Death Race 2 - Thoughts

I quite enjoyed the original Death Race, and recall checking out the trailer for Death Race 2 when it became available. Death Race 2 was to serve as a prequel, creating the background and building up to the events of the original Death Race; additionally providing insight to the original Frankenstein character. That said it looked like an attempt to expand on the franchise with amateur talent.. Since I wasn’t in any particular rush, I only got around the renting the DVD and checking it out last night.

Death Race 2 is a pretty straight forward action flick, going about doing exactly what was expected from the plot. Getting into it I did have some concerns of it being a low budget b-grade expansion, but it was pretty decent. The action sequences were good, and the plot acceptable. Don’t go into it expecting any twists and surprises, as there aren’t any. The development of the ‘Death Race’ concept and the characters is done well, with overall franchise continuity being quite impressive. The in car action sequences seemed weaker when compared to the original Death Race. If you’re looking for a fun action flick Death Race 2 will do well, but if you’re looking for something unique, special, or gripping, you won’t find it here. A friend described it well when she said she had some time one evening and watched it on cable and found it to be casual and entertaining.

After having seen several extremely mediocre franchise expansion flicks, with multiple additional installments, every subsequent one being worse than its predecessor, I was quite apprehensive.  Thankfully Death Race 2 didn’t suffer this curse. Though most of the relatively well known cast members such as Ving Rhames, Danny Trejo, and Sean Bean only played supporting roles, the not so renowned leads did a decent job. Luke Goss plays Carl Lukas, the strong on morale, tough guy, getaway car driver. He comes across as calm, and thus you don’t get too much of the usual action hero attitude in your face, which is a refreshing change. Though I have not seen any of his past work, it looks like his filmography consists of a good deal of TV movies. Tanit Phoenix plays Katrina Banks, the bad girl, partner and wingman of Lukas. Her role is quite stereotype, and her performance is about acceptable at best.

The DVD I was sampling was a region 5, India release. Out of a lack of options I was forced to opt for this. Limitations included a 4:3 pan and scan format that resulted in vertical letterboxing on a widescreen TV. The worst part was the edited/cut scenes, which is not ideal for anyone who intends to view the movie in its original form as decided by the production studio and director. Video was okay, but seemed a little dull and lacking vibrancy in most scenes. Sound was presented by means of a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack, and was mastered pretty loud. Surround usage was decent, and action sounds effects were as expected of any of the current day action flicks

My Recommendation: Watch It - (A straight forward yet entertaining prequel)