It’s hard for me to really dislike this film. Not because it’s good; it’s your typical shitty action Jason Statham movie. But because that’s exactly what I expected, so I couldn’t really be disappointed. It probably wasn’t as bad as I was expecting actually. Gorier, too. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to watch this at all was the great Ian McShane, and he was certainly the best actor in the whole thing. The dialogue didn’t help any of the actors though. Statham was the same character he is in all his films. I wish they had a better actress playing the warden, as that could’ve been a better character. Yeah, it’s not a terrible concept, just not executed with any flair here. Also, I’ve never seen Death Race 2000 (1975) and I’m not really interested in seeing it, or the sequels to this remake.
It probably wasn’t until the last 30 minutes or so that I actually enjoyed this movie at all. I think it was worse than the first one, for the most part. 90% of the dialogue and one-liners were absolutely awful. The allusions to movies the actors had been in before this film were pretty lame on the whole. I couldn’t help laughing at the ones directed at Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis - they were so silly. It was still pretty awesome to have so many action stars in one film. Although, there were probably too many, because a lot of them got very little screen time. Seeing Sylvester Stallone with Schwarzenegger and Willis shooting everyone and everything in sight was pretty badass, I’ll admit. The air of misogyny throughout the film did bother me though. My favourite part was the sequence with Schwarzenegger and the tiny car. Anyway, it’s not a good film but it delivers on what it promises.
Well, I didn’t think it was possible, but this sequel might be even more batshit insane than Crank (2006). This movie knows it’s nuts and pretty bad, and it doesn’t care. There’s something kind of admirable about that. To watch it, you need to accept this and just enjoy it. Otherwise, you’ll hate it. I don’t know what else to say about it, really. It’s just full of whatthefuckery. I liked how they brought back Glenn Howerton’s character from the first one. To be honest, if they made another film in this series, I’d probably watch it.
This movie was absolutely ridiculous, but pretty enjoyable. It didn’t take itself seriously, and if you’re going to enjoy it at all, you mustn’t either. It was much more R-rated than I expected though. Plenty of graphic violence, adult language, nudity and drug use. It’s very fast-paced, in story and style. I found the quick editing and camerawork a little annoying at times, but mostly it worked. I liked the film’s humour and a few of its stylistic choices too. None of the acting was particularly good, but I didn’t expect much anyway. Yeah, it wasn’t a great movie, but it was a fun ride.
P365 Film #304
This film was a gimmick. Having all these big action stars in one movie is what made me, and I suspect most other people, want to watch it. With all those big names, this should be a pretty epic movie, right? Yeah, no… It’s pretty mediocre. I’ll admit, the scene that featured Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger was pretty awesome, just because those three were in it. I was happy to hear that Willis and Schwarzenegger will have bigger roles in the sequel, The Expendables 2 (2012). Anyway, it was just a really average action movie. The dialogue was awful, for the most part. The attempts at character development and emotional resonance just didn’t work. I didn’t find any of the action too impressive either. So, rather disappointing overall. I didn’t hate it, but, apart from some cool action stars being together, there was nothing good about it.
