Really, this could easily have been put in the Action/Adventure category, but since it takes place in the future, I'm putting it here.

Just finished watching it and I've gotta say, well, for those who don't know, it's a reimagining of the old Roger Corman cult classic, Death Race 2000, starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. Personally, I don't think it's as good as the original.

DR 2000 had a lot of dark humor in it and social satire, something the remake sorely lacks. Instead of being a cross-country race where drivers score by killing innocent bystanders, DR has prisoners driving around a track near the prison. Which makes me wonder why the prisoners need a navigator? In a cross-country race you would most certainly need a navigator, but on a circuit? I mean, yeah, I know, Frankenstein's nav did tell him to take a shortcut here and there, but that's not something Frankenstein/Jenson Ames really needed. He could've learned the shortcuts himself before the race, couldn't he?

The movie's boringly predictable. Of course, the race comes down to only two drivers - Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe. Of course, Henessey, Ulrich and Pachenko are going to pay for their roles in killing Ames' wife. Of course, Ames' female navigator will fall in love with him and rendezvous with him at the end of the film after escaping from prison. And of course, they escape.

There are even elements that seemed swiped from other films. When I first saw Jenson Ames in the Frankenstein mask, I said to myself, "It's the Humongous!" (From The Road Warrior.) The scene where Pachenko hocks a loogie into Ames' breakfast reminded me of a similar incident in the Sean Penn film, Bad Boys. The escape on the bridge reminded me of a similar (and better) one from Escape From New York.

Really, this film is good for some brainlessly violent action scenes. But beyond that...

Forget this remake. Go see the original and have a few laughs. Which is more than this film provides.