"Death Race 2000" - Film Review

Death Race 2000 (if it wasn’t clear from the title) is not a film that is meant to be taken seriously. Its premise is absurd and the film doesn’t try to take itself seriously.

It’s a campy, absurd romp with all the best elements of an exploitative low budget film. There are explosions, bloody violence, and nudity. 

The film never tries to be anything more than it is and that’s one of the joys of watching it. It’s not trying to be something that plays off your intellect but just revels in how cool and outlandish its premise is. Leather clad individuals in super powered cars driving at top speeds in a race with the goal to kill people for points. It’s a delightfully fun premise and the film takes a lot of pleasure in playing up its absurdity. News crews analyze every aspect of the race in detail, groupies obsessed with the "sport" try to sleep with the racers, and rebel forces attempt to dismantle this world’s dystopic dictatorship by tossing roadblocks in the paths of the racers.

The racers themselves are all so cartoonishly bizarre. The most amusing of these are a pair of neo-Nazis who bear swastikas and mock fellow racers whose shtick is being old timey cow boys. The protagonist is the mysterious Frankenstein (David Carradine), a racer who’s been in so many racing accidents that most of his body parts are less than original. He appears to love racing but he’s also oddly altruistic, doing things for the greater good based on his dark self-serving moral code. One of the more interesting parts of the film is the fact that a young Sylvester Stalone plays the villainous "Machine-Gun" Joe Viterbo, a bratty, selfish dude who will win at any and all costs. 

The race is at the heart of the new world order, numbing the viewers at home with endless violence so they forget about the fact they’re being ruled by a corrupt government with a secret police force. The commentary on society really is never taken far enough for it to matter and largely seems tacked on. The film doesn’t really get into the specifics of the functioning of the world or the race. Instead it leaps right into the race and gets in as many propulsive action sequences in as it can. The action is sometimes incredibly over the top but that’s ultimately part of its charm. The film as a whole, in deed, is over the top.

One of the most entertaining things about the film is how funny it is. The film plays up the blood and explosions to a point of dark, absurd comedic effect. There’s also some satire that though mostly mild and middling is occasionally really funny.

There's even a romantic plot thrown in because, of course, this film isn't trying to rise above its cliches. Frankenstein and his "navigator" (essentially a co-pilot) Annie Smith (Simone Griffeth), who as it turns out is working for the resistance, slowly fall for eachother despite constantly being at eachother's throats. Those crazy kids better figure it out in time to stop the dictator Mr. President! 

There's a fair amount that's clumsily handled. Dialogue is at times awfully written and even more poorly delivered. But it's not exactly the type of film that's concerned with having a precise ear for the way people speak or even having an actual basis in reality.

The cult classic hasn’t exactly aged well but its low budget thrills remain surprisingly fun.

Grade: B-