Death Race (15)

IN the tender period romance Death Race, dashing Gerald must rescue his true love Angelique before she elopes with the dastardly Comte De Toulouse.

Nah, just joshing. It's Jason Statham driving around in a massive armoured car and shooting people, innit.

Set in 2012 after the total collapse of the US economy (what took it so long?) Death Race is an update of the classic 70s B-movie Death Race 2000, in which convicts slaughter each other in televised road races.

Jason Statham plays Jensen Ames, a man given life after being framed for the murder of his wife. Why? Who gives a monkey's? The important thing is, five minutes later he's behind the dashboard of a cast iron killmobile, machine-gunning other jailbirds at 100 miles an hour.

Win the Death Race five times, and he gets his freedom. Chief attraction of Death Race is the stunts providing some of the finest moments of cinematic carnage of the year. But to call this a mere stunt movie is to undersell it. The film looks fantastic. It's paced to perfection.

The supporting cast, including Ian McShane as Statham's coach, are on fine form. Filling the eye candy slot is Natalie Martinez, who plays Statham's co-driver Cage. The authorities fly in some navigators from an all-female prison, y'see. And strangely, not a single one turns out to be a lantern-jawed Bad Girls moose.

Statham himself? Superb. And by heck, this bloke is hard. He delivers cruel beatings with an exhaust pipe and even walks through a working steel mill without wearing the requisite safety equipment. Yeah! Take that, health and safety!

Clearly, this is not a film for everyone. But I absolutely loved it-for its mindless violence and brazen stupidity. If you're even slightly tempted to go and see a film with the title Death Race, this will not disappoint, amigos.

OUT FRIDAY

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