As a futuristic political satire, this much better than Stallone's Demolition Man or Paul Verhoeven's desecration of Starship Troopers. For some reason, Roger Ebert gave the film zero stars, and his scathing review is in his new book I Hated Hated HATED This Movie. I'm not sure, but I think in one shot, Stallone runs over Bill Paxton's head. This isn't as far-fetched as it sounds; Paxton was a set designer at New World at the time, who was trying to break into acting.

I saw the move at the drive in when it came out. I have a warm spot in my heart for this move because I got "LUCKY" with my girlfrend for the first time that night!  

All of the otherwise mentioned reasons that Death Race 2000 is, quite simply, the best movie of all time, are perfectly correct.

HOWEVER, what I love the most is how all of a sudden, in the last ten minutes of the film, there appears a whole sociopolitical subtext that is essentially NEVER alluded to in the rest of the movie (unless you count the two messages from Mr. President, I suppose)... "Only the winner gets to shake hands with MR. PRESIDENT." And when Frankenstein becomes President, and suddenly all these issues pop up that you would never have known about (moving center of government to New L.A., etc.)

 BRILLIANT. If they had actually employed the sociopolitical-assasination thread through the entire movie, it wouldn't have been such a stroke of genius as to have it just show up like that.

 "Scoring isn't killing, Mr. Frankenstein, it's part of the Race. You're a national hero, Mr. Frankenstein..."

Melissa.

Death Race 2000!!!!! What a great goofy film!!! It has to be remade; it is screaming to be remade!--like 'Death Race 3000' starring Tom Cruise as Frankenstein or something!!!  They knew it would be a low-budget loser when they made it, so they ran with it and had a lot of fun, and that certainly shines through!  Movies aren't fun anymore---they are so over-made. And Let's bring back the Drive-In too!!! Long Live 'Death Race 2000'!

CyberPheonix, actually what you call a plothole is not one there is a scene where Frankenstein explain there is a new Frankenstein every year, so THis one has never had the chance to assainate Mr. President. It is a personal vendetta.

Also, it is funny that in the "Feel Good" end of the movie where supposedly everything is supposed to turn out peachy there are a few subtle indications that the new goverment is also going to be corrupt.

If you are a buff of this movie, as I am, Coreman also came out with a comic book sequel, which has a few good gags, but has the subtle nature of a Moose at a cat show.

I attempted to write a sequel as fanfic, but felt it was more trouble than it was worth.  It invovled that David Carridene's character was a French imposter of the real Frankenstein, who had studied him so closely as to lose sight of the mission. The Real Frankenstein deposes him and reinstates the race. It is left amiguous wether or not this is the truth or propoganda of the reinstalled Mr. President regime.

Is David Caradine the greatest actor of all time?  The answer is yes.  From Death Race 2000 to Sonny Boy with Kung Fu the Legend Continues and Death Sport in between, Caradine has shown time and again that he can suck enough to be funny but not too much as to be unbearable.  Everything this guy touches is drunken gold so check out his entire lifes work

Simply put, the greatest drinking movie of all time.

I wouldn't call this classic, I wouldn't call it a great film, but it's definitely worth seeing at least once.

It's clearly a satire (Paul Bartel was an excellent choice as director, his black humor pervades the scenes with characters; he also has an uncredited cameo as Frankenstein's doctor) on the excesses of American Media from the 70's on.   In 1975 it was over the top; by now, 2001, the sort of media nonsense depicted in the movie is so routine that many don't get the jokes.  It seems normal.

Stallone nearly steals the film; this was made just prior to his breakout in "Rocky", and he is great as Machinegun Joe Viturbo.  This thing even has Fred "Gopher" Grandy as Matilda the Hun's navigator.

Watch for the explanation of the scoring system...it's hilarious with graphics for each category of targets...like something that CNN on Faux News would run to explain who was winning during the bombing of Afghanistan, and delivered with exactly the same straight face.

There's also plenty of 70's style gratuitous nudity in this film, something that you just don't see anymore...it reflects, in many ways, a more innocent and less cynical time.

I wish the DVD had running commentary by Bartel or Corman; the interview of Corman by Maltin is pretty lightweight and doesn't get nearly as detailed as I'd like, although the discussion of low-budget vs. high-budget films is very interesting and provides some insight into Corman's moviemaking approach.  Unfortunately, this film wouldn't stand a chance of being a hit nowadays due to distribution politics.  We are poorer for that.