Ant’s Rant: Death Race 2

Death Race 2 rolled onto DVD shelves about two weeks ago. Following the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his climb to fame as the undying champion of the televised pay-per-view blood sport “Death Race”. Does this film, with the help of cult favorite Danny Trejo and well-established actor Ving Rhames, explode or putter? Read on for my take on how this film places.

Death Race 2, as titled, gives the assumption that this film is a sequel. If you’ve seen the first film, you’d know there’s really nowhere a sequel could go, what with the races being finished and Dr. Frankenstein’s story reaching it’s conclusion. In reality this film is a prequel, starting Dr. Frankenstein’s story and showing the origin of Death Race. The original film was essentially a reimagining of 1975’s “Death Race 2000”. These films follow Dr. Frankenstein’s story, as opposed to the original which followed rival character Machine Gun Joe (played by Sylvester Stallone in the original, and Tyrese Gibson in the remake).

To begin with I’ll provide a basic rundown of the story. In the near future, blood sports among prison inmates become legalized. Pay Per View cage Death Matches become the new craze, beating out any other form of violent sport. After a while the viewers get bored, and so Death Race is born. Each inmate drives a vehicle which is best described as death on wheels, accompanied by another inmate riding shotgun as the navigator, holding the vehicle together, communicating with the pit crew, and helping the driver in any way possible. Racers have to compete in 3 races, 3 laps each. The first lap all offensive and defensive capabilities are disabled, second lap special markers on the track that must be driven over (shield for defensive such as napalm, smoke and oil, swords for offensive such as machine guns and rocket launchers, and “death heads” which trigger death traps) are enabled, and third lap the remaining racers have to fight to the finish. The prize to the inmate who can win 5 races is freedom from imprisonment with a cleaned slate. The caged Death Matches that the races are the successor to didn’t offer such a reward, just their lives. The Death Matches were set up at random with fighters drawn at random. Survival was it’s own reward. The stakes are higher in Death Race, giving more for the competitors to fight for.

Dr. Frankenstein was the alias of the winner of the first Death Race, whose identity was always kept secret from the world. His legend as the undying champion of Death Race wasn’t as sensational as the hosts would like everyone to believe. Known for coming back from the dead to continue to race and kill, he was actually killed and succeeded by an innocent man forced to take his place. The original Dr. Frankenstein, named Carl Lucas, was killed after his 4th race. With one race to go until winning freedom, Jensen Ames was forced to take his place in order to keep the ratings from plummeting.

The original film offered up races that constantly reminded me of Twisted Metal, scratching that itch for a Twisted Metal film. The second film offers up deathmatches that quenched my thirst for blood, and gave me more car combat to fuel my need for destruction and high octane madness. The original film starred Jason Statham, best known for taking the backseat to the Audis he drove in the Transporter films. The sequel (or should I say prequel) starred Luke Goss, who I really don’t know from much of anything. Being disappointed by the main character’s casting choice, I was at least satisfied to see Ving Rhames and Danny Trejo in the film. All of the commercials I’ve seen showed Danny Trejo more than anyone else. He had a much smaller presence in the film than I was expecting, as a pit crew member and not a competing racer. Ving Rhames did a good job as the CEO of Death Match and Death Race. His big boss pimp mentality really made his character shine. He asserted his power in likable ways in basically every scene he was in.

The production values of this film seemed to be right up there with the original’s. This is a higher budget straight-to-DVD film if I ever saw one. The fights are just vicious, with nothing cut out or hidden by camera tricks or bad angles and no shaky cam as seen in too many new Hollywood blockbusters. The races are just as explosive and over-the-top. The only thing missing from this film was a boss fight like the heavily-armored and well-armed oil tanker from the first film. I had just as much fun watching this film as the original, and now I want even more than ever to see a Twisted Metal adaptation hit the big screen.

In terms of story, this film was a confusing mess. Why call it Death Race TWO if it takes place BEFORE Death Race ONE? Also, why was there no mention of it being a prequel in any of the advertising or on the DVD box? It took me until halfway through the film to understand that it wasn’t a sequel. Let me rephrase that, the story itself wasn’t a confusing mess, just the placement in the timeline. The story was actually easy to follow, and in the last 20 minutes, everything fell together in a very satisfying way. It wasn’t a very predictable ending, which I liked, but it wasn’t a mystery either so predicting the ending wouldn’t have been such a bad thing. The story isn’t weighed down too much by a thick love story, it’s more of a man’s film than anything else. The closest it comes to love is one sex scene. The first film had more emotional depth. This films goes more for testosterone and less for heartache. It takes the formula of all things a stereotypical man would love, puts it in a box, and makes it explode in your face. You have hot women, awesome cars, explosions, guns, bloody fighting, and sex all in one movie. That’s more than enough to keep a man happy. Women, if you’re looking for something deep or emotional, why are you looking at DEATH Race?

I really can’t understand why this was a straight to DVD release. It’s too good for that. Be that as it may, I wouldn’t like to see a sequel or another prequel. The story is done, I would be upset if it was somehow stretched past this. For more car combat, there are other ways it can go. Twisted Metal, Full Auto (even though those games were garbage), Carmageddon (even though that was basically the unofficial Death Race 2000 game), these are just a few sources that could be tapped for a new car combat film. Hell, I’d be satisfied if the next Fast & Furious release had vehicular weapons emplacements of some kind.

Also, one random thought: the new Dr. Frankenstein mask for these films looks a lot better than the design used in 1975. Today’s BDSM Gimp design looks exactly like Death Race 2000’s Dr. Frankenstein, while this generation’s Doc Frank looks more like an Army of Two character in a Wes Craven horror film jumpsuit. I like the design now, I don’t want to think of the undying legendary racer as a dude that will end up in ropes and chains being whipped by a woman named Mistress Madonna, or being let out of a box to squeal like a pig while rednecks rape Marcellus Wallace (also played by Ving Rhames, from Pulp Fiction).

All in all, as a straight to DVD film, I give this 4/5. Very fun to watch, not all that deep, it’s straight to the point and satisfies all the pleasure centers of a man’s brain. I could watch these films over and over again, and at $25 or so for the two-pack DVD set, it’s definitely worth the price. Hell, if you really look, it’s on YouTube in 10 parts