Death Race in YO FACE

OK, so the title of this blog is absurd. But it's fitting. The movie is over-the-top, plus adrenaline, times testosterone. But it's actually held together well enough for me to say, "Hey, that was actually pretty fun." The story is far-fetched, but makes enough sense to pull you in. Make you curious.

Jason Statham makes a lot of movies playing the same character in about every one. The only reason I'm not tired of him is because I usually don't watch his movies, so I haven't seen much. His big break was in Snatch, by Guy Ritchie. To be honest, he is exactly the type of guy needed for this movie. He does a fabulous job of making a completely implausible movie just plausible enough to watch. He believes in the role, you can tell, and he puts forth a solid effort.

It's fun, fast, and the car, or should I say, land tank, races are pretty well done. There's three separate races, and all of them are different enough to keep things interesting, even though it's all on the same track. It really is like watching your friend playing a video game that he's really good at. You can just sit back and enjoy without having to learn the thing yourself. The ending isn't obvious, it keeps you interested, and the stunts are done full scale, with very little CGI (which I learned through the special features on my Blu-ray).

This is "fun". Nothing more, nothing less. There are no hidden meanings. It's ok to watch movies like that. I actually don't like these types that much, but either it hit me when I was in a good mood, but really, I think it was done just right.

My Score: 75
Metacritic: 43

Understandably not well received. But several good critics thought the same thing I did. I'm not really that far outside of the box on this one.