Death Race 2 (2010 Video) User Reviews (91)

Slang-bang, nail-biting prequel full of action, impressive car races, lots of violence and guts

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 25 July 2019]

It is set in a near future with testosterona macho men and based on the classic movie by Paul Bartel, but here adding much more action and violence. It deals with a thief called Lucas, Luke Goss, who is assigned by his chief, Sean Bean, to carry out a bank heist, but it goes wrong and then he is locked in a maximum security prison at Terminal island. There is developed a thrilling race in which the skillfull driver Lucas accompanied by a gorgeous copilot, Tanit Phoenix Copley, participate at the exciting and amazing race contending with other heinous and bloody participants. The race is televised by pay per view and presented by a beautiful host, Lauren Cohen, and Luke is given an opportunity, if Lucas wins 5 races, to have a big reward: to be freed. As he attempting to survive the perilous competition by pitting other inmates to get an early release.

This is a run-of-the-mill prequel, a high-octane guilty, grindhouse reboot pleasure. This Death Race follow-up exploring the origin of the violent race called Death Race, it is the ultimate sporting where contestants get score point for running drivers down, a futurist international sport with plenty of violence where the pilots contend for hitting other vehicles, but it is also a predictable fare with familiar scenes and non-sense plot . Not as brilliant but no worse than previous and successive entries. It is made in brainless and rudimentary masculine fashion filled with macho men and sexy, provocative and wonderful girls. It is a tightly packed film with noisy action, fights, car crashes, twists and turns. Stirring and surprising script written by Paul Anderson, who produced too, he formerly directed Death Race with Jason Statham and he also made Resident evil, Soldier, Event horizon , Alien vs Predator and Mortal combat

The picture was professionally directed by Raoul Reine, but it doesnt reach nowhere near he satirical impact and playfulness of the original movie. Followed by other sequels with similar technician and artistic team. Raoul Reine has directed various Tv series as Black sails, Wu assassin, Knighfall, Redball legend, Inhumans and some films, such as : The Admiral, The lost tribe, The bear. Raoul is an expert on sequels such as : Hard taget 2, The condemned 2, The man with the iron fist, 12 rounds 2, Seal team eight, Redbad, The Marine 2.

This film is based on the original Death race 1975 also produced by Rogen Corman directed by Paul Bartel with Sylvester Stallone, David Carradine, Simone Griffith. Followed by Death race 2oo8 by Paul W. S. Anderson with Jason Statham, Tyrese Gybson, Jacob Vargas, Joan Allen, Natalie Martinez. Death race Inferno with Luke Goss, Tanit Phoenix, Dougray Scott, Frederick Koehler, Robin Shou. Death race 4 Beyond anarchy with Lucy Aarden, Nicholas Aaron. There is also another film titled Death Race 73 by David Lowell Rich with Lloyd Bridges, Roy Thinnes, Eric Braeden, but it nothing to do with the saga produced by Roger Corman. Rating 6/10 a really indescribably violent action movie.

Misleading title, minuscule budget, but massive thrills

[xamtaro · 6/10 · 27 December 2010]

Be honest, was the 2008 Death Race film (itself a remake of the 1975 B movie Death Race 2000) actually avant garde cinema? No it was not! It was a loud, visceral, simple action movie; all style, little substance in the grand Paul WS Anderson tradition. This cheap direct to video prequel, not a sequel as the "Death Race 2" title might seem to imply, is just more of the same. Heck even the main characters looks the same only with different names.

