Death Race 3: Inferno (2012)

Tagline:

The rules are simple: Drive or Die. 

Movie Review:

After successfully winning four races during and after the course of Death Race 2, Carl Lucas aka Frankenstein (Luke Goss) only has one more race to win and will gain - along with the rest of his crew - a full pardon from Terminal Island Penetentiary. Unfortunately for Lucas, the Death Race franchise has been bought out from under Weyland's (Ving Rhames) watch by new owner Niles York (Dougray Scott), who does not intend to honour the previous bargain. Instead, the racers are shipped off to a new desert race track in South Africa. Will Lucas live long enough to gain his freedom from the new tyrannic race-master?

I was a big fan of the first film with Jason Statham and very much enjoyed the direct-to-video prequel from 2010. I stated back then that while the script had some niggling continuity errors, the CAR-nage more than made up for it. Death Race 3: Inferno ramps up the CAR-nage (okay, okay…) with even bigger explosions and crashes than it's predecessor, and much more interesting and varied scenery. Setting the race in South African sand dunes and slum towns was a good idea, I thought, and sees the racers combat in far more unpredictable terrain than a track in a prison complex. Indeed some of the shots of the dunes, valleys and towns are quite attractive (There's certainly a lot of red sand around that place).

Where the film falls down is the characterisation - or complete lack of it. There is no growth of any of the (returning) characters: Danny Trejo's Goldberg, Fred Koehler's Lists, Taint Phoenix's Katrina and Carl "Luke" Lucas plod their way through the film not really bringing anything new or interesting to the table, outside a very small handful of light-hearted additions. Goldberg for instance has a very small fling with a nurse after being injured in the race. An attempt is made to introduce jealousy to the Katrina character but you really just don't care that much. We meet a handful of new characters, principally the new drivers (with names like Razor, Nero, Olga, Fury, etc), but none are that interesting - in fact the one called Psycho was really getting on my nerves by the end of it with his bad lines. Some of the more interesting exchanges involve the uncredited African locals, who get in on the race as well bringing their own cars and machine guns in to the mix, and there's even some minor humour when the race intrudes into the peoplehomes (literally).

Ving Rhames literally phones in his performance as Weyland (half of his scenes are on a car phone). He is really only here to hand over the reigns to new boss York, which is a shame. York himself is the guy you love to hate; the only one in the film you could have any emotional connection with, albeit a negative one. He double-crosses, violently outbursts at his staff - poor secretary Prudence (Roxane Hayward) cops the brunt of it - and holds a massive grudge again Lucas that will see him try to sabotage his own Death Race. Another returning character is competing driver 14K (Robin Shou) who literally spends his whole time yelling in a Chinese dialect to his co-driver and not much else (that lack of character development problem again).

There also seems to be far more shaky-cam in this one and far, FAR too much ultra-zoomed-in shots. When the cars are flying over sand dunes or crashing through shanty towns, the picture is great. When the camera focuses on the drivers we can see up their nose. And in the fight sequences we see a lot of elbows and feet as the camera jerks around. It's not the worst example of MTV-style film making I've seen (see the early/mid-2000's Seagal flicks for that) but it was off-putting.

So the race mayhem itself is still as good as ever, and the scenery is far more interesting than before, but the lack of empathy or even interest I had for the characters really brought this one down. There's no chatter between the drivers and co-drivers of any real purpose, and between matches in the pit nothing much goes on. I will say that the final third does bring some "Aaaaaaah!" moments that rectify this to a fairly substantial degree, but the writers and director could have spiced up the dialogue for the rest of the film. Recommended of course for the action, but I think I will find myself re-watching part two more than part three.

Highlight:

The vehicular mayhem is pretty epic, but the sixteen year old boy inside me couldn't get past the glorious opening girl-fight sequence. To pick the ten winning co-pilots, all the girls are thrown into a ring to fight to the death. Similar to the sequence in the previous Death Race prequel, the contestants in skimpy outfits that promote breast size unlock weapons and kill each other in over-the-top fashion until only ten combatants remain. I very much enjoyed the flame thrower. I also quite appreciated the brief, slow-mo shower sequence with Katrina, baring all her assets. Ahem. 

Sourced From:

The Australian blu-ray, presented in excellent quality 1.78:1 widescreen with a thundering DTS soundtrack.

Trailer:

Death Race 2 (2010)

Movie Review:

I'm usually against remakes, but sometimes the remake is better than the first film. Cronenberg's The Fly is far superior to the 50's film. The 1988 version of The Blob is scarier than Steve McQueen's. And the 2008 version of Death Race starring Jason Statham is, in my opinion, leagues ahead of the Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine Death Race 2000 from 1975. It was faster, more violent and just more fun overall - and closer to The Running Man than the original, which is a good thing in my book. So when a sequel - actually a prequel - for the remake was hitting the shores of direct-to-DVD, I was excited.

