Review of Death Race 2 (2010) by Rj M — 26 Dec 2010

If Death Race was a throwback to 80's style action movies, then Death Race 2 is a throw back to 80's style action sequels. Half the budget of the first, thrown together in a rush, featuring what made the first movie popular, but bringing absolutely nothing new to the table. If this wasn't a prequel to the first movie, it might as well be called "Death Race Too".

But to be perfectly fair, as far as direct to video movies go, it's not bad. At least the filmmakers made an obvious effort to deliver a quality product with what they had. The film is not only an origin story for the character of Frankenstein, it's also an origin story for the Death Race itself. So the viewer will have to be patient, because for the first half of the movie, the race doesn't even exist. What we have is a simple story of loyalty, honor among thieves, and how payback is a bitch.

The acting ranges from mediocre to horrid. Established, and talented, actors like Sean Bean and Ving Rhames basically cash a paycheck, but hold their own with ease. Lauren Cohan actually does a solid job as the ruthless, bitch on wheels, creator of the race...and DAMN does that woman look good in tight clothes. HOT!!

Unfortunately the movie's worst performance comes from it's lead actor. In the first movie we had the reigning king of cool in action movies, Jason Statham. Here, we have Statham wannabe Luke Goss. I'd never heard of him before, and after watching him here, I can see why. I understand he's a musician by trade, and my advice to him...don't quit your day job. Not only is he a lousy actor, but for an action movie hero, he's about as tough as a cotton ball.

But you don't watch a movie like this for Oscar winning performances, or deep insights into human nature. You watch this movie to see the cars go fast, and see stuff get blowed up real good! For that, you get your money's worth here. Granted the action scenes owe their success more to fast editing than to stunt work, but it gets the job done. One surprise though is that if there are any recycled car shots from the first movie, I didn't notice them. But they do, in fact, use real cars, real stuntmen, and do their stuff for real, in camera. Minimal use of cgi here, and for that I give the movie a big thumbs up.

So, it's not high art, or even A class action by any means. But the cars move fast, the women are hot, and the blood flows free. For a movie of this type, you could do a lot worse.