Now fans of the 2008 crash and burn thrill ride of a movie are in for a treat here. In Death Race 2, we discover the origins of the dangerous game; how it went from a simple prison fight caught on camera to full blown TV ratings dependent gladiatorial combat and then, to boost ratings, the brutal Death Race. Anybody remember the cool sounding masked Driver "Frankenstein" who appeared at the beginning of 2008's Death Race? Well here is his origin story too. Before he became the famous Frankenstein, Carl Lucas (Luke Goss) was a getaway car driver for a crime boss Markus Kane (Sean bean). A heist gone wrong landed Carl a life sentence at Terminal island penitentiary, a prison famous for its broadcasts of "Death Match". With ratings of Death Match plummeting, one of the organizers "September Jones" witnesses Carl's driving skills and decides to revamp the games into "Death Race". Nine cars, three rounds, five wins to freedom. The no holds barred car-nage has just begun. As Carl puts his skills to the test, his former boss is planning his death, and he has someone on the inside to do it.

Sound familiar? To say that the writers were lazy is an understatement. They basically took the exact same character types from the 2008 film and changed their names to be new characters. In other words, we got all the uninspired lines, one dimensional (and slightly racist) characterization, and minimal character development of the original show, but none of the star power the likes of Jason Stratham and Tyrese Gibson. Star power alone was what made the original character bearable and now with that gone, they are not as interesting to watch. Fans would recognize Robin shou and Frederick Koehler reprising their roles of "14K" and "Lists".

The main attraction here has always been the cars and the carnage. Despite having less than one third of the budget of Paul WS Anderson's 2008 film, Death Race 2 does a wonderful job of replicating all the excitement and adrenaline of the races. Perhaps too good a job as some scenes look 100% copied and pasted from that film complete with similar camera angles, same chain of events and even similar lines of dialog. The cars themselves and the sets do not look as well designed as its predecessor but remember, this took place before the 2008 film and as such cars get rebuilt and the place gets upgraded as the days go by.

With the target audience being those who loved the brainless 2008 Death Race, Death Race 2 delivers no more than what they expect. If you thought its predecessor was bad, Death Race 2 would not change that impression. It is fun, it is violent, it is a glorified B movie just like Roger Corman's DeathRace 2000 and Paul WS Anderson's remake, and it is surprisingly well shot for a direct-to-video film. Definitely worth at least a rental but do familiarize yourself with the 2008 movie before jumping into this.

Surprisingly decent for a straight-to-video sequel

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 31 May 2013]

DEATH RACE 2 is a surprisingly entertaining little straight-to-video sequel to the Jason Statham starrer, itself a remake of a Roger Corman cult classic of the 1970s. I'd even go so far as to say this is as much fun as the first film, although it has only a fraction of the budget and only one returning cast member, as far as I can tell. For DEATH RACE 2 captives the vibrant, adrenaline-fuelled spirit of the first film and Dutch director Roel Reine, himself a veteran of a dozen B-movies, proves to be a better director than Paul W. S. Anderson.

To be sure, this is far from a great film and it falls down particularly in regard to the actors, all of whom are ill-serviced by their parts. Luke Goss is nothing more than a dome-headed dunderhead, an obvious stand-in for Statham but one that lacks that actor's trademark intensity and scowl. Lauren Cohan fares little better as an overly-obvious arrogant journalist type, while Danny Trejo has virtually nothing to do in the stock role of car mechanic. The two big names present in the cast, Sean Bean and Ving Rhames, are particularly wasted, given roles which require them to sit around and do absolutely nothing else. Each has about five minutes screen time tops.

Still, the screenplay is packed with violent incident, which is always good, and I like the way the smaller budget is disguised by having combatant vs. combatant fights early on instead of car chases. There's only one real chase here, towards the end, which is pretty decent, although I could have done without the laborious twist in which it turns out that…well, you'll have to watch it for yourself to find out. Even with the many detractions, DEATH RACE 2 is a B-movie done right, with all of the high-octane action you could hope for.

A cheap knock off of the 2008 version

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 26 December 2010]

Okay, first of all, why did the world need a prequel to the 2008 movie "Death Race", which was a re-make of the classic 1975 movie "Death Race" (aka. "Death Race 2000"). This 2010 prequel was rubbish.

