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Death Race 2008 Actually, I'm really surprised it didn't do better. Just as Coach says in the film, it has everything, the unholy trinity of Girls, Guns, and Cars. What more could you ask for from greasy popcorn fare? Ok, some nudity from the navigators - as in the original Death Race 2000 - might be nice, but this isn't 1976, too prudish for ta-tas. And where are the rabid fans of the game? Where is that great scene of Sylvester Stallone opening fire on Frankenstein's fans with a Tommy Gun. And where is Junior Bruce saying "that's the way we like it, violent, violent, violent!" just before David Carradine runs him over? Okay, so it pales before the original and was panned by critics (hence the reason why I'm writing about it now - the reviews were so bad I waited for it to hit the cheap 2nd run theaters). But I think the big problem with the film was that it was too timely and too gritty to work as fun escapist fare. Like Horror in the 80's, a Nightmare on Elm Street was fun because we did live in protected, cotton padded, security assured suburban communities. Nowadays, with the economy failing, unemployment rising, people losing their houses and the prison system being authentically upsurped by corrupt corporate entities, perhaps the apocalyptic vision of Death Race hits a little too close to home. It's hard to say. But is this a Car Wars movie? I swear it almost seems as such. It has all the basic ingredients, and I want to say it succeeds (because Car Wars definitely needs just such a success) but there's something missing. Death Race has caltrops. How often do you see caltrops anywhere? But caltrops alone do not make a Car Wars movie. Maybe what it misses is just the visceral glee of being in the possession of a hot rod outfitted with more heavy armaments than an army ammo dump. There's no scene where Mad Max and the rest of the Highway Patrol thrill to the sound of the last of the V-8's. The cars themselves don't live up to what I imagine when I play Car Wars. Granted, by the end of a battle most cars all look like they're ready for the scrap heap but there is something about a Car Wars car which demands that a vehicle start out in pristine condition before being blown to smithereens. Destruction just isn't destruction when all you're doing is blowing a junky vehicle back into junk. And don't get me started on the technical issues, like keeping your weapons on the outside of your armor. That's some pretty powerful bullet proof glass too. So no. This isn't it. This is not the Car Wars movie we've been waiting for. And probably niether will be the countless straight to DVD movies it is bound to produce. What does this mean for Gear Jammers? Do understand that I dream about this site, night and day. I was hoping that Death Race would be a big hit so I could have a decent excuse for giving it the overhaul it deserves. What I really want to do is set up a play by post system which simulates Car Wars and actually uses a graphical interface and an adhereance to the rules which is strong enough that it could revive the ADAA national championships. I could do just this, but it would consume months of free time which I cannot afford - especially since we are using a product of Steve Jackson games which allows them to shut us down on a hairs breath notice. I could simply build my own vehicular combat gaming system and sever ties with Steve Jackson games altogether. Considering the crap they pulled with their last Car Wars release (aka the cheap and crappy pamphlets) I'm almost thinking that they deserve it. So here's my question to you (and feel free to write me about it) would you be willing to shell out $10 a year to be the member of a site which like this one allows you to build combat vehicles, and volunteer your own creations to the mix, but also be able to take them into a 2-D graphical arena with other players across the web and fight it out in a play-by-post fashion? Rick Havok 09/28/08 |
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