With the target audience being those who loved the brainless 2008 Death Race, Death Race 2 delivers no more than what they expect. 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. 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.
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. The main attraction here has always been the cars and the carnage.
Fans would recognize Robin shou and Frederick Koehler reprising their roles of "14K" and "Lists". Star power alone was what made the original character bearable and now with that gone, they are not as interesting to watch. 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. They basically took the exact same character types from the 2008 film and changed their names to be new characters. Sound familiar? To say that the writers were lazy is an understatement. 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. The no holds barred car-nage has just begun. Nine cars, three rounds, five wins to freedom. 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". A heist gone wrong landed Carl a life sentence at Terminal island penitentiary, a prison famous for its broadcasts of "Death Match".
#RACE 2 MOVIE DURATION DRIVER#
Before he became the famous Frankenstein, Carl Lucas (Luke Goss) was a getaway car driver for a crime boss Markus Kane (Sean bean). 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.
#RACE 2 MOVIE DURATION FULL#
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. Now fans of the 2008 crash and burn thrill ride of a movie are in for a treat here. Heck even the main characters looks the same only with different names. 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. 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.