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Death Race
Universal Pictures


6.6

based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 49 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence and language

Starring Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson, Ian McShane, Natalie Martinez, and Jason Clarke

Terminal Island: The very near future. The world’s hunger for extreme sports and reality competitions has grown into reality TV bloodlust. Now, the most extreme racing competition has emerged and its contestants are murderous prisoners. Tricked-out cars, caged thugs and smoking-hot navigators combine to create a juggernaut series with bigger rating than the Super Bowl. The rules of the Death Race are simple: win five events, and you’re set free. Lose and you’re road kill splashed across the internet. (Universal Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Adventure \| Sci-fi \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Ib Melchior (1975 story Death Race 2000) Charles B. Griffith (1975 screenplay Death Race 2000) Robert Thom (1975 screenplay Death Race 2000) Paul W.S. Anderson
DIRECTED BY:	Paul W.S. Anderson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 16, 2008 Theatrical: August 22, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

The New York Times Nathan Lee

The movie is legitimately greasy, authentically nasty, with a good old-fashioned sense of laying waste to everything in sight -- including the shallow philosophizing and computer-generated fakery that have overrun the summer blockbuster.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Statham is an essential tough guy, what the Brits call "well'ard," as self-assured as Lee Marvin.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It honestly delivers the goods without all the preachy moralizing about violent entertainment and cultural ruin.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Nothing in director Paul W.S. Anderson's schlock drawer--prepares you for the peppy, good-time nastiness that is Death Race.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Statham moves with such easy grace that you don't have to work hard to believe him. And if he can stand up to Joan Allen, melting her predatory stare with his own molten gaze, then it's clear he's not just the prettiest guy on the prison block, but also the toughest.

Time Richard Corliss

Though the picture doesn't deserve to appear on any critic's 10-best list, it observes the minimum standards of modern action films, which is to say it looks smarter, talks sassier and moves faster than almost anything else on the market.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Soft sexual and racial jabs replace the more daring political commentary of the original, a crude classic from the Roger Corman factory.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

This new version has absolutely none of the distinctive tongue-in-cheek black humor that was the keynote of its model and the trademark of its original director, Paul Bartel.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

Death Race is our unshaven Brit hero's inevitable comeuppance: The Prison Job.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This movie is about mayhem on wheels, tough guys viewers can root for, and villains whose comeuppances audiences crave. That's what Death Race is all about and, for what it is, it does a solid job.

Boston Globe Tom Russo

Smartly, Anderson makes some eclectic casting choices that keep the story from feeling as though it's populated by video-game characters.

Empire Chris Hewitt

It's nothing more than an enjoyable, ridiculously macho B-movie romp, but it's derson' best movie since the underrated Event Horizon. Perhaps, at long last, he' starting to find his - yep - top gear.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's the perfect end-of-summer film, and a sign that summer needs to end soon.

The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber

The best you can say about the movie is that it isn't boring. It's fast-paced, but it isn't really well made.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

OK, so no plot, really.

Washington Post Philip Kennicott

It isn't so much a movie as a superheated, highly conductive miracle substance for the pure transmission of masculine aggression and misogyny.

Variety Robert Koehler

As hard as metal and just as dumb, Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race couldn't be further from producer Roger Corman and director Paul Bartel's goofy, bloody 1975 original, "Death Race 2000."

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Paul Bartel's "Death Race 2000" is a beloved camp item, but this slick, loud, violent remake is pitched at the video game crowd.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Well, you've got to say this for Death Race: It knows what it is and doesn't apologize for it. What it is, incidentally, is junk.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

An ill-advised and severely wussified remake.

LA Weekly Aaron Hillis

With its inexplicably watchable shotgun-riding bimbos, unconscious homoeroticism and "Shawshank Redemption" ending, The Fast and the Frivolous here is almost so bad it's good. Almost...

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is an assault on all the senses, including common. Walking out, I had the impression I had just seen the video game and was still waiting for the movie.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Anderson has neutered the original film's outrageously transgressive macadam mayhem and completely stripped the story of its pointedly political social satire, making this Death Race one of the most boring drags of all time.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Here's hoping Allen's static Hennessey is due to an extreme acting choice and not plastic surgery. It would be tragic to lose a natural smile to star in garbage like Death Race.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 49 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Michael S. gave it a7:
This movie was recommended to me by someone who has an annoying tendency to love every action movie ever made, so I wasn't really looking forward to seeing it. I was pleasantly surprised though. While it's not the greatest action movie ever made, and seems much like "The Running Man" retold, it kept my interest throughout.

Bit Burn gave it a7:
Great action movie, love the storyline, acting was okay thanks to Jason Statham. Natalie Martinez is a babe!

Ehab Y. gave it a10:
Best Movie i ever seen from awhile .. best acting and cars design .. and the more reality to the it make it the most action movie of the year

Oscar R. gave it a10:
I thinkk it is th movie of the YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous] gave it a9:
The action is great. Statham is fun in every movie he's in. The story is not bad, but one can suspend disbelief long enough to make it through. Also, the revenge moments at the end are amazing.

George M gave it an8:
This movie is just alot of fun despite what critics say. It's full of vehicular mayhem with a little humor and drama in for good measure. If the Shawshank Redemption, The Road Warrior, and The Running Man all got together and had a baby....Death Race would be it. Jason Statham once again proves he can mix action and drama sort of like he did with The Bank Job and still make an entertaining movie. The vehicle action is quickly shot and VERY fast-paced kind of like the racing itself....its brutal, bloody, and unforgiving and vehicles explode, fly through the air with machine guns a blazing in a wonderul orchestra of automotive violence. im not a very big Paul W. Anderson fan....Event Horizon and now THIS stand as his best films, im actually surprised at how entertaining this was. The whole cast shines in this film, no-one comes off as annoying or underused....everyone gets the appropriate screen time and lines of dialogue to keep a proper balance given the talent here. This is just a FUN FUN movie, its heavy on action and light on being overly serious. i HIGHLY RECOMMEND this to action film fans as a BUY.....and strongly recommend it as a rental.

Jay H. gave it a4:
Fast paced, a pure action film with absolutely no substance. Empty headed and over stylized, the does entertain to a point, but it's like eating a sandwich with nothing between the bread. It never quite satisfies. What were you thinking Joan Allen?

Death Race Universal Pictures

Death Race
Universal Pictures