First of all, let's break it down into bits. The story - total rip off of the 2008 version. Nothing new to be seen here, and in fact there were so many similarities to the 2008 version, that it was just painfully embarrassing to look at. Made you wonder if the producer of this sequel was upset about not making he 2008 version, so he just copied that one and changed bits here and there.

Then, of course, there were the mistakes in the movie. The woman states there are 9 cars, and the prisoners rush and fight each other to get to the cars, fair enough. And remember, this is supposed to be on live TV. Yet for some magical reason, the producers had managed to create these segments with the drivers and the cars they were in, sort of presentations of the car and whose driving them. Wow, what a ridiculous mistake that was. I laughed so hard when they started to flash these sequences. It was an epic fail.

Now, don't get me wrong. The movie wasn't all bad. There was a lot of action and explosions in the movie, but it hardly made it worth the effort of sitting through it. "Death Race 2" is nothing more than a cheap rip off of the 2008 "Death Race" movie.

A sad, sad day for movie history. If you liked the 1975 or 2008 versions, stay well clear of this 2010 version, trust me. I am sure "Death Race 2" will appeal to new viewers, but for those having seen one or both of the previous movies, this is a slap in the face.

Even with names like Danny Trejo, Sean Bean, Ving Rhames, Robin Shou, and Luke Goss on the cast list, this movie fails to impress. And how these people agreed to do this movie is beyond me. Haven't they seen the 2008 version? Didn't they read the script? Didn't they catch on to how much of a knock off of the 2008 version this was going to be?

I must say that this movie was a major disappointment, and in my opinion, the movie shouldn't have seen the light of day.

This film doesn't suck that much!! Honestly!!

[thekarmicnomad · 7/10 · 8 April 2011]

First things first. This is a mid/low budget sequel following a partially successful remake of a classic 70s cult movie. So it is obvious that this film is going to blow!

Well it does, but not that bad. The action is great, the spirit of the uber-powerful uncaring corporation is encapsulated superbly by Lauren Cohan; Tanit Phonex is painfully beautiful and the plot chugs along happily.

You can't take the film too seriously, I mean it appears that barbaric, run-for-profit women's prisons of the future all provide their inmates with extensive make-overs before a riot, but it is good fun.

The main stumbling block is the dialogue, it really is awful. I sincerely mean that, awful.

This film greatly out-stripped by expectations (which were low) but if you like action and gorgeous women then this is definitely for you.

Sequel that lacked the budget and lacked the mayhem

[KineticSeoul · 4/10 · 10 July 2011]

When I first heard there will be a sequel to "Death Race" 2008 version I was a bit excited since I enjoyed watching the first one. But than later I found out that this would be a direct to DVD release which got me disappointed. I guess the first movie didn't do so well at box office, cause if it did do well I am sure the sequel would have hit theaters and would have had a way bigger budget. Budget for a movie doesn't show how good or hot bad it is in some cases, but for a movie like this it needed the extra budget. Everything just looked way too cheap, if they just didn't have the budget to make at least a decent sequel they shouldn't have tried in the first place. I liked the original Frankenstein from the first movie, although that scene with him was very short he still had charisma and seemed like a cool character with a cool voice and this is from just the first few minutes from the first movie. In this movie Frankenstein lacked the cool voice he had in the first movie and didn't have that big of a charisma. The acting is also bad and the stupidity in this movie gets irritating to watch. The slow motion sequences in this movie was just ultra lame as well. On a bit of a positive note, it had few decent scenes that had it's moment, which is why I am giving this movie a 4.8. And because it's a straight to DVD movie so being a bit lenient.

4.8/10

Death Race begins!

[marcotiero · 6/10 · 30 January 2021]

Firstly, this shouldn't have been named "Death Race 2" as it is a prequel (Does this mean the previous entry would now be the 3rd chronologically?).

Surprised to see Luke Goss in the lead, thankfully, he has a good supporting cast around him, who do the best they can with the material given.

At first, I expected this to be terrible. The first 10 minutes were pretty pointless, thankfully, once we get to the prison, the movie picks up.

