of Frankenstein. Reinée behind the camera does not have the sure touch (and neither the money, but whatever) of Mr. Jovovich, but all in all he does well apart from a few somewhat rough fights, and one must recognize his good taste for explosions and the management of the pace, without wasted shots or dead time. The script is of the simple-simple kind, as are the characters' psychologies: there's the scoundrel who is actually a good person, there's the boss who is the real threat (a not always convincing Sean Bean), and there are a couple of people without a soul who only think about money to the detriment of others' lives (the always mastodontic Ving Rhames and the very beautiful but incompetent Lauren Cohan). In between, many extras, with a Danny Trejo always beautiful to see (?!?!?) and Robin Shou (14K) whom we had the honor of knowing already in Death Race a few years ago. Okay, the script isn't particularly innovative, but in the face of such a fun/ fast-paced/violent/tacky spectacle, one can easily overlook it and let oneself be carried away by the roar of the engines, between a car that explodes, modern-day Indians jumping from one car to another (true story) and vendettas that are not consumed cold, but icy. So, there's reason to be satisfied with a product that has no other pretensions than to entertain and amuse with a spectacle of all muscles and no brain. If you loved the first "Death Race", you won't have any problems falling in love with its DTV little brother and reliving the feats of the legendary Frankenstein again and again.