Road rage

Death Race earns its rating—and little else | Sam Thielman

Universal Pictures

Can you imagine a world in which some vacuous studio executive told his investors that Harvey Corman's schlockfest Death Race 2000 was such a visionary masterpiece that it was their duty to remake it? And can you further imagine a world in which nobody in the room even giggled a little?

That, apparently, is the world in which we live, and so we have whoever that guy was (I doubt he'll be making his name public) to thank for the new vehicle, Death Race.

Starring professional scowler Jason Statham alongside Oscar nominee Joan Allen and Golden Globe winner Ian McShane, who should both know better, Death Race is about what you'd expect: In the year whatever, some horrible crypto-Christian lady (Allen) decides that the lifers in her prison should have fatal automobile accidents as often as possible and stages a series of races with machine-gun-enabled cars to facilitate this.