It's always tough to do a prequel, as you have to show the history of things already established in the series (thanks to George Lucas, prequels have become a popular thing), however, this was actually pretty well done, and thankfully there's no glaring mistakes like not recognising droids!

This movie excels in the action sequences, as did the Statham one, and this is exactly why we watch these types of movies. It's not Shakespeare, it's not cognitive, it's switch your brain off and enjoy the carnage and the attractive women.

I went into this with low expectations. I didn't even know about this until I was in the mood to watch the Statham one, and when I couldn't find it to stream, I decided to buy the bluray and was surprised to find a trilogy box set. I expected 2 and 3 to be utter garbage, but this pleasantly surprised me and now I've got a bit more hope for the 3rd when I watch that next.

my notes

[FeastMode · 1/10 · 24 July 2019]

First one was a fun and cool mindless action. this is just trash. everything about this movie is bad. it was laughable early and often. it makes the first one look oscar worthy. the acting is 0, the dialogue is 0, the action is useless. simple things like audio dubbing being off and continuity errors all over the place. this movie sometimes felt like it was a student film. overall i laughed enough for this to be a somewhat enjoyable experience. hilariocity score of 7/10 (about 2 viewings)

a greatly crafted action movie

[The-Bear-Jew2 · 7/10 · 20 January 2011]

Death Race 2, the prequel to the 2008 Death Race, shows how Death Race came to be. The movie for being a straight to DVD release looks likes a high budget Hollywood movie with 1/4 of the budget of the first one. The acting is not top notch but does have a interesting cast with Sean Bean and Dan Trejo. If your a fan of the dark gritty style of the first Death Race then you'll enjoy this film, however, i do feel that they could have been more original and changed a few things to make this film stand apart from the original.

pros- Good action sequences

good cast

very well put together

cons- could have been more original

some of the acting could have been improved

It's not often i think a movie deserves a 1/10, but this deserves no better

[petter-f · 1/10 · 24 January 2011]

This movie is an absolute nightmare. I can not understand how they could manage to make such a bad movie. In fact, they almost deserve an achievement for how bad they have made it.

It's not the story that ruins the movie. Sure, the story is about as intelligent as George Bush, but that is not the akilees heel of this film. The akilees heel of this film is the director and the cinematographer. I can not understand how they can shoot and edit the film like this.

First of all, they use a lot of shaky cam, to make the driving seem intense. Unfortunately this does do anything else then make your head dizzy. It is so obvious that the cars are driving incredibly slow. This manes that the main theme of this film; Cars and driving. So 5 minutes in to the film, the backbone is already broken. Another thing that ruins the driving, is the sound. Most of the cars are roaring v8's, but most of the time they sound like a 1,6L Honda civic with a turbo.

The actors does an acceptable job. Sure, none of them play particularly well, but none of them play badly neither. The voices of the actors are in some scenes obviously captured inside a studio, and this really makes the actors seem a lot less believable.

My conclusion is that you should stay away from this movie. The movie doesn't capture any of the thrills you found in the first film. It is only an attempt to make a profit with as little expenses as possible.

Surprise Surprise

[bobmichigan1 · 9/10 · 24 December 2010]

If there is a straight to DVD movie that is good than this would be your cup of tea. Now i was not a huge fan of the first one it was just a fun action movie with lots of deadly car crashes. This one almost tops it and believe it or not the acting is not horrible for a direct to DVD smash up. If you are bored one night and just want to watch a fresh and fun movie go get this. This movie takes place before the original and how Frankenstein was invented. Don't expect academy awards won here, the action scenes are done very well and the racing was done just as well as the first if not better. If you are looking for popcorn fun than this would be it.

