In the game of Deathrace, it’s not just how fast you reach the finish line but how many civilians you clip along the way. It takes more skill than running down a fat lady lugging her groceries or a texting jaywalker, there’s a point system. Everyone is a target with babies bringing in seventy points and at the top are the elderly, who command a whopping one hundred point score! So don’t go wandering off pop-pop, I’m gonna need you to stay in and watch Judge Joe Brown today.
David Carradine (Kill Bill, Kung Fu) is Frankenstein, the unofficial leader of a pack of cartoonish racers each with a themed car and styled to campy perfection. His legend proceeds him as stories of machine body parts are only enhanced by his reclusive nature, leather face mask and one hell of a car. Sly Stallone is “Machine-Gun” Joe Viterbo, a thick skulled gangster with a jealous streak and some anger issues. The competition is a mixed bag: an oversexed cowgirl, a Nazi, and a flowery Roman. Each has a strategy and their sites on victory.
The Race is followed closely by a blood thirsty public and reporters who joyously tally each kill. But not everyone is a fan of the race. An underground political group aims to end the violent spectacle while citizens seek vengence by booby trapping the course with bombs and Wile E. Coyote style detours. If a tunnel looks like it’s been painted by numbers, it probably is. Death Race 2000 is a silly movie, my hero Roger Ebert hated it, but I found it mindlessly entertaining. You could even view it as a commentary on our obsession with violence as a culture. Remember the first time you ran over a drug dealer while playing Grand Theft Auto? I’m not saying you’re a cold blooded killer, but admit it. You know you liked it.
