It seems like all is sullen all of a sudden. It’s almost the end of August, that is the end of summer (by the rule of calendar), and things appear to have ceased being that hot and bright. We should start thinking again about shirts and leave T-shirts for the past days of summer and we should stop dreaming in theatres, therefore, cinemas have prepared nothing spectacular.

If you watch “Death Race” having all these in mind, you might probably end up being depressed. If you shake these thoughts, after seeing the movie, you will be just being disappointed over the time you’ve wasted.

The title of the movie is exhaustive, there is nothing more depicted than a death race. The film is – at least, theoretically – based on the 1975’s “Death Car 2000,” but it omitted all the good parts of its forebear. The original hid elements of political satire and also moments of pure amusement, in contrast, writer and director Paul W.S. Anderson chose to focus only on the death car.

Set in the near future, the flick presents a US struck by financial collapse and chaos. The protagonist, Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) is a former professional driver who is wrongfully accused of murdering his beloved wife. He receives a life sentence to serve at the Terminal Island Penitentiary. But the chaotic status quo of the country altered the order we are all accustomed.

Penitentiaries are taken over by private corporations. This is also the case of the jail where Ames is framed, the prison being the location of the title death race, a pay-per-view project that mobilizes all the wrongdoers in the prison to race in cars featuring guns, rockets or even napalm.

The Warden of the penitentiary, a ruthless profit-oriented woman, Hennessey (Joan Allen) proposes Ames to replace the perpetual winner Frankenstein in the race (who secretly died due to the injuries) and if he wins, he is freed. Craving to reunite with his infant daughter, he accepts. And let the mayhem begin…

What is interesting about this movie (do not get impatient, it’s only scarce elements we are talking about here and they’re not interesting in the positive way) is the fact that Anderson signs the script and direction.

He made his debut successfully with the taut “Shopping,” then worked on projects like “Resident Evil” or “AVP: Alien vs. Predator,” however, “Death Race” seems the climax of his regression. Also, the appearance of Joan Allen, the three-time nominated actress for the Academy Awards, in this B-rated movie is equally astonishing.