Death Race
Remaking cult classic B-movies as heftier budgeted fare generally seems to defeat the purpose of the original work by replacing low-budget spontaneity with manufactured thrills. While great cult films succeed through financial innovation and stripped-down narratives, the remakes almost always try to emulate the unique look and feel with more money and time and less imagination. Remakes are becoming increasingly commonplace in the movie market as ideas grow scarcer and now we have the summer movie season sputtering to the finish line with the generic Death Race in tow.
The original Death Race (titled Death Race 2000) is a deliciously dark satire and disturbing social commentary about a televised cross-country race in which celebrity drivers amass points by mowing down innocent people. Foretelling our eventual obsession with reality television, the movie was produced by Roger Corman and helped launch the career of Sylvester Stallone. In other words, it is a quintessential B-movie. And considering its enduring popularity, a remake was never too far behind. But while the material has the potential to warrant a smart and effective revisiting, this remake is not it. As written and directed by the master of mediocrity Paul W. S. Anderson (Alien Vs. Predator, Resident Evil), Death Race is a noisy, dead-end action film comprised of stale ideas.
Eager to get the exposition out of the way, Anderson hurriedly chronicles the significant events of the near future, such as the United States suffering an economic collapse and the privatization of prisons. In the midst of this chaos, a brutal, televised sport titled Death Race has emerged from a prison that is offering freedom to any convict that can win the race five times.
With that out of the way, Anderson then introduces us to hard-working dad Jensen Ames (played by the most wooden of action heroes, Jason Statham) who works in a steel mill for several hours a day and only receives a measly paycheque to show for it. As we soon learn, Ames is married to a lovable woman and has a newborn child. Upon returning home to his family one evening, Ames is knocked unconscious and awakes to find his wife murdered and his baby gone. As if things couldn't get any worse, Ames quickly discovers that he is being accused of murdering his wife, as well. This is of course a simple excuse to toss Ames in the prison that hosts the Death Race event, but aside from the plot necessities, this twist shines such a sympathetic light on the hero that it feels as though we are being forced to like him.
Statham does his usual shtick (trying to look angry and tough while flashing those puppy dog eyes), but his character is so hard done by (not only is he accused of murdering his wife, he also has trouble fitting in at prison) that his heroism becomes a little ridiculous. He is so obviously a good guy in a world of bad guys, making him very uninteresting. Anderson's decision to set the story in prison ensures that the villains will be convict stereotypes and that the hero will remain entirely infallible. He even goes so far as to provide Ames with a group of friends within the prison walls (operating as his pit crew) who seem to be the last handful of kind, gentle people left behind bars. Just to avoid any confusion about who's good and who's bad.
And that puts into context the biggest problem with Anderson's flat and forgettable work. As audience members, we are always aware that we are being manipulated. He is like an amateur puppeteer who only succeeds in drawing our attention to the strings. Instead of pulling the viewer into the story, he manages to push them outside of it, so the viewing experience is more voyeuristic than solid engagement. Without a tangible narrative element to cling to or carefully constructed characters to care about, the movie quickly becomes lost in a blur of choppily edited action sequences.
By replacing the original movie's satirical tone with cheap thrills and a weak heart, this Death Race is just another excuse to cash in on the success of an old idea. In order to succeed, remakes need to bring a fresh approach to the material without sacrificing the purpose and power of the story. Death Race flippantly abandons the darkly comic attitude of the original and instead bombards viewers with meaningless noise. Anderson once again fails to show any growth as a filmmaker, providing the audience with a lazy, tired experience that feels recycled in its attempts to reinvent. This is a messy, unnecessary race, emotionally defanged and detached.
