Death Race

Death Race is a 2008 Paul Anderson-directed science fiction action film starring Jason Statham. It's a remake (or perhaps prequel, depending on who you ask) of Death Race 2000. This is a fun-enough action movie. Jason Statham is always worth watching, and his character here is a wrongly convicted doting dad, which is a nice touch. The action is steady with plenty of car chases and resultant explosions, but that action is about all there is.

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Moria doesn't like it but has some praise for Statham and Joan Allen, who plays the warden. SF Gate pans it, comparing it unfavorably to the original. Empire Online gives it 3 out of 5 stars and concludes, "It’s nothing more than an enjoyable, ridiculously macho B-movie romp, but it’s Anderson’s best movie since the underrated Event Horizon". EW gives it a B+ and says, "Soft sexual and racial jabs replace the more daring political commentary of the original, ... That was the anarchic '70s, baby; this is the conservative now". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 43%.