Posted: 01/17/2011

Death Race 2 (2010)

by Jessica Machen

Death Race 2. Sounds like it should be a sequel, but instead, it’s a prequel. If you were a fan of the first Death Race (2008) starring Jason Statham, this would be a good addition to your collection. The prequel has the action. It has the cars. It has the girls. It has the violence. It does not have a good plot line, however.

Death Race 2, starring Luke Goss as Carl Lucas, appears to exist for the sole purpose of explaining how death race started and where the infamous inmate/driver Frankenstein came from. The film does attempt to get an actual story line going in the beginning with a bank robbery gone wrong, putting Lucas behind bars, but it doesn’t go much further than that. As soon as this happens, his boss, played by Sean Bean, becomes enraged and offers money in exchange for Lucas’s life.

Compared to Death Race (2008), Death Race 2 just seems too jammed up with details to make more sense out of the original. There’s no exceptional amount of motivation to make Goss’s character a strong leading role. In Death Race (2008), Statham’s character was fighting to get revenge for his wife’s death, to get out of prison on wrongful charges and to regain parental control of his daughter. In Death Race 2, Goss’s character is rightfully charged and put in prison and merely goes on with life as usual. Carl Lucas needed more motivation coming from outside sources or the powers within the prison to pull the story together.

The DVD and Blu-ray combo pack bonus extras include a commentary with director Roel Reine, a look at the cars of Death Race 2, deleted scenes, a behind the scenes look at the stunts and more. So if you like fast cars and violence and enjoyed Death Race (2008), you can get Death Race 2 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment on January 18, 2011.

Jessica Machen is a writer and filmmaker currently living in Chicago.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com