With its inexplicably watchable shotgun-riding bimbos, unconscious homoeroticism and "Shawshank Redemption" ending, The Fast and the Frivolous here is almost so bad it's good. Almost...
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
This movie is about mayhem on wheels, tough guys viewers can root for, and villains whose comeuppances audiences crave. That's what Death Race is all about and, for what it is, it does a solid job.
It's the perfect end-of-summer film, and a sign that summer needs to end soon.
It honestly delivers the goods without all the preachy moralizing about violent entertainment and cultural ruin.
Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman
OK, so no plot, really.
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
Anderson has neutered the original film's outrageously transgressive macadam mayhem and completely stripped the story of its pointedly political social satire, making this Death Race one of the most boring drags of all time.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips
Nothing in director Paul W.S. Anderson's schlock drawer--prepares you for the peppy, good-time nastiness that is Death Race.
Washington Post by Philip Kennicott
It isn't so much a movie as a superheated, highly conductive miracle substance for the pure transmission of masculine aggression and misogyny.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
It is an assault on all the senses, including common. Walking out, I had the impression I had just seen the video game and was still waiting for the movie.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold
This new version has absolutely none of the distinctive tongue-in-cheek black humor that was the keynote of its model and the trademark of its original director, Paul Bartel.