But while I'm at it, I might as well simply make some comments on all three films - yes, thats right. The title was correct - they have made Death Race 1, 2, and 3. Or maybe more correctly, they made the first, which I believe was a remake of an earlier cult film, then made the second one twice.
The first one was interesting, and to my way of thinking, the best of the three. Instead of a continuous barrage of blood, gore, and explosions like the latest two, there was an actual real story, and applicable characters that appeared in the first movie. "Frankenstein's" origins were never precisely explained, other than that there was always a Frankenstein, and eventually, that Jason Statham had been framed to replace him.
The second was more of a blood bath, but followed the lines of the first closer than the third managed (or even tried) to. Both brought in enough plot holes and miscellaneous characters that you could make swiss cheese out of the film, and both went well beyond the pale of "suspension of disbelief", turning a wild series of coincidences and contrived actions into something like a plot.
The third... I really dont know what they were thinking. At the same time, the only things I could think about this movie were simultaneously "Why would they do this?" and "Why the hell not?". I will admit that it actually appeared to have surprisingly good production values for a released to DVD/ Netflix film, however - it did not run into the problem that you generally see where their effects look either as though they were done by a toddler with editing software, or as though someone was cheesily faking the effects, and making a flying saucer out of a pie pan.
They took even more wild coincidences, plot holes, random characters, and used them, but then added clones of characters that were killed off in the first two movies, and called it a day. To top that off, unless I'm very much mistaken, they changed actors for the two main characters between the second and third movies. Now I could be wrong, or it could be tricks of light and makeup... but "Frankenstein", aka Carl Lukas, and his navigator Katrina hardly looked the same as in the second film in the third. I did find it interesting that they created the second movie almost entirely to give the back story of the "Frankenstein Racer", but one movie was frankly enough. Two prequel sequels was going a bit overboard.
All in all, I like the series, and the third film was reasonably amusing, but it wasnt that good. A contrived plot added to plot holes large enough to drive some of the death race cars through, like switching shots showing which driver was driving each car, made it something of a trial to simply watch. Great fodder for riffing, though. Watch it with a group.