This prequel sets up the events that take place in the Statham film and establishes the Frankenstein mythology. Ving Rhames is the owner of Weyland Corporation (not related, presumably, to Weyland Industries from Alien), a corporation that among other things privately runs the prison systems. As they own the prison and the prisoners therein they can do whatever they like with them; Death Match is a televised fight-to-the-death between randomly selected prisoners. It begins unarmed but combatants can unlock weapons by triggering plates on the ground. This is all well and good, but ratings are starting to plummet. What can the producers do to spice things up?

Enter: Death Race! Nine cars, armed and armour plated driving a course around the prison facility. And just in time to join in the fun is Carl "Luke" Lucas (Luke Goss, Blood Out, Blade II), a convicted bank robber and cop killer. After doing the dirty work of crime lord Markus Kane (Sean Bean, Lord of the Rings trilogy), Lucas is sent to Weyland's penitentiary. It's not long before he's suckered in with hopes of freedom to race for Weyland's TV entertainment manager September Jones (played ruthlessly by TV actress Lauren Cohan). With the gorgeous Katrina (Taint Phoenix) as his co-driver, things hot up on and off the race track!

Grab your friends, get some beer and strap yourselves in because this is a fantastic ride. If you just want to be entertained by brutal fights, hot cheerleaders and plenty of CAR-nage, then this is the film for you. Director Roel Reiné (Marine 2, Steven Seagal's Pistol Whipped) gives the DTV-action fans and fans of the first film exactly what they want. Luke Goss is a good actor and certainly fills the Frankenstein mythology that would be continued by Statham - the two are even vaguely similar in appearance and build. He's a beefcake when it comes to fist-fighting and looks like he knows how to handle a car (and later on in the film, a woman too). 

Some of the characters and actors from the Statham film are in this film too; the somewhat savant Lists (Fred Koehler) in the role of the helper-monkey in Luke's pitt crew. Robin Shou returns as rival driver and Korean triad member, 14K. And new to this film is the ever-awesome Danny Trejo (Machete), who isn't used to the full extent he could be in the pitt crew but still provides a foreboding presence. All the other drivers have their interesting quirks; I especially loved the brief appearance of a driver called Hill Billy who, you guess it, is a big, fat cliched redneck hillbilly. Yee-haw!

With a budget of 7 million (pretty high in the DTV world), the special effects and size of the play field are very decent. Obvious CG is minimal, with plenty of realistic blood splatters and car mashing resulting in real explosions. There is a bit of MTV-style editing, but thankfully it's mostly slow-mo's and not much shaky-cam. The cameras do zoom in close to the drivers from time to time to save on exterior shots, but there's still plenty of outside driving (and crashing) to see. There's a few little niggling script continuity errors but.. WHO CARES, crash those cars! Recommended.

Highlight:

The CAR-nage (okay, I'll stop doing that now) is absolute throughout the film! THAT is the highlight - the film never bores!

Sourced From:

A sweet deal in a local release Blu-ray double-pack featuring the first film and this sequel.

Trailer:

Undisputed (2002)

Tagline:

At Sweetwater Prison, The World Heavyweight Champion is about to meet his match.

Movie Review:

Undisputed is not an action movie, it is a boxing movie. The cover on the DVD (different to the poster above) has a helicopter flying through an explosion and the tag line "A smart action movie". It also has a comparison quote "the butt-kicker that XXX should have been". Nothing could be further from the truth here except the 'smart movie' part. I was expecting a prison action movie with shivs in the bathroom, brawls in the mess hall (although there were the beginnings of a riot), prison snitches being hung from their cells by their linen, corrupt wardens and beatings from officers. There was none of that and it was so, so refreshing.

As soon as I saw Michael Rooker playing A. J. Merker, second-in-charge to the warden, I expected him to be aligned with one of the prison gangs, taking money on the side and sneaking in drugs. In reality the man doesn't lay a hand on anyone and only upholds the prison law respectfully. The fights themselves are in the grey-area of legality but the warden allows it and no-one is forced to fight in any kind of Battle Royale; so in that regard it is quite different from any prison action movie you will normally find on Explosive Action. The only explosive action here is fists against fists and ego against ego.

The basic plot is George 'Iceman' Chambers (Ving Rhames), the heavyweight champion of the world, has been convicted of rape and sentenced to 6-8 years in a prison reserved for the worst of the worst. He denies the charge but as his lawyer so bluntly puts it, there is a difference between justice and the law. He demands specialty treatment and to an extent it is rewarded to him but he does try to play it cool with the other prisoners. That is, until he hears about the inter-jail twice-yearly bouts and the reigning "champion" Monroe Hutchen (Wesley Snipes). He is the undisputed jail champion of 168 fights and Rhames is the undisputed champion of the world so of course there is tension. Snipes would happily go about his day and ignore the new arrival, however the gauntlet is thrown down by Rhames and the bear repeatedly poked until a match is set.

