ROTTEN TOMATOES: Jason Statham Leads the "Death Race" Charge

Jason Statham Leads the "Death Race" Charge

by Scott Weinberg | April 24, 2007

If you're making a gritty action flick and you need a hardcore bad-ass for the lead role, heck, you could do a whole lot worse than Jason Statham.

Statham, best known for his work in "Crank," "Snatch," and both "Transporter" flicks, is about to sign on to star in Paul (W.S, not Thomas) Anderson's "Death Race," which is a (yep) remake of a 1975 Roger Corman movie called "Death Race 2000." (That one starred Sylvester Stallone, David Carradine, and Martin Kove.)

If memory serves, "DR2K" was a tongue-in-cheek, yet really violent, sci-fi adventure about a vicious road race in which drivers got bonus points for mayhem and murder. (I may have to give that flick a fresh rental.) One wonders if Anderson's new version (he's writing and directing) will be more of a full-bore action movie. Nothing against the guy, but flicks like "Soldier," "Resident Evil," and "Alien vs. Predator" don't exactly scream "sense of humor."

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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(1-14 of 14 posts) | Reply

TheIceGhost writes:
on Apr 24 2007 01:48 AM

I love the original. Statham is a great pick for this though. On the otherhand, I don't want to see it remade. They'll try to modernize it and wind up making it a Fast and the Furious knock off.

Besides, I like being the only kid on the block who knows about, "Euthanasia Day". : )

If they want to make a movie like this, they should just make an adaptation of Twisted Metal (based off the immensly popular video games, TM2 is still one of my all time favorite games....ever).

(Reply to this)

Peacealien writes:
on Apr 24 2007 03:27 AM

WHY!!!! :(( well this movie will be suck considering Paul Anderson is behind it

(Reply to this)

GreenBastard writes:
on Apr 24 2007 04:19 AM

I so hope this is gona be good! It's gota play like an action/comedy or it'll suck sweaty balls.

(Reply to this)

SpikesInMySkull writes:
on Apr 24 2007 05:27 AM

So.... it's "The Transporter" in the future... whoopie... am I the only one who thought "The Transporter" had more in common with a Bugs Bunny, than a quality action film... at least "Transporter 2" stopped trying and embraced it's inner cartoon (which is not to say it wasn't terrible).

(Reply to this)

Defmonkey writes:
on Apr 24 2007 06:21 AM

[b]So is he gonna be Frankenstein?[/b]
I liked the original and I'm sorta so-so with this remake.

Euthanasia Day. That was pretty hilarious.

And of course Stallone putting on his best acting display and showing how he really treats his women in the original. (all sarcasm people.... One sec, lemme check, yep, all sarcasm.)

(Reply to this)

tsalin@hotmail.com writes:
on Apr 24 2007 06:49 AM

nooooooooooooo, stop with the remakes already!

the old one's so bad it's good! come on man! is it still going to be called "death race 2000?"

it's freak'n 2007!

(Reply to this)

Ashron writes:
on Apr 24 2007 07:25 AM

In reply to this comment (#862608)
I believe the article stated it woud be called "Death Race."

(Reply to this)

Merlin235 writes:
on Apr 24 2007 08:21 AM

I suppose those people who remake crappy movies like Death Race 2000 should be considered smarter than the people who remake classics like The Birds. So they do have that going for them.

(Reply to this)

ShaakTi writes:
on Apr 24 2007 08:26 AM

[b]WHY IS PAUL W.S. ANDERSON STILL ALIVE?!!!?!??!?!?![/b]
That's the question that concerns me the most.

(Reply to this)

Mr. Kong writes:
on Apr 24 2007 09:05 AM

In reply to this comment (#862611)
I've been asking myself that question for a while... only about Uwe Boll. I had a dream I killed him... and I loved it.

(Reply to this)

Jen Yamato writes:
on Apr 24 2007 10:22 AM

[b]On a side note, congrats to Paul W.S.[/b]
...and his lady Milla Jovovich, who is pregnant with his baby!

(Reply to this)

Kid_Ikarus writes:
on Apr 24 2007 03:04 PM

In reply to this comment (#862607)
Are you refering to Cormans "Frankenstein Unbound"?

I just bought that movie on DVD, i hadn't seen it in years and i remember really liking it at the time when it came out....

It does NOT hold up well at all.

(Reply to this)

Crenshaw writes:
on Apr 26 2007 07:56 AM

In reply to this comment (#862614)
[b]Ugh.[/b]
What is this, preschool day on RT?

David Carradine plays a character called "Frankenstein" in the original. The misunderstood antihero, who...

Oh, just rent the original. It'll be way better than any craptastic remake. If Tarantino had watched it a bit more, maybe his part of Grindhouse wouldn't have sucked ass.

(Reply to this)

Read-A-Book writes:
on Apr 26 2007 08:36 AM

Remakes. Remakes. Remakes. It would be nice, for a change, to come up something good AND original, but I guess I am asking too much.

I LOVE Death Race 2000. I had it on DVD and upgraded to the Special Edition. I cannot see how that can make a good remake of this movie. Think about it. Either it is going to be 2 hours of driving mayhem that will get old fast or it's going to be character driven (no pun inteneded). Making it character driven will slow it down or give us about 30 minutes of driving carnage.

Since I love this original (mostly because I love the games Carmeggedon 1 & 2), I will probably see this remake, but only after it is on DVD.

You know, if these remake-hungry people want to do something, how about inserting some CGI magic in old movies like Death Race 2000 to make the special effects up to date and leave everything else alone.

(Reply to this)

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