Great action sequences but fails in comparison to the original

[Floated2 · 6/10 · 24 December 2010]

Being a fan of the previous Death Race (2008), I decided to check out Death Race 2 to see how well it is and because of the cast. Death Race 2 is pretty alright but it isn't as great as Death Race. Death Race 2 basically shows the life of Carl "Luke" Lucas (Luke Goss), how is sent to prison, racing in the death races and how he later became known as Frankenstein. The film has some good action sequences that are quite brutal yet funny and entertaining, specifically one scene with Danny Trejo. Death Race 2 follows the same formula within the plot as Death Race but they change a few things. Death Race 2 isn't as good as Death Race because of the story, the action sequence and stunts, and the chemistry between the leads aren't as good as in Death Race. I was expected more. Nonetheless, Death Race 2 is still very entertaining for fans, but don't expect too much. The ending of Death Race 2 is real good and I think ends neatly. In general the film is pretty good but it could have been better.

Worst Film Ever Made

[marcel_is · 1/10 · 26 April 2011]

Firstly I'm a huge fan of Death Race 1... I thought it was great - no over acting, nice minimal amount of plot, great carnage levels.

Death Race 2 on the other hand? I read the reviews on this page to see if it was worth my time, and was honestly surprised to see good reviews, so I decided to watch it... (mistake) Low Budget, tragic acting, bad scenes, horrible script, overall: 1.5hrs of my life I'll never get back.

Even if they hired some big name actors, the script would still let this down - Possibly why they couldn't get any decent actors to get on board for this.

Complete flop - Please don't make the same mistake I made and waste your time.

Painful To Watch

[missismiggins · 1/10 · 3 January 2011]

This has to be one of the worst movies I have had the chance to see this year. (It was a almost identical story to the Death Race 2008 - only far far worse) The 2008 version at least had a bit of originality, this drivel looks like someone sat down and watched the first version and then tried to copy it and simply adjusted a few parts of the story to try not to make it a complete rip off! They even tried to make Luke Goss look like Statham, it was sad to watch, no wonder this rubbish has gone straight to Video - it made me cringe to watch it.

I like Danny Trejo, he is a mean SOB, but he looked like he sold out for the money in this rubbish - he wasn't even acting.

Sean Bean was embarrassing to watch, his ridiculous Northern English accent, and the over the top behaviour - when he tries to break the flat screen TV was hilarious, he could barely lift it! What was the point?

Complete rubbish from beginning to end.

The Statham version is not really worth watching, but it is 100 times better than this tripe!

Luke Goss was ridiculous, the script was terrible, flush this down the toilet and forget it forever, R.I.P

A pretty good movie

[dirkkempen · 7/10 · 3 January 2011]

This movie was actually pretty good. A decent story line, decent special effects. The main character is a bad guy with a heart, someone we all can relate to. It is good to see the origins of some of the Death Race characters. I always wondered how 'Lists' ended up in jail and where they found that iron prison warden lady. But it is a shame that we all know how it ended for Luke, he dies in the first part of Death Race. Danny Trejo played a decent role as the crew chief but I would have rather seen him smashing someones brains in. The double storyline is well executed, Luke tries to race is way out of prison and his former boss wants to kill him. It is great that one of his crewmen tries to kill him, if he did not try it, the whole storyline was unconvincing. All-in-all a pretty good movie about love, crime and auto racing.

Lazy and just dreadful

[corozin · 2/10 · 25 December 2010]

I had the misfortune to see this film last night. Even by the mediocre standards set by Paul W S Anderson this one is shockingly poor.

It appears as though Anderson decided to just recast and re film "Death Race" all over again. Matt Goss tries to keep his embryonic Hollywood career going here but he defeated by almost everyone else involved. Sean Bean turns up for a quick cheque, but there's no effort anywhere. Danny Trejo must be wondering why he accepted this job - surely he can't be this desperate.

Anderson beats all the clichéd character types until they bleed. All the black actors are employed simply for an ability to look angry and shout "nigger" everywhere. All the women are topless sluts.

It's just same old, same old. They even reused the same sets and cars they had in the first one. The whole thing must have cost them $200 to make, and $150 of that must have been Sean Bean's fee.

