Movie Review: Death Race **1/2

OLR (One Line Review) - As pure violent action this movie succeeds, but a story that no one cares about just keeps getting in the way.

So, Death Race is a story about a guy (Jason Statham) who ends up basically having the shittiest six months of his live. So, the movie starts out with a little background information in order to lay out what is going on. This was the first thing that sort of threw me off. I was expecting this movie to open with a massive explosion and some stereotypical prisoners wrecking some major colon (not literally) in front of a large TV audience. But I was wrong. So, the back story is that in like 2012 or something like that, the US economy collapses and the government outsources prison duties to major corporations (my Aunt turns to me at this time and whispers that its because John McCain is in office, tee hee hee). So, after the setup the audience learns that Statham has been laid off from his job as a steel worker. So, he heads home to his wife and kid. Soon there after, someone breaks into his house and kills his wife while framing Statham for the murder. So, he heads off to jail. It's at this point that we see our first real piece of action (or was it before the layoff scene? (I can't remember)). Oh well, in this first action scene I started to get back into the movie. There is this one guy giving off a massive Hannibal Lector vibe being chased by a large black man in a suped-up SUV. Guns are blazing and rockets are going off, aka life is good. The scene is over far too soon and Statham is finally arriving in prison where he is told that he needs to race in a three part race to the death because the Hannibal Lector guy got killed and people liked him. Also, Statham used to be a Nascar driver (yeah, that fucking came out of nowhere). Ok, so after this, Statham agrees to race and the rest of the movie is a big firefight except for the ending.

So, I will say that this movie had some awesome action sequences. Things were blowing up and you never really knew what was going to happen. There are definatly some really good moments where you are just ready to applaud. But on the other hand, these pluses are cut short whenever the story kicks in. I DON'T CARE, AND I DON'T THINK ANYONE ELSE WHO WAS IN THE THEATER CARED. When the plot decides to come out and play its got more leaks than a breast implant installed by a back alley surgeon in Tijuana. I'm not even going to take the time to point out any of them, it would take up the entire internet. You know what would have made this a much better movie? Open the movie with the first fight scene, then have Statham get arrested for his wifes murder (but leave the kid out of this). Then they discover that Statham can race and he takes over for the guy that dies at the beginning. He then beats the other racers over the head with his massive erection and ends up finishing up the movie with the last action sequence. It would be just what the audience wanted. So, in short, if you want to make a good action film, go ahead. Please just don't try and throw a brain into a movie like this when one isn't needed (or wanted).