Death Race 2000 (1975)

I'm astonished by the number of reviewers who see this film as "stupid". It has one hell of a witty script, with amazingly accurate jabs at everything from media hype to uber-patriotic propaganda. Just listen to the president blaming everything on "the treacherous French and their stinking European allies". Sounds chillingly like "Freedom Fries", doesn't it?

This wonderful little gem is far more intelligent that it's usually given credit for, and certainly smarter than 99.9% of the films made today. Those who dismiss it as stupid junk because of its outrageous premise are missing the point. I haven't seen anyone write a film this smart in at least 20 years.

Fmovies: Just exactly when bad taste ceases to be funny and becomes plainly cruel is a personal thing. However I have tried this film on a few friends and they did not enjoy it. That said I had rented the old VHS from the art-house vid shop 3 times before purchasing a cheap DVD copy when it popped up.

Personally I thought some of this was laugh out loud funny and other parts frankly embarrassing to watch.

I highly recommend Deathrace 2000 but take no responsibility should you decide to watch it! Tim

'Mad Max' meets the 'Running Man' and they both drive over miss Daisy. 'Death Race 2000' is a disconcerting smithereen job, but also fun. It is unprobable to say the least: 'Frankenstein' as the embodiment of national virtue? Nice thought over a dose of mescaline maybe. With unbelievable music too. Everything seems 2 B possible: ethical correct splatter comedies? You've got it. The acting in this supposed SF (caricatures of the immoral society of the future) is absolutely horrible (apart from Carradine and Griffeth). Add some black humor and non-existing emotions and you have Death Race 2000: the obscure cult flick in which Sly gets slapped around some as driver Machine-Gun Joe Viterbo. And retrospectively one of his best roles, besides 'First Blood' and 'Rocky'.

Luckily there was room in the rating for some graphical splatter and nudity, which is why this has become a cult movie. And fat chance the uncut version will be banned where I live. It is more than questionable if the story is really about the fear of America becoming that chauvinistic and drenched in bloodlust. I get the impression that most of it is just a glorification of violence. But in a more thoroughly humorous way than e.g. Wild Bunch (1969) et al. Imagine the American president has a summer house in Peking, or driver Mathilda the Hun has a nazi-navigator Herman the German...

DR2k was appropriately filmed by the great cinematographer Tak Fujimoto (Badlands, Silence of the lambs, Sixth Sense, and last but not least Ferris Bueller's day off). Good for Paul Bartel that he made Death Race 2000 before George Miller made Mad Max (1978), because it would have been a completely obsolete cartoon otherwise: something like Evil Knievel vs Dick Dastardly. Nevertheless DR2k is quite enjoyable. This movie may be inspired by 'the Cars that ate Paris' (Weir, 1974) and seemed to have inspired 'Carmageddon' (VG) and Mad Max of course. Guys, it's been real. Jesus Chrysler, I'd almost rate this 6/10.

Death Race 2000 fmovies. Death Race 2000 is the finest example to show how easy it actually was back in the seventies to come up with a timeless cult film. Honestly, anyone could have invented an outrageously exaggerated premise like this but the fact that it was actually Roger Corman who dealt with it just proves how eminently he ruled the B-movie circuit back then. Death Race 2000 is one of the most entertaining films ever made and I, for one, can't imagine someone not loving the severely ridicule story of a coast-to-coast car race where the contesters score points by wiping pedestrians off the road. Silly, yesÂ…but even more ingenious, flamboyant and offensive. Pure cult, in other words, and fundamental viewing for every soul who ever showed interest in extravagant film-making! The script is stuffed with imaginative findings (euthanasia day at the hospital!) and downright UNsubtle protest towards the American way of life (a factor that determines Death Race 2000 as cult even more). Considering it's a Corman production, the film also contains explicit violence, provoking messages and a truckload of sleaze! All the elements that guarantee untamed cult success! Of course it has to be said that it could have been an even better film if Corman and director Paul Bartel focused on a more proper elaboration of the versatile idea. The rivalry between Carradine and Stallone, for example, should have resulted in a more intriguing sub plot and even though DR 2000 already contains much absurdity as it is, the premise surely had potential enough to add even more sick jokes and cynical situations. David Carradine acts deliciously as always and Stallone is excellent as well. Death Race 2000 is cinema that separates the men from the boys, people! Stop exploring the cult genre in case you didn't had the time of your life watching this film.