I never thought I would see another film in my life to rival Battlefield Earth and Lost Souls as the worst ever, but Anderson makes a very good attempt here. If I had paid for the ticket last night I would have been very disappointed. As it is I'm wondering if it possible to sue the studio for two wasted hours of my life.

Utterly, utterly shocking. 2/10

Reasonable

[amalank · 7/10 · 24 March 2011]

Death Race 2 is a prequel to the 2008 film which starred Jason Statham. It explores the origins of Death Race and of the driver Frankenstein.

I think it was a good idea that they decided to do a prequel instead of a direct sequel. I have seen a few direct to video sequels and they are in fact not that good. Having said that though, it does puzzle me why the movie was called Death Race 2 and not "Death Race: The Beginning" or something along these lines.

Bearing in mind that this movie explores the origins, the storyline was OK to say the least and the action scenes were satisfactory.

I loved the 2008 movie. I don't think this prequel was as exciting but it was decent enough.

A simply awful Movie!!!

[seblebanon · 2/10 · 6 January 2011]

The only reason i sought to give this movie more than 1 star, is because of the few entertaining fight scenes and the last 5 minutes of the film (which i wont spoil). Everything else from acting to script to storyline was amateur and weak.

For starters, the chase scene at the beginning of the film was badly choreographed. One could see what they were trying to do with it but it was a complete failure. Throughout the film, there some wonderfully large explosions and some OK slow motion camera, but they were undermined by their overuse, making the audience wonder more at their stupidity then their grandeur.

The acting was complete tripe. Even Sean Bean had little to nothing of an impact on screen. Frankenstein, played by Luke Goss, had a tough act to follow after Death Race 1. He looked pitiful compared to Jason Statham.

Moreover, I don't think i've ever cringed some much in the space of 90 minutes. The script was extremely corny and cliché. I couldn't take anyone seriously.

The storyline was similar to that of the prequel, except a lot worse; and the first wasn't great. Its development was unrealistic and there were countless plot holes. For example, the prison allows the inmates to fix old beat up cars, highly unlikely but i'll buy for now. Carl (Luke Goss) is then assigned with a crew to this vehicle repair workshop, or whatever its mean to be. What really killed it though, was when Carl first arrives in the workshop. He's given the keys to a some banged up car the crew had just fixed, and then drives out of a conveniently open door; you know, taking it out for a quick spin around the prison as people do. While he's driving around, the public relations/ journalist lady of the prison happens to see him; She looks at him and thinks, "ahh what a great idea, why don't we let criminals drive around killing each other for the entertainment the people!" And thus the idea of death Race is born. Lame.

As i stated earlier, if you enjoy watching grown men, more specifically criminals, fight it out to the death (actually rather entertaining); or find pleasure in watching a movie for its last 5 minutes, then this is the film for you; cos don't worry, the producers don't bother us with the inconvenience of good acting, script or storyline, its all rather simple these days.

Not a bad film for straight to video turn

[torstensonjohn · 6/10 · 26 July 2018]

Death Race 2, an actual prequel to 2008's Death Race. It is a sci-fi/action film directed by Roel Reiné, written by Tony Giglio and Paul W. S. Anderson. The plot of the film is about a man (Carl Lucas) portrayed by Luke Goss who is a wheel-man for a crime kingpin portrayed by Sean Bean. A bank heist goes terribly wrong, Lucas is sent to a maximum prison facility known as Terminal Island for life. There he encounters death fights put on for entertainment purposes run by Lauren Cohan and Ving Rhames.

The storyline gives us how the character "Frankenstein" was developed and how the actual Death Race came to be. The acting is not award winning by any stretch but it certainly is not horrible. Lauren Cohan is creatively brilliant as the money hungry, power wielding antagonist running the show. Luke Goss comes across as plain, and not very driven but maybe that is the creativity stand alone. Danny Trejo is just a face in the film really with not much substance for his character.

