As our economy tanks, our reliance on foreign oil exasperates our balance of trade deficit, the government runs vast budget deficits that stagger the mind, and we all suffer from the fallout of unregulated greed and corruption, it was a bit chilling to read the opening text exposition that sets up this film. The economy collapses by 2012. As unemployment soars, so does violent crime. The government can no longer afford to imprison all the violent offenders, so private enterprise takes over.

To help turn a profit, Warden Hennessey (Joan Allen) of Terminal Prison devises the Death Race. Prisoners compete in a lethal race of three heats. The winner of five races is given his freedom. The cars are designed, built, and maintained by fellow prisoners. And since killing your opponents is one of the races’ goals, the cars are heavily armored and equipped with an array of offensive and defensive systems, some borrowed from Bond’s DB5: chain guns, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades, napalm, smoke, oil slicks… To add even more spice, sexy inmates from a women’s prison are bused in to act as navigators and weapons operators. And the events are sent out as expensive pay-per-view entertainment to the restless millions as a diversion, similar to the gladiatorial game in ancient Rome keeping its citizens distracted from imperial corruption.

The film centers around a recently laid off steelworker named Jenson Aimes (Jason Statham). He returns home with his last pay packet, not quite sure how he and his family will survive. Not all will. A man cloaked in a black hood breaks into their modest apartment. When he leaves, Aimes’ loving wife is dead on the floor, bled out from knife wound. His baby daughter cries in her crib. He is unconscious, left with a bloody kitchen knife in his hand. He’s arrested, tried and convicted of wife's murder, and is sentenced to Terminal Prison, where the worst of the worst are housed.

It’s soon revealed that Aimes had been a stockcar driver earlier in his life, and apparently, a damn good one at that. He’s recruited by Warden Hennessey to take over the role of a driver who had scored four wins before he perished in a fiery crash, a secret withheld from his fans. His driving name was Frankenstein, he wore a mask to conceal his true identity, and he was the most popular driver on the circuit. And since Hennessey’s interested in selling PPV screenings, she needs to bring the driver back. A dangled pardon for winning one race and the prospect of being reunited with his daughter are enough to convince Aimes to drive.

It’s at this point that the film’s onscreen action begins to resemble a video game, full of outlandish characters and over-the-top, outrageous road rage. The race circuit winds through the prison grounds, a vast complex of ex-warehouses and ex-factories isolated from the rest of society on an island connected to the mainland by a mile long causeway. The track is equipped with all kinds of electronic mechanisms that arm and disarm the racers’ weapons systems; driving over large circular pressure switches activates different systems, a very videogame-like concept.

Frankenstein's arch-enemy is Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson), a three-time winner whose desperation to get out of prison drives his ruthlessness. There are other colorful drivers who will, for the most part, simply act as the race’s cannon fodder. Aimes’ chief mechanic is Coach (Ian McShane); he’s not only is a pinnacle of mechanical expertise and strategy, he’s also a voice of calm reason and wisdom.

If the film were merely about a lethal race punctuated by colorful and bloody deaths enhanced with clever CGI, it would simply be an action diversion with no substance whatsoever. But the presence of notable performers like Joan Allen and Ian McShane add gravitas to the proceedings. And the amoral subplot adds a much needed emotional foundation that helps the viewer become more involved.

Joan Allen looks great in her designer suits, impeccable makeup, and perfectly quaffed hair. It’s a wonderful counterpoint to her cold and calculating evil. Ian McShane is a world-weary soul who stays behind bars because he simply can’t face society outside the prison gates. And Statham, always the very physical actor, is incredibly lean (6% body fat according to one of the supplements) and pumped up for the role; he seethes appropriately throughout. Newcomer Natalie Martinez plays Aimes’s navigator, Elizabeth Case; she’s very appealing.

Paul W.S. Anderson wrote and directed the film, very loosely inspired by Roger Corman’s Death Race 2000 (Corman is one of the producers of this epic). Anderson does a splendid job of staging the races, destroying the cars and their occupants in clever and sometimes unexpected ways, until the last two drivers (come on, you know who they are) face off in the final heat. Anderson’s vision of a possible future is both cynical and dystopian.