Every once in a while, Roger Corman, "a dear friend of mine" ;=8), comes out with a little gem among the tons of coal he produces every year, and "DR2K" is one of them. Kind of a poor-man's "Roller Ball", "DR2K" is about the ultimate in New America's blood sport in a fascist "near-future", with David Carradine("Kung Fu")as the anti-hero Frankenstein. Produced by Corman, and directed by Paul Bartell("Eating Raoul"), the film is fast-paced, blackly humorous, and well-made. Unlike many Corman cheapies, the stark, spartan setting of "DR2K" only adds to the bleak atmosphere, where Mr. President rules from overseas, and old folks are routinely euthanized as part of the game. The game, in this case, being the Transcontinental Road Race where anything goes, and where pedestrians are run over and assigned kill points. Carradine plays a darkly foreboding Frankenstein, so-called because of the many limbs he has lost as a result of running the Death Race. A pre-"Rocky" Sylvester Stallone is grand as Machine-Gun Joe Viterbo, Frankenstein's arch-rival. Also stars Mary Woronov("Eating Raoul", "Rock & Roll High School")as Calamity Jane, Roberta Collins("Eaten Alive", "Hardbodies")delightful as Matilda the Hun, and 60's DJ Don Steele as a mincing little announcer. One of Corman's many little social cowmentaries, this one about the all-too American obsession for violence and sports; thankfully he allows Bartell to deftly and briskly direct. Still, it's a fairly low-budget affair; pedetrians get crushed, and things git blowed up real good, but it only makes you wonder what the film cud have been with a larger budget. Oh well, at least there isn't a giant evil pickle from Venus in this one... The MooCow says this Guilty Pleasure is definitely rentable, so just yell "Blitzkrieg!" and fire up that vcr!! :

I avoided DEATH RACE 2000 for a long time because I thought it would be too violent and sadistic just like the remake with Jason Statham. But I figured that since it was made in the 70s it couldn't be that bad. And it isn't. Special effects have gotten much better. The blood in the remake looks real. Anybody can tell that the blood here is fake. The violence is also quite minimal. I mean, there's a scene where a guy's head gets crushed under a car tire but trust me, it really isn't as gory as it sounds.

The movie is only around 75 minutes long, which is as long as it needed to be. There really aren't any scenes that I thought were unnecessary. I really liked the story and the political commentary. The action scenes were pretty good for a movie that cost just $300,000 (around $1.5 million in today's money) to make. I still can't get over the fact that this spectacular (and I promise I'm not using that word sarcastically) movie was made for only that much money. (By the way, I didn't give this movie 10 stars for being good AND inexpensive, just for being good. I'm just saying that the fact that it was inexpensive is amazing given how good it is.)

Anyway, another thing that I really liked about this movie is that it is really funny. I don't want to give any specific examples since DR2K is so short and it's best if you watch it without knowing much about it, but there are some scenes that might seem sadistic at first but really aren't.

This isn't a movie that takes itself too seriously, which I really liked. Here's the thing. Every dystopian movie has an absurd premise. I can't think of a single one that doesn't. So why are they so serious? (There are maybe a few exceptions, like LOGAN'S RUN, which is somewhat serious but not excessively so.) Take THE HUNGER GAMES for example. It's so serious but, ultimately, the premise is quite ridiculous. The makers of DEATH RACE 2000 knew they were making a movie with a droll premise and apparently didn't hesitate to make it lighthearted and humorous. I thought it was hilarious how Matilda the Hun, the Nazi driver, yelled "Blitzkrieg!" every time she ran someone over. Sylvester Stallone as "Machine Gun" Joe Viterbo has some really great lines such as "You lousy stinking dirtball. You've got two seconds to live!"

I can't believe that the late Roger Ebert gave this movie 0/4 stars. That was another reason why I avoided this movie for quite a long time. Now don't get me wrong, I really liked reading his reviews and I agreed with his opinions on many of the movies that he reviewed. But go look up his review. It's really not a review of the film itself. It's more of a criticism of movie theaters that don't enforce MPAA ratings.

DEATH RACE 2000 is one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen. You might think it's a movie that's so bad it's good but it's not. It's just good.