The film is adrenaline fueled, violent to an extent, certainly not as gory as 2008's Death Race. All in all the story moves well and it has it's moments for the small budget it was filmed on. It is not a power house of a film, BUT is worth a watch. 6 out of 10

Terrible. Don't waste your time

[zenrat-549-265189 · 1/10 · 8 December 2012]

Terrible. Watch Death Race again instead. Recycled cars, set and I suspect footage from the first one. That is all. But apparently I have to keep typing until I have typed 10 lines or more. Whoever cam up with this system obviously hadn't seen this film. There is nothing more to say. Don't waste your time. Seeing 80's pretty boy pop star Luke Goss getting a crispy coating slightly cheered me up but not for long. Is that enough typing yet? No, obviously not. So, how about those Bulldogs eh? Mrs z is watching Neverland as I type this. It's twice as good as Death Race 2 - I rate it 2 out of 10 - mainly because it IS NOT Death Race 2. Other than that it has very few good points apart from Bob Hoskins as Mr Smee. 10 lines yet?

Straight to DVD sequel that delivers.

[kingwizy100 · 8/10 · 25 December 2010]

I know that like most of you, as well as I, were not expecting much from a straight to DVD sequel from a theater movie which included a few famous actors & had a great budget while this sequel had fewer actors & budget.

The entire movie as you will all know is a prequel explaining the beginnings of Frankenstein. The story flows quite nicely and explains a lot about the origin of Frankenstein while a little bit of the guy who becomes Frankenstein.

The movie is well worth the watch if you're interested on learning more about the back story to Death Race 2. That's what this film is for, not to deliver a sequel that brings more action, blood & gore (although it does) but it brings in quite a story.

I don't want to spoil anything as far as the climax, but overall the whole movie is like any typical straight to DVD sequel. Has some action here, talking there, all flows like a regular movie.

What made my jaw drop, and I mean drop even the second time I watched it, was the ending. The ending is phenomenal, truly amazingly executed. It leaves you with no questions (as long as you followed the story) and leaves it set up for Death Race 1.

Overall, worth the watch if you got the time.

Death race 2 was it worth it

[The-aspinall-gamer · 6/10 · 9 August 2014]

Death race 2 is that of a prequel to the original whilst using 2 old characters to create continuity and a picture to use more continuity. Above all though the film wasn't that good their are several shots that seem out of place due to the reused first film shots and although it's meant to show us the origins of the death race it leaves us more questions than we had like why is the track different why do the cars look like the updated versions from the 6 moth gap from the first film. One of the best things in the film was when Marcus Kane was watching Death race 2000 on TV but even that is just leaving a plot hole. The acting is good the car scenes are brilliant and the deaths of the racers aren't reused and it shows unitive mostly with sheiks death. Overall the film is okay but has the a bigger budget it would have been a master piece.

Drivel

[matt-mccabebrown · 2/10 · 6 May 2011]

