Death Race 2000 (1975)

Director: Paul Bartel

Starring: David Carradine, Simone Griffeth, Sylvester Stallone, Mary Woronov, Louisa Moritz, Fred Grandy

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: In The Year 2000 Hit And Run Driving Is No Longer A Felony. It's The National Sport!

Plot: In the near future the ultimate sporting event is the death race. Contestants get score points for running people down as they speed across the country. The sport has crazed fans who sacrifice themselves to the drivers. An overt agency is trying to bring an end to the immoral death race and has infiltrated one of their followers in to the race as a navigator. In the end of the race the lives of the competitors, the President and the death race itself are in peril.



My Rating: 9/10

Would I watch it again? Damn straight!


DEATH RACE 2000 is yet another film that solidifies my belief that the 70s was the greatest decade for movies. Film makers tried to top each other in bringing audiences something outrageous, something fun and something you hadn't seen before. This is one of the all-time great drive-in movie classics. If you haven't seen it yet then take your head out of the fucking sand and do something about it. It's balls-out spectacularliciuos!

"Darth Vader, a personal friend of mine..."

Just another pretty face!

"Wanna dance?"

The whole thing is tongue-in-cheek and just about everyone plays it straight. Carradine is hysterical as the seriously wooden Frankenstein. Everyone else is perfectly cast and has their moment in the sun. But it's Stallone that steals the show as the hot-headed Machine Gun Joe Viterbo. Everything that comes out of this man's mouth is a riot.


Junior: Joe doesn't look too happy, but you just can't keep those Frankenstein fans down.
Joe: Lousy sons of bitches! Frankenstein...
Myra: Give it to 'em, Joe!
[She hands Joe a Thompson sub machine gun]
Joe: Frankenstein! You want Frankenstein? I'll give you Frankenstein!
[Joe opens fire into the stands]

and...


Special agent: You know, Mr. ViTurbo, as a representative of Mr. President's government, I happen to hold the power of life and death.
Joe: Yeah? Well I happen to hold the clam sauce.
[Slings a handful of clam sauce into the Special Agent's face]

and...

"Lousy, stinkin' dirtball! You got just two seconds to live!"

And the women! WOW!!! Every last one of them is smokin' hot!

HOW does she do that? Is she broken?

The HOTTEST of the hotties...


Well, they're hot except for this one:


That's one broad that CANNOT have my babies! YIKES!!! It's like Jack Palance with boobs. Ugh!

"Is that a grenade?"

"A hand grenade."

This movie's priceless. The only thing that keeps this from getting a perfect "10" in my book is the somewhat sluggish final act that suffers from pacing issues and a lack of the lightning fast dialogue and action that we saw for the first 3/4 of the film. Other than that it's a friggin' blast to watch and it never gets old. It's the perfect drive-in movie or my name ain't Nathan Arizona!