Death race 2050

[Svengoolie 3]

Pardon me if i'm a little off here folks. I just watch "death race 2050" so I hope you understand.


A long time ago in a different  world, Roger Corman produced a fun,  witty piece of social satire and prophecy called simply "death race".

The original had genuine satire,  comedy,  parody and hidden warnings about America's
possible future in it. It also had,  by today's standards,  a certain innocent charm.  

Death race 2050 has left any hint of subtlety and satire choking on  it's dust.  It's all loud parody. Grotesque parody. Ham fisted parody. Parody as skillful and artistic as a tyrannosaurus using a sledgehammer.


DR2050 really has little of the  charm the original did, even the killer cars are really just ugly lumps of angular junk that look like they we're made by someone with little experience  on a 3D modeling program. But they are real,  not CGI.

The original cars wall had a certain personality to them, and were  in general cooler than their modern reincarnastions.

Most of the death racers are annoying and offensive, much like many modern celebrities. Jett Perfectus, a genetically engineered "perfect man"(rotflmao) , is a pitiful hot mess as a villain, with none of Sylvester stallone's quiet menace and believable rage from the original.

An evangelical woman preacher - religious terrorist provides some comedy relief. A black woman rapper gangsta provides some 'diversity' in the form of a grotesque stereotype until she reveals a human side later in the movie.

Perhaps the only touch of subtlety in the movie came when an artificially intelligent robot car was made a death  racer. The subtle wit and humor is provided by the fact the machine car serves as an obvious deus ex machina, get it?

Malcolm McDowell plays a heavy over the top villain as the chairman of the united corporations of america. Frankly if you  want to see Malcolm McDowell as a clearly over the top villain I suggest you  try "tank girl" in which he delivers a far better performance in a far better movie playing a far better character. Also in tank girl McDowell clearly enjoyed his role as the ludicrous villain, here all we can do is watch him suffer his way to what was probably an inadequate paycheck for subjecting himself to this drek.

All in all DR 2050 is  a very forgettable over the top remake of a far better old movie.  It's loud, obnoxious, crude, ridiculous, unsubtle and vulgar when compared to it's ancestor.

The sad thing is is might actually be a perfect movie for a country that let a thing like Donald trump ooze,  slither and undulate  its  way into its  capitol. McDowell's character is a pretty obvious parody of the ochre tumor.

I don't  drink,  but  i'll be damned yet again if watching this movie almost makes me wish I did.

Still,  until the memory of this movie fades away,  it might be just a little harder for me to walk past  those little colored bottles of vodka at the grocery store's checkout lanes...

[FatFreddysCat]

I saw it when it first hit Netflix a year or two ago. It's a pale imitation of the original, to be sure, but I thought it was dumb fun.

[Svengoolie 3]

I saw it when it first hit Netflix a year or two ago. It's a pale imitation of the original, to be sure, but I thought it was dumb fun.

Yeah, some very dumb laffs. The "kill stealing"scenes were  funny. And of course i liked  the fact Frankenstein had a softspot.

If I had to pick an entertaining it character it'd be the preacher-terrorist,  as  was described  in the movie ,  Tammy. She was kinda funny when she got her followers to lay down for her to run over by promising them fried chicken in heaven.

Hey, I like fried chicken a lot too.

The rapper gangster was funny in A very politically incorrect way.

The main villain just made me groan and want him to go away tho....

[pennywise37]

i bought it actually on blu-ray when it came out cause i was shocked when Wallmart of all places were selling it don't anymore but when it first came out they did. and it's a family store! go figure ya know?  anyways i've tried to watch this once and when i did i was dead sick and i didn't have the patience for a movie this bad.

i haven't been back  to it since  to be honest, Corman has done a LOT of really awful films to say the least, i honestly don't know which one i'd say is the worst ti sleep with a vampire is pretty bad for example. another one he's not credited is the (1971) garbage The Velvet Vampire oh man was that thing awful and boring nothing happens in it unlike the last 10 or 15 minutes or so the rest is dull city but by than you really don't care who lives or dies. i know i sure as hell didn't,

anyways it's  a shame because while the Original is no masterpiece and has plenty of faults let's face it, it's got it's own charm to it and i have seen it a number of times in fact my dvd of it is a cheap brand and the transfer is really bad.   i need that sucker on blu-ray! anyways i actually enjoyed the remake and i have that on blu-ray as well i have even watched it a few times cause i enjoy it and it's a lot of fun though i haven't seen any of those sequels to be fair

[Svengoolie 3]

i bought it actually on blu-ray when it came out cause i was shocked when Wallmart of all places were selling it don't anymore but when it first came out they did. and it's a family store! go figure ya know?  anyways i've tried to watch this once and when i did i was dead sick and i didn't have the patience for a movie this bad.

i haven't been back  to it since  to be honest, Corman has done a LOT of really awful films to say the least, i honestly don't know which one i'd say is the worst ti sleep with a vampire is pretty bad for example. another one he's not credited is the (1971) garbage The Velvet Vampire oh man was that thing awful and boring nothing happens in it unlike the last 10 or 15 minutes or so the rest is dull city but by than you really don't care who lives or dies. i know i sure as hell didn't,

anyways it's  a shame because while the Original is no masterpiece and has plenty of faults let's face it, it's got it's own charm to it and i have seen it a number of times in fact my dvd of it is a cheap brand and the transfer is really bad.   i need that sucker on blu-ray! anyways i actually enjoyed the remake and i have that on blu-ray as well i have even watched it a few times cause i enjoy it and it's a lot of fun though i haven't seen any of those sequels to be fair

To be fair you haven't  missed much. Deathsport 3000 was a huge WTF?!?!  The rest we're just meh.


Yoiu might want to start a thread on roger corman movies,  best and worse.

[pennywise37]

where would i post that in this area?

[Alex]

I would think the best place for it would be in the same area as this post. http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/board,2.0.html. Just click New Topic and away you go. Or depending on your views on Cormon you could put it in the Good Movies section.

[RCMerchant]

I actually enjoyed it. Yer right, it doesn't have David Carradine or the life size Hot Wheels, but it was fun and funny!