Death Race 2000

[Andrew]

David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone are the top drivers in a futuristic cross-country car race.  Their goal: run over the most pedestrians before reaching the finish line.

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[Joe80]

This movie rules!  I think it is one of the GREATEST movies ever made in the history of films!  Extremely hilarious,  this one has me on the floor laughing every time!  And it's something you can watch over and over!!!

[Chris Schneider]

     THE 70's! THE 70's!! I want that decade back so badly; great music like P-Funk and great movies that inspired so much hope and promises for the future, such as Roller Ball, A Boy and His Dog and Death Race 2000. It seems that modern life is just as crappy as they predicted in those movies, except we don't have moon bases or monorails leading to major shopping malls.

[http://tuff5.8m.com]

I got this movie as a birthday present on DVD.  How about a nice moment of appreciation for a movie which mixes together poor dialogue, abused talent, vehicular homicide, obviously incorrect "futuristic" settings, and a crappy budget.  If you have seen this on TV or rented the video, you MUST see the DVD somehow.  The Leonard Maltin/Roger Corman interview is almost too hillarious to believe.  Also the "action-drama" classification is very interesting.  Good drama always shines through even the most astounding action scenes.  What a great use of 78 minutes of expensive film.  Roger Corman is brilliant.

[Dr. outtime]

Yo, all Carmageddon fans out there, if you want to see a movie at least close to carmageddon then this is the film. I think that original eagle´s (first car in Carmageddon)design was inspired a bit from frankenstein´s car. Sylvester Stallone was pretty good in this film. I laughed a lot when Machinegun joe crushed that fisher and that hilarius sound effect came (heheh).

[MessiahMan]

This film  is a guilty pleasure of mine.  Truthfully, I still laugh as hard as the first time I watch it each time I put it in...it's that good.  3 slimes is a modest rating, in my opinion, but four just seems to be a bit too much.  Anyway, it's earned it's niche in my movie collection.  Money well spent.

[David]

Death Race 2000 is one of the best moves ever. Simply because it is a perfect combination of a mystery, action, comedy, porn flick, and drama. Mostly comedy because it is so freaking dumb. I like it.

[little timmy]

amazing. I truly never thought I'd hear Slyvester stallone call a woman a "baked potato" as an insult. wow. david carradine and all his replaced parts just truly blew me away. holy frankenstein. also a bonus: old people are worth 100 pts. i always joked about that rumored tidbit of info, but now I know it to be true.

PS: rawhead rex would be another movie I recommend.

[Mark Sheffield]

Ah, Death Race 2000! A great movie. I first saw this movie when I got my first movie network up and running on my cable (Showtime to be exact) way back in the summer of 1981 and when I was in my teens. I saw DR2000 late night one night and on the advice of my friends who told me I HAD to see it. It was cool then and its even cooler now especially watching it IN the year 2000!!! The version out now on video is digitally remastered (is it just me or was there a scene shown that when that jackhammer dude gets splattered by Stallone they showed briefly blood dripping off the jackhammer? Maybe it was an extra scene they just slapped on the cable version but its not on the version out now. Damn, it looked cool!) and a great job it is too. By all means see DR2000 and see it now! Yeah its cheap and stuff but thats whats makes it FUN! And those women look great without their clothes on. And oh by the way the best line is not Sly's "baked potatoe" insult but his characters introduction - "Here he is ladies and gentlemen Machine Gun Joe Viterbo. Loved by thousands hated by millions!"
Whoa!  

[Andrew K]

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.

[FLOORMAN]

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!  

[Melissa Martin]

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.

[Bruce]

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'!

[Mad Hatter]

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.

[Zebulon McCranahan]

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