Death Race

Death Race movie review: In 2012, amid economic chaos and high unemployment, Americans watch by the millions as criminals with life sentences race armored cars on Terminal Island. Two-thirds of the combatants die but the winner may earn his freedom. On the day he loses his job, steelworker Jensen Ames is arrested for his wife's murder. Sent to Terminal Island, he's offered an out by the steely and manipulative Warden Hennessey - race as the popular mask-wearing (but now dead) champion, Frankenstein, or rot in prison. Jensen makes the bargain. As the three-stage race approaches, he realizes that the whole thing may be a set up.

Skip it: Not only does "Death Race" recycle much of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "The Running Man" and 2007's horrible Steve Austin vehicle "The Condemned," but it doesn't even offer a character who thinks killing cops or broadcasting violence online is wrong. The movie just crunches metal, squishes drivers' heads like oranges and assumes the viewers in our current society are as blood-thirsty as the ones onscreen. Are they?

Catch it: If you enjoy action and hot babes no matter what, even though Anderson generates no excitement from the crashes and this "Death Race" doesn't share the original's penchant for gratuitous nudity. Basically, this is a guy movie for guys whose only turn-on is death.

Bottom line: No more needs to be said about Statham as an "actor," but it's worth noting that "Death Race" seems less like a movie than a two-hour party to celebrate the hiring of a stunt team. Boasting a message that revenge is a dish best served loud and without hesitation, it's the only movie this year whose vileness rivals Paris Hilton's "The Hottie and the Nottie." Kudos. Source: Metromix

Box Office: The film grossed $36,316,032 in North America and $39,391,483 in other territories, totaling $75,677,515 worldwide.

• Wikipedia: Death Race
• Official movie site: Death Race
• Watch the trailer below!