Crash and Burn
Main Cast: David Carradine, Sylvester Stallone, Mary Woronov, Roberta Collins
Director: Paul Bartel
Pow! Vroom!
You almost can see the exclamation points hanging over the characters as they shout their lines at each other through most of this cheesy social commentary/action flick of the 1970s. Is Death Race 2000 graphic and gruesome? Sadly, no- not by today’s standards. And that is the full shame of it all.
The plot, such as it is: five racers plus navigators take part in a road race across America. Not only do they have to get from NYC to LA first, they must rack up the most points by killing civilians “creatively” along the way. This America is tyrannical and the people oppressed: the death race is their “bread and circuses”. A rebel group wishes to overthrow the President and free the people, so they decide to interfere with the race. All very 70s, Vietnam *was* the hot topic of the time.
I can’t really recommend this old clunker, unless you are simply nostalgic for the 70s and want to see fairly tame special effects and not-so-speedy cars. Modern movies will give you more bang for your buck in this regard. The only amusing thing was to see a young Stallone get his butt kicked. A far cry from Rambo, but I guess you have to start somewhere!
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