Frankenstein has just been attacked by the French Air Force and he's whipped their derrieres!

Death Race 2000

Frankenstein in his scary car...

Grumpy Machine Gun Joe Viterbo

There's no real reason for this post beyond* educating people before they see Death Race** but it's an amazing movie, just a sampling of the best lines :


Harold: As the cars roar into Pennsylvania, the cradle of liberty, it seems apparent that our citizens are staying off the streets, which may make scoring particularly difficult, even with this year's rule changes. To recap those revisions: women are still worth 10 points more than men in all age brackets, but teenagers now rack up 40 points, and toddlers under 12 now rate a big 70 points. The big score: anyone, any sex, over 75 years old has been upped to 100 points.


Junior: Frankenstein! Frankenstein the legend, Frankenstein the indestructible! Sole survivor of the titanic pile-up of '95, only two-time winner of the Transcontinental Road Race... Frankenstein! Ripped up, wiped out, battered, shattered, creamed, and reamed... a dancer on the brink of death... Frankenstein, who lost a leg in '98, an arm in '99! With half a face and half a chest, and all the guts in the world, he's back!
Junior: Here he comes: Machine Gun Joe! Loved by thousands, hated by millions!

Anyway if you haven't seen it, check it out, I got a copy for like 3 pounds in Fopp with some good trailers of things like Grand Theft Auto (with Ron Howard) on it. I suppose it's a generational thing but when I ws growing up there were so many over the top car racing/crash/stunt things that seemed to converge, the likes of The Wacky Races, The Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II, Smokey and the Bandit. Check out the trailer for Cannonball Run II, such a nexus of old stars and cult heroes from Frank Sinatra to Jackie Chan to Richard Kiel, and an Orang Utang, it was the 198os you had to have a primate of some sort to slap people and make fart noises, it was our was back then.

But I digress, Death Race 2000 predates Cannoball Run with a filmic representation of a race from coast to coast and it's idea of points for running people over can be seen in Carmageddon and Grand Theft Auto . Director Paul Bartel was an underrated satirist of cult madness like Private Parts, Eating Raoul and Not For Publication.

There's an ongoing joke that the French are soon evil nation in the film where a right wing US government have to villianise nations to maintain a constant state of fear and war (those wacky sci-fi guys, when would that ever happen...) here's some great clips:

and if you must the new movie trailer below. I liked the gender play in Death Race 2000 with strong women with male navigators (Herman the German) but I doubt that's in the new film, also they way (similar to the Rollerball remake) where they have reduce the scope, location and overall outrageousness of the sport invoved.Whatever, I'll still go and see it but am sad that satire goes out the window in favour of po-faced action:


*Like there's any reason to any of these posts.

**Like there's any reason people will see Death Race