Talking of Jason Statham (which I tend to do rather a lot), Luke Goss had the unenviable task of stepping into his shoes. I was surprised that the film wasn’t called Death Match: Death Race 2, as the battles are as integral to the film as the racing and consume a good chunk of the run time and, perhaps, would’ve helped dissuade people from thinking the whole film would be a straight retread of the Statham version. Although the fights we see add a Running Man level of violence and excitement that, for me, were more exhilarating than when the film inevitably makes its transition to four wheels. The concept of the Death Match is what you’d expect, with prisoners battling each other for ‘rewards’, using trigger points to activate weapons. Instead, all three of them have consistently important roles throughout. After being left feeling short changed by the lack of screen time in Universal Soldier: Regeneration given to cover stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, I was fully prepared for Death Race 2‘s stellar supporting cast of Sean Bean, Danny Trejo and Ving Rhames to be conveniently killed off within minutes of appearing. What’s changed, though, since the DTV (direct to video) days of sequels in this case, is the quality in all areas of production and casting. Made as part of Universal Studios Home Entertainment wing, it has been pitched perfectly as the kind of action movie night in that so many of us were raised on, aimed directly at its audience with no pretensions and without the extortionate amounts of money that most films have to shell out for any chance of a decent cinematic release. In which case, I’ll take this opportunity to point out, straight away, that Death Race 2 is fantastic, bloody, fun and delivers in every way you’d expect, and in many ways, better.
If you’re anything like me, then you’ll normally read the introduction of a review and skip to the end for the star rating, until after you’ve seen the film.
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