Before I start let me just say that I should have liked this movie, I really should. The remake, which this is the sequel for, was an great little 'leave your brain at the door, sit down and buckle up' movie. This however is just bad and not just in a could have been better, but in a could hardly have been much worse kind of way. I can see what the producer has tried to do. Take a successful movie, copy the format, but don't spend very much money on cast or plot. From what I can tell two members of the original cast, those playing List and K14 (I cant be bothered checking up the actors names) reprise their roles, but add next to nothing to their respective characters. The other characters are almost carbon copies of those from the original film. You have the white shaved head pretty boy (Luke Goss in for Statham), the big black man, the white supremacist, the ice maiden pulling the strings, the craggy weather worn mechanic (Trejo replacing Mcshane), the sexy female prisoner and the Mexican (i assuming here, as his screen time last about 30 seconds as he's introduced and then killed). The plot is dreadful, full of holes but still tries to explain the origin of the original Frankenstein, who dies at the start of the remake. As a result the cars don't turn up in the movie until almost an hour in. This hour is filled with some poor set pieces with lots of slow mo. I would just like to take this moment to let the director know, that in my opinion, slow mo doesn't give the film an element of class or sophistication, but just takes up running time. There are exceptions however, with filmmakers such as John Woo and Peckenpah who use it to accentuates the violence and not use it as some cheap art trick. None of the set pieces have that 'wow' factor seen in the remake when the big artic turns up. The fights are poor and appear clumsy, but this is more a case that the bar has been raised so high with fighters from previous years, that this film really struggles. Plot holes are plenty, my favourite, if that is the right word to use, is how they managed to change a 69 fastback Shelby mustang into a 2009/10 Shelby. Some will argue that they would have got a new one, but they clearly explain that everything they will need is already on the island, but using a '69 so prominently as a plot tool was a massive error. Okay maybe thats a little anal, but it still annoyed me and just don't get me started on the moment a car manages to keep a missle behind like a scene from Top Gun. The acting is pretty grim as well. Luke Goss, who was really rather good in Blade 2, just cannot match Captain Cardboard himself Jason Statham and is throughly unconvincing. Sorry Luke, but that accent was shocking as well. Trejo is well Trejo (take from that what you will) Ving Rhames just phones it in as the mogul in charge, or Ceasar as he calls himself at one point, and what the hell is Sean Bean doing? This man can act, he has proved it time and time again? Here he's playing a crimeboss caught between the loyalty of a friend and the loyalty of his wallet. I though his worst film was the Hitcher, not anymore its not. The sound design is dreadful, worse than Die Hard 4, with many notable moments when the lips don't synch and the sound effects and music appear rehashed from the first film. I could go on and if I were down the pub with you I probably would. If you want 100mins of auto carnage with a stupid story that will leave you content at the end, just re-watch the Statham film, you'd feel much better about yourself.
Review of Death Race 2