This is pure, mindless destruction that takes equal inspiration from videogames and a 1975 exploitation film. No thinking is required. Leave your brain at the door or bring it along; it makes little difference. Consider this a guilty pleasure.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in a great looking high definition transfer compressed with the AVC video CODEC. This is an impressive transfer that has outstanding finely grained textures and small object detail. The blond fuzz on Joan Allen’s face is easily discerned. The director plays with the palette, sometimes subduing chroma to impart a bleak look, other times evoking a more natural look with convincing flesh tones. All the fiery explosions are vivid with reds, oranges, and yellows. Video dynamic range is also excellent, but varies based on the director’s intent. Shadow detail remains strong in some sequences, but is suppressed by black crush in others. There is never any white crush. I saw no digital artifacts or edge halos. The transfer print is pristine.

The DVD shares many of the characteristics of the BD, but obviously has a much softer appearance (even with skillful scan conversion to 1080p by my Sony BDP-S550 BD player). The DVD is also contaminated with very noticeable halos of a full cycle.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The lossless DTS- HD Master 5.1 track is also outstanding. Deep bass can be felt as well as heard. Gunfire and explosions have a visceral impact. Sound effects are great, with exceptional dynamic range and impressive timbre. The surround channels are extremely active, completely immersing the viewer in the onscreen action. Expect pans and discrete sounds, and enable EX dematrixing for the best presentation. Voices are very natural, and Jason Stratham’s voiceover has a very fine in-the- room presence, very unlike his upper-bass heavy voiceover recording in Guy Ritchie’s Revolver. I really disliked the intrusion of rock and rap, in particular, as musical elements in the score; they were loud, grating, and simply annoying.

The alternate tracks on the BD are French and Spanish, both in DTS 5.1.

The tracks on the DVD are in the same languages, but are all in Dolby Digital 5.1. The main track shares all the characteristics of the DTS-HD Master track on the BD, but has noticeably less bottom end impact, less transparency, and sounds a bit messy.

On both disc formats, the optional subtitles are in English SDH, English, and French.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The BD’s U-Control offers two different types of content. Tech Specs is an interactive, graphical user interface menu system that allows the viewer to access various types of data, factoids, and trivia. PiP is an excellent collection of vignettes that gives cast and crew the chance to reveal lots of background information. Of particular interest to me were the sequences that described and illustrated the construction of the lethal race cars. Virtually every aspect of the shoot is covered.

Also on the BD is My Scenes, the usual scene bookmark feature.

Create Your Own Race is a BD-exclusive applet that allows the viewer to select from one of seven views of a race. You can select the view and record a sequence, essentially editing the race together. This may then be shared via the Web with “your buddies.”

Star Your Engines: Making a Death Race featurette (19:44, 1.78:1, HD) is a blend of EPK-level shallowness and interesting, revealing footage of how some of the impressive sequences were filmed. Director Paul W.S. Anderson and Jason Statham dominate, but we hear from other performers as well. This is also available on the DVD, but in standard definition anamorphic video.

Much shorter is the Behind the Wheel: Dissecting the Stunts featurette (7:51, 1.78:1, HD), which emphasizes the filmmakers’ desire to make it real and avoid CGI whenever possible. Statham is described as being very enthusiastic about doing as much driving as possible. Car construction, pyrotechnics, stunt choreography, fire work, and crashes are described and demonstrated. This is also available on the DVD, but in standard definition anamorphic video.

The Blu-ray Disc is a BD- Live disc. Connecting to the Universal site failed. Included with the BD release is a Digital Copy DVD.

You’ll find a feature-length commentary by director, writer, and co-producer Paul W.S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt on both formats. They discuss the origins of the film, emphasize practical filmmaking and the resulting difficulties, casting, inspirations, artistic decision, location shooting and settings, the minimal CGI, anecdotes from the set… I was very grateful that so little time was spent on plot developments and character motivations.

And the BD provides a D-Box Motion Code track to stimulate your sphincter.

The 111-minute film is organized into twenty chapters.

Final Thoughts

This is a no-apologies, violent, action-packed prison flick with a dystopian twist. The underlying emotional subplot adds an involving foundation that makes the viewer empathetic for the protagonist. The BD’s presentation is impressive and the supplements are a cut above. The soft DVD is hard to watch after seeing and hearing the density and detail of the BD’s presentation. Are you in the mood for some impressive death and destruction? This may be the film for you.