In the special features, Wesley Snipes says his character is "Reserved, Cerebral and Internal" which I think is very accurate and adds to the 'smart' tag used on the DVD cover. Snipes barely says any words throughout the movie and puts on a very strong performance as a man doing time for a crime he does not deny, keeping to himself and fighting only for his own respect. That's the key word to Undisputed - R.E.S.P.E.C.K, as ring announcer Marvin says. The movie also could have also descended into a crude display of thuggery - not that there is anything wrong with that, I enjoy an over-the-top beatings movie more than anyone - but instead it focussed on the mind and the preparation for one single fight, without resorting to montages (well, just one or two glimpses of the guys exercising). Snipes spends most of his time in solitary confinement for his own protection, building model Japanese buildings from match sticks and contemplating his past and his future.

The obvious comparison of Rocky is unavoidable; Snipes playing the Rocky Balboa character and Rhames playing a re-interpretation of Carl Weather's Apollo Creed. But really the only similarities are with the Iceman having a serious case of untouchable FIGJAM ("Fuck I'm good, just ask me") the same way Apollo Creed does and Snipes being portrayed as the 'people's hero' like Rocky is. The truth is both men have committed violent crimes (which Rhames disputes until the end) and are just trying to get by with what they've been handed. Snipes, it is revealed via flashbacks, killed a man by beating him to death in the course of protecting his girl. The only real flaw I found with the movie was that there was no resolution to Rhames' crime either way, aside from his early parole due to the agreements founded for the final bout. You never know if he actually raped that girl or if she was the gold digger that had been suggested. That, and Michael Rooker didn't have enough scenes.

Some of the other characters are worthy of mention; Mendy Ripstein is the partially senile mob equivalent of Rocky's Mickey Goldmill and is the organiser of the fights, having watched fights since the 50's, and commands a lot of respect in jail even from the warden. "Ratbag" is the manager of Snipes and get's winded by Rhame's in one of his show-off moments. Mingo is cellmates with Rhames and acts, quietly, as his eyes and ears. All serve their purpose admirably and do not take away from the main show of Snipes vs. Rhames.

It was an each way bet with me as to who would win in the end. Logically you think it would be Snipes as he is the bigger actor and has the title role, but Rhames' character Iceman does go on to be in the sequel (acted by Michael Jai White), which I haven't seen yet. Like Rocky before it, I was glued to the screen for the final bout to see how it would play out. A great movie and I really look forward to checking out the sequels. Highly recommended.

The Video:

Nice and sharp picture presented in scope, mainly dark and concentrating on the hues of a prison facility. Good clear sound that really drives home every bone-crunching punch to the chest. Runtime 94 minutes. Comes with two short interviews with the two stars that really separate actor from character; Ving Rhames is a very well spoken man.

Sourced From:

R1 Miramax DVD from eBay for a buck or two. Does not have an R4 release it seems (or it's out of print) which is strange as the two sequels do.

Trailer:

More Screens:

The Tournament (2009)



Tagline:

Every Seven Years The World's Greatest Assassins Gather... Only One Will Survive

Back of DVD:

Every seven years, thirty of the world's most deadly assassins face off against one another for an outrageous cash prize. There's only one rule: kill or die. As dozens of wealthy gamblers watch via closed-circuit TV, a city is overrun by brutal assassins - all aiming to be the last one standing. Starring Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible films), Kelly Hu (X2: X-Men United) and Robert Carlyle (Stargate: Universe), The Tournament is an explosive, action-loaded thriller where the winner takes all.

Movie Review:

This was another of those movies that I had not heard of until I saw it staring back at me on the shelf at my local DVD emporium. It had that look of direct-to-DVD action that I love to much, and recognisable names such as Robert Carlyle who I had been watching in Stargate: Universe and Ving Rhames who turns up everywhere, most notably in Pulp Fiction and the first Undisputed.

The premise for The Tournament is quite simple, and certainly not original, but who cares about that. Every seven years the worlds best assassins compete for a million dollar cash prize by trying to kill each other in an open tournament arena of a major city. We start at the end of the last Tournament in Brazil with Ving Rhames the last of three assassins squaring off in a meat locker. One is injured and on the ground, the other is a crazy guy shooting at them both with a machine gun. Rhames sick of being shot at gives the guy the slip, sneaks around the back and slides along a blood puddle right under the crazy guys nose and blows his head off with a shotgun in a gory display that, if this were a game of Quake, I would describe as a total gib fest (a recurring theme for this movie). He is much more civilised to the other bloke, giving him a last cigarette before shooting him in the head. Rhames is declared the winner.