Before I start let me just say that I should have liked this movie, I really should. The remake, which this is the sequel for, was an great little 'leave your brain at the door, sit down and buckle up' movie. This however is just bad and not just in a could have been better, but in a could hardly have been much worse kind of way. I can see what the producer has tried to do. Take a successful movie, copy the format, but don't spend very much money on cast or plot. From what I can tell two members of the original cast, those playing List and K14 (I cant be bothered checking up the actors names) reprise their roles, but add next to nothing to their respective characters. The other characters are almost carbon copies of those from the original film. You have the white shaved head pretty boy (Luke Goss in for Statham), the big black man, the white supremacist, the ice maiden pulling the strings, the craggy weather worn mechanic (Trejo replacing Mcshane), the sexy female prisoner and the Mexican (i assuming here, as his screen time last about 30 seconds as he's introduced and then killed). The plot is dreadful, full of holes but still tries to explain the origin of the original Frankenstein, who dies at the start of the remake. As a result the cars don't turn up in the movie until almost an hour in. This hour is filled with some poor set pieces with lots of slow mo. I would just like to take this moment to let the director know, that in my opinion, slow mo doesn't give the film an element of class or sophistication, but just takes up running time. There are exceptions however, with filmmakers such as John Woo and Peckenpah who use it to accentuates the violence and not use it as some cheap art trick. None of the set pieces have that 'wow' factor seen in the remake when the big artic turns up. The fights are poor and appear clumsy, but this is more a case that the bar has been raised so high with fighters from previous years, that this film really struggles. Plot holes are plenty, my favourite, if that is the right word to use, is how they managed to change a 69 fastback Shelby mustang into a 2009/10 Shelby. Some will argue that they would have got a new one, but they clearly explain that everything they will need is already on the island, but using a '69 so prominently as a plot tool was a massive error. Okay maybe thats a little anal, but it still annoyed me and just don't get me started on the moment a car manages to keep a missle behind like a scene from Top Gun. The acting is pretty grim as well. Luke Goss, who was really rather good in Blade 2, just cannot match Captain Cardboard himself Jason Statham and is throughly unconvincing. Sorry Luke, but that accent was shocking as well. Trejo is well Trejo (take from that what you will) Ving Rhames just phones it in as the mogul in charge, or Ceasar as he calls himself at one point, and what the hell is Sean Bean doing? This man can act, he has proved it time and time again? Here he's playing a crimeboss caught between the loyalty of a friend and the loyalty of his wallet. I though his worst film was the Hitcher, not anymore its not. The sound design is dreadful, worse than Die Hard 4, with many notable moments when the lips don't synch and the sound effects and music appear rehashed from the first film. I could go on and if I were down the pub with you I probably would. If you want 100mins of auto carnage with a stupid story that will leave you content at the end, just re-watch the Statham film, you'd feel much better about yourself.

This is one of those uneven movies that had potential, is entertaining but also isn't good

[kevin_robbins · 5/10 · 30 March 2022]

Death Race 2 (2010) is a movie I recently rewatched on Tubi. The storyline is a prequel to the previous film and shows how Death Face and the infamous Frankenstein was created.

This movie is directed by Roel Reiné (Halo and Black Sails) and stars Luke Goss (Blade II), Lauren Cohan (The Boy), Sean Bean (Game of Thrones), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), Danny Trejo (Machete) and Frederick Koehler (Pearl Harbor).

The storyline for this was pretty creative and clever. The cast is way better than it should be and it was fun to watch Danny Trejo and Ving Rhames' characters. The cage fights were more fun than good but I will say I always enjoy a good flame thrower scene. The birth of death race was cool and the action sequences and car scenes were solid. The full circle ending was also well done.

This is one of those uneven movies that had potential, is entertaining but also isn't good. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Watching this movie left me pumped up just enough to watch the original again!

[NCI-Develop · 6/10 · 27 December 2010]

While watching this movie (not having seen the first for a couple years) I was kind of bored and the dialog / acting was definitely B/C grade material (the Jason strathom look a like too is pretty pathetic)... The last 10 minutes makes up for it all so if you watch this movie stick it out to the end. Immediately after watching this I went out and picked up the first death race all because the ending left me kind of pumped.

Don't know why this was a straight to video sequel / prequel, the original did pretty well in the theatre doubling it's budget in sales. Don't let the STV title fool you, I'd rather take a crappy script with more money put into the sets / cars for this type of movie, they all looked just as good as the original movie!

Danny Trejo did a pretty good job, his role in Machete is nothing close to what he does in this movie which was a bit of a disappointment. Sean Bean is one of my favourite actors since his role in National Treasures but again he didn't do a great job in this movie, partly to blame is the script.

I watch a ton of B grade movies so I'm used to crappy scripts / acting but it's still good for killing a couple free hours time if you liked the original's unique take on prison based story lines mixed with a bit of high octane.