One of my all time favorites.

Just perfect...

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

Set in the near future, this action comedy focuses on a televised automobile race in which drivers are rewarded for killing pedestrians while racing between the USA east and west coasts. Delightfully offbeat as this premise is, things get even more interesting as it is revealed that the race is government sanctioned and that the US President has used the race, preying on America's bloodlust, to boost popularity and win multiple elections in a wildly distorted, post-economic crisis political landscape. This is a film that can be enjoyed all social commentary aside though. The racecars are a wonder to behold, bearing teeth and horns to look animalistic, the action scenes are memorable and bits and pieces of the film are kooky in the best possible way: nurses wheeling out senior citizens to be run over in a euthanasia cleanse; resistance fighters sabotaging the races with fake tunnels, landmines and bombs disguised as babies (!). Lead actor David Carradine has a very interesting character too; nicknamed Frankenstein, he has supposedly undergone significant facial scarring and constant body part replacements as a result of all his crashes over the years, but this is soon revealed to be a rouse to dupe his supporters into believing him to be superhuman. The supporting performances are unfortunately wildly uneven and the film overstays its welcome by around five minutes with an inappropriate upbeat conclusion, but for the most part, it is an encapsulating ride throughout its economic eighty minute runtime. For a low budget project, it boasts some nifty futuristic sets too.

In a fascist dystopia future, five racers; Calamity Jane, Matilda the Hun, Nero the Hero, Machine Gun Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone) and Frankenstein (David Carradine) travel across the country to win the TransContinental Roadrace. Running over people scores the racers points. Annie Smith is Frankenstein's navigator and possibly plans to kill him as part of an anti-race resistance.It's a campy cult classic. This world is outrageous and silly. However it's a one-joke world and not that funny. It may be a good drinking game. There is no doubt of the movie's camp credentials. It isn't anything more than that.

As I continue to work my way through the filmography of Sly Stallone in order, today I sat down to watch "Death Race 2000" To start, I would like to remind everyone that this is, in fact, a B movie. For those of you who aren't quite sure what that means, I'll offer you this definition from Wikipedia: A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In a sense, the "B movie" genre just about refers to any film that might not be entirely mainstream or have a decent budget. They're usually OK/watchable but offer little in terms of screenplay or acting, "Death Race 2000" falls into that category, and it has been praised by many as one of the more entertaining B movies ever made.This is a 70's B-movie at its best. Corny, cheesy, a lot of violence, a lot of nudity, cheaply shot with some awful dialogue and performances, but amazingly watchable and likable. Plot In A Paragraph: Set in a future (fifteen years ago) the ultimate sporting event is The Deathrace. Contestants get score points for running people down as they race across the country. The sport has crazed fans who sacrifice themselves to the drivers. An anti government agency is out to bring an end to The Deathrace. Sly gets second billing behind David Carredine, and neither give inspiring performances (one of acts, one sleep walks through his role) and share one of the worst fights scenes I have ever seen (Thankfully Sly got a lot better by the time "Rocky" was made a short year later) Martin Kove shares the screen with Sly again as fellow racer 'Nero The Hero' Simone Griffeth is probably the best actor of the lot as Annie, and is also gorgeous, as is Louisa Moritz. Sly doesn't do much other than scream and shout a lot, but it kind of works, and he does a few things in this flick you don't see Sly do often in his movies.

People tend to compare Paul Bartel's "Death Race 2000" to Norman Jewison's "Rollerball". I saw it as more analogous to Sidney Lumet's "Network", Peter Hyams's "Stay Tuned", and the "Hunger Games" franchise. All these movies depict the United States as a society whose idea of entertainment is the lowest, cruelest material. The difference is that "Death Race 2000" and "Stay Tuned" are comedies. The former is the sort of movie that encapsulates the '70s, while the latter was probably inadvertently predicted the rise of reality shows. Another movie that loosely resembles "DR2000" is the Italian mondo movie "Cannibal Holocaust". In one scene a character says that the audience likes having its senses assaulted. Here we see the drivers killing pedestrians, and the race's audience loves seeing it.Of course, it's possible to ignore all that and simply accept the movie as a zany exploitation flick. It's certainly an enjoyable one. David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone all appear to be having fun with the material. Paul Bartel later directed "Eating Raoul", in which he cast himself and "DR2000" co-star Mary Woronov.Really fun movie.