Seven years later and The Tournament is on again. A girl gets off a train (tournament entrant Lai Lai Zhen, played by Kelly Hu) and, guided by an address on a business card, goes to a motel. When she arrives at her room she finds a bottle of red liquid marked only with "9pm" on it. Right on time she downs the red liquid then falls unconscious. If you entered a motel room and found a jar that said "drink me" would you actually do it? Or would you think "hmm, someone is trying to drug me" and pour it down the sink? Perhaps send it to the front desk and ask for police assistance? Strange, really. Lai Lai has visions during her sleep of doctors performing crude surgery on her and implanting a device. When she awakens there is a scar on her hip where something has been implanted. She pretty much deserved that in my opinion.

Robert Carlyle plays a drunk priest. He has pretty much one expression in the whole movie; "What the Christ (pun intended) is going on?" Seriously, it never changes. He's a down on his luck priest who gets kicked out of a bar and goes in search for food and coffee. At a cafe he gets a greasy breakfast down him and looks for coffee. An athletic Frenchman exits the bathroom having just performed crude surgery (there it is again) on himself to remove an implant. He flicks the device into the air and it lands in the coffee pot. You can see where this is going - Priest Carlyle gets his cup of coffee and ingests the device. Oh dear.

Elsewhere in a darkened room filled with gamblers and a large pile of cash on the table, Powers (Liam Cunningham), the host of The Tournament is taking his patrons through the contestant list. There are 30 contestants, and they have 24 hours.. "to kill.. OR DIE". Only one man or woman will survive and be declared the victor. The cliched gamblers (fat oil tycoon Texan, wealthy German businessman, etc.) proceed to place their bets, and the even more cliched geeky IT guys take control of the city's CCT system using a glorious Hollywood OS. Their screens blip with excitement as the first confirmed confrontation is underway. In her hotel, Lai Lai Zhen gets attacked by a guy pretending to be the porter. The fights in The Tournament are consistently brutal and that's the best part about it. They aren't quite Ninja Assassin over-the-top, but the gore factor is pretty high. Lai Lai kicks the guys arse and cuts his fingers off with piano wire, then shoots him in the forehead. Awesome.

The Frenchman, Anton, is now able to move freely without being tracked (those implants were trackers). Anton (Sebastien Foucan) moves like another Frenchman I know, Leito (David Belle) from Luc Besson actioner Banlieue 13. Check that clip out if you haven't seen that movie, it's fantastic. He follows the same 'free running' technique as he bolts along the roof tops of the London scenery. All the entrants have their own tracker displays so they can see where the other combatants are, and one combatant, a female sniper, as she is about to take shot at what seems to be the now trackable Priest Robert Carlyle gets her neck snapped by Anton. The shot goes off and hits another combatant anyway, so that's good. The Priest takes shelter in a nearby church and, with that expression on his face that I talked about earlier, prays for a miracle.

At this very point Lai Lai smashes in to take out her next hit when she discovers that it's the priest and he is not defending himself. He begs to live and at that moment I'm very happy to say Scott Adkins makes a short appearance as another assassin. He even has his Undisputed II & III beard! He has some amazing fast kicks and at one point tries to drown Lai Lai in the holy water, but after a distraction from the Priest, Lai Lai breaks free, drops a grenade down Adkins pants and blows him to smithereens. I really love the gore in this, haha!

Basically we have a combination of Battle Royale and Ninja Assassin - contestants killing each other off whilst Lai Lai protects the unwilling participant, Priest Robert Carlyle (Father MacAvoy if you're interested), from getting killed - with a dash of The Running Man's "evil corporation" vibe. Most of the players in The Tournament are here for the money, but there is one who is here because he just likes killing - the American entrant Miles Slade (Ian Somerhalder) who is a serial nut job that kills his dog for fun and cuts his victims fingers off with a cigar cutter. Ving Rhames is in this years contest again and he finds out from another contestant that Miles was responsible for killing his wife; so we get a good revenge subplot there too.

There is a lot to love about The Tournament. It's fast and fun, with great violence and black humour, mostly coming from the deaths of the combatants. I don't want to give any of them away but I will reveal that one of the other roles the tracking implants plays is that of a detonator. If there is no winner by the end of the 24 hours - or if the host of the show simply deems it - the devices explode like intestinators. Look out for the scene in the petrol station, it's hilarious.

Some modern action movies don't deliver, but when they are forced to go DTV, they just seem to. That's the case here again. Denied a US cinema release (though it did get a small run in the UK where it was filmed), The Tournament is a great action movie with car chases, tanker truck explosions, nightclub strippers, guns akimbo and much more, despite its recycled plot and comedy relief Priest. Well and truly worth your time.

The Video:

As you would expect, the presentation here is excellent. The modern look of the movie comes across well on my R4 16:9 enhanced DVD, and the 5.1 soundtrack does justice to the millions of gunshots and explosions (well, almost millions).

Sourced From:

eBay for $10.

Trailer: