Jason Statham knows his niche, and he's gonna keep on sticking to it. The chiseled star of The Transporter, Crank, and The Bank Job pumps out action hit after action hit. If you don't believe us, check out his IMDb page. The man keeps making sequels after sequels. While none of his films have been actually great other than mindless fun action films (except of course his previous Guy Ritchie outings where he didn't remove his shirt once), seriously though, sometimes that's all you need.
Statham stars as an ex-con and ex-race car driver who's framed for the grisly murder of his wife in order to get him to Terminal Island, where Death Race is held. Statham is there to replace and don the mask of fan-fave Frankenstein, who just secretly died in his last race, so the warden (Joan Allen, yes, the Academy Award nominee Joan Allen) can boost ratings. Fast cars, tons of explosions, dudes fighting, and chicks in tiny outfits round out the usual action fare.
Producer, writer, and director Paul W.S. Anderson (not the other Paul Anderson, mind you) gives audiences a quick and easy end-of-summer flick where you can get in, watch some shit explode (and some Statham abs flex!), and get out. Bing, bam, boom. Nothin' to it. Statham does what Statham does best. He growls, he punches, he flexes. Done and done. Ain't nothing too hard to swallow here, ain't nothing going to rewrite film history either. Although, make sure to leave young'uns and the elderly at home because Death Race isn't for the squeamish. Heads are lopped off and blood spews everywhere. Wouldn't be a Statham movie otherwise, but here it seems a wee bit gratuitous...except the ab flexing...that's perfectly adequate.
Review by: Darcie Duttweiler
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