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DEATH RACE
Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson
Starring Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson, Ian McShane, Natalie Martinez

Jensen Ames (Statham) and his sexy navigator, Case (Natalie Martinez).

WHEN I heard that Jason Statham (The Italian Job) is the lead in this action thriller, I knew it was going to be an awesome movie.

The story is dark yet fun, also violent and sexy.

Director and producer Paul W. S. Anderson couldn’t have done better in this re-working of Roger Corman’s 1975’s classic Death Race 2000. The fight and race scenes are superb! And the cars! Let’s just say they aren’t the regular Nascar sort.

The story begins in the year 2012, when extreme sports and reality competitions have grown into reality TV bloodlust. The most extreme racing competition has emerged, and its contestants are murderous prisoners.
Everybody tunes in to watch convicts kill themselves in their cars and tear around the racetrack.

Three-time speedway champion Jensen Ames (Statham), who is also an ex-con framed for murder, is sent to Terminal Island, a place for hardcore prisoners. The Death Race takes place here.

The rules are simple: Win five races and you’re set free. Lose, and you’re road-kill splashed across the Internet.

Forced to don the mask of the mythical Frankenstein, a Death Race crowd favourite that seems impossible to kill, Ames is told by Terminal Island’s ruthless Warden Hennessey to suit up and drive or never see his little girl again.

To win, Ames must survive a gauntlet of the most vicious criminals — including nemesis Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson).

The racing scenes are tremendous as video game elements are incorporated.

Tony Award winner and three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen (The Bourne series) plays Warden Claire Hennessey, a well-tailored jailer who has all the power on Terminal Island.

Truth be told, I am not used to seeing Allen in a movie like this. The character is like no one she has played before: an extremely pious sociopath who only sees Death Race as a show people really want to watch.

Statham does a wonderful job in portraying the cool and husky-voiced Ames with a sense of mystery and danger.

Thumbs-up for Statham as the cool and husky-voiced Ames! He has had a string of action movies under his belt, and does a wonderful job here too. This movie will take you on a ride you’ll never forget.