Directed by Paul Bartel, Produced by Roger Corman, ‘Death Race 2000’ is the finest future sport film bar none. Released the same year as Rollerball, the film maps out a broken down United States of America exists under Martial Law where what is left of society thrills to bloody, deadly violence masquerading as entertainment. Playing out like a hyper violent version of ‘Wacky Races‘, the film documents the Transcontinental Road Race, and the competitors who race in it, with the main character being ‘Frankenstein’ played by David Carradine. Here the marvellous Japanese Theatrical poster prominently features Sylvester Stallone, who plays Frankensteins main rival ‘Machine Gun’ Joe Viterbo;
The film is full of action, fast customised cars, black humour, over the top violence and political commentary – what more can you ask for? It is about 10 times better than Rollerball, which is waaayy too slow and dull. This is the movie about future sport, with the Schwarzenegger actioner ‘The Running Man‘ coming a respectable second.
Here is the trailer;
Links!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Race_2000
IMDB entry for Death Race 2000
Rotten Tomatoes rates it
They tried to make a videogame out of this? In 1976??
Paul WS Anderson has done a remake with Jason Statham (so draw your own conclusions)
This film is absolutely amazing. I watched it years ago when I was teenage and routing through my dad’s VHS collection. I totally agree with the suggestion that this is number one and ‘Running Man’ comes a close second. It is deeply frustrating that somebody chose to re-make Rollerball as, dispite the fact I hate re-makes, I don’t think Rollerball deserved to be futuresport film to go down as THE futuresport film to remember, the remake was unfair acclaim. Rollerball is also a stupid sport, the better political plot and awesome death racing of Death Race 2000 are clearly of a higher calibre. Computer game Carmageddon was surely inspired by this film and for anyone who remembers it, that game is awesome. It removes the moral plot from Death Race 2000 and leaves you with 100% pure Death Racing! What a legacy.The film even has Sly Stallone, as clearly all good films do.
Agree with the DR2000 / Carmageddon link. The original Death Race 2000 was a great film. The remake…..was okay. Jason Statham will go down as a great action hero in years to come – he is cutting a distinctive career for himself, and fair play to him for that.Thanks for reading!
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