BLU-RAY/DVD REVIEWS

The story about how the titular "death race" came to be.

If, right after you watched 1975's DEATH RACE 2000 (Starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone) and the remake from 2008 simply titled DEATH RACE, you just had to know the story about how the race came to be; you're in luck because that's what this relatively solid DTV prequel sets out to do.

We're introduced to an attractive lady reporter who notices the ratings her story on a prison riot gets and pitches the jail's private owners the idea of a "Death Match" between inmates. Basically, it's just an MMA fight between convicts with some weapons thrown in (including a ridiculous fight between two people with flamethrowers). One of these convicts happens to be our main character, Luke (soon to become "Frankenstein" and played by Luke Goss), who has a bounty on his head from his former crime boss who's afraid he'll rat him out. After ratings begin to fall because people get bored, the attractive lady reporter pitches the "Death Race." The last 40 minutes of the movie is pretty much just races, with Luke dealing with the bounty on his head and his transformation into "Frankenstein."

I was thoroughly impressed with what director Roel Reine did with the action in this movie despite what I'm assuming to be a limited, DTV budget. There are tons of excellent-looking explosions and some great car stunts. I never once thought I was watching a "low-budget" movie. I'm assuming this is because they got a sweet deal from GM for shooting a bunch of scenes that look like commercials for their cars.

For a movie taking place almost entirely in a mens prison there are still some attractive women around for us to drool over. Lauren Cohan plays the lady reporter in various slutty outfits and Tanit Phoenix plays Luke's navigator. For serve their purposes as eye candy and help move the story along, even if I couldn't understand a word that came out of Tanit Phoenix's mouth.

It's probably not the popular opinion on this site but I can't stand Jason Statham. He's short, can't really act and just doesn't look like an action star to me. He's the main reason I wasn't a fan of DEATH RACE. His "replacement" in this movie, Luke Goss, is bland but he's still 1000x more entertaining and believable than Statham. At the very least he looks the part. Ving Rhames, Sean Bean and Danny Trejo round out the solid supporting cast.

Feature Commentary with Director Roel Reine - Has a bit of an accent but he's extremely earnest in thinking the movie (and director Paul W.S. Anderson) is an exquisite work of art. His attitude is kinda refreshing and makes for an interesting listen.

Three basic featurettes:
- The Race Begins: The Evolution of DEATH RACE
- Cheating Death: The Stunts of DEATH RACE 2
- Fast Cars and Firearms: The Cars of DEATH RACE 2

Deleted Scenes (with optional director's intro) - Six minutes of scenes you won't regret not seeing in the finished film.

It's alright. Nothing you haven't seen before but it's surprisingly well-made and a decent way to kill 100 minutes if you're bored.