Death Race 3: Inferno

Luke Goss returns from the second film as the heroic convict in a future world where prisoners must race each other to the death (with the world tuning in on PPV, natch). He replaced Jason Statham's character (who clearly has better things to do) thanks to a convenient gimmick. Both of them raced under the handle "Frankenstein," wearing a metal mask supposedly hiding their hideous facial injuries. The gag comes from the Roger Corman original, but it holds up well, and we accept Goss as our new go-to guy with only a minimum amount of plot exposition.

They also find a new hook for the race itself, after a corporate sleazebag (Dougray Scott) buys the company in charge of the whole thing. (Ving Rhames shows up to collect a check as the former owner, supposedly outfoxed in a subplot that no one need pay any attention to). Goss's Frankenstein soon finds himself shipped off the South Africa, home to a new Baja-style Death Race that the company eagerly wants to use him for. His pit crew Lists (Fred Koehler), Goldberg (Danny Trejo) and Katrina (Tanit Phoenix) come with him, and soon find themselves embroiled in the usual intrigue surrounding the race. The end of the film sets up has an attempt to make another Death Race film.

"More cons, more cars, more guns. Sky's the limit." Once again Frankenstein (Goss) is one race win away from freedom. This time though the race has changed. Instead of being inside the prison another man has bought the rights and is taking it global. Fighting in his crew and other deals being made make this a harder race then usual. I have to admit that I do like these movies as cheesy as they are. I loved the first one and enjoyed the second one OK. I may have to re-watch that one though because I was a little confused to start this one. I thought some of the people that were in this died and the plot lines didn't seem to match up. Then the race started and I realized that it didn't really matter, the plots of these movies are just background to the racing and violence. To me that is OK. Much like the other two this is not an award winning movie and acting is iffy at best but it is still very entertaining and well worth checking out if you have seen the others. Overall, not as good as first but fun and exciting to watch still. I liked it. I give it a B+.

I have a lot of love for 'Death Race 2000' and (surprisingly) quite a lot of love for the two remakes.

'Death Race 3' is where Death Race love goes to die... then is stamped on, run over, before its battered body is dragged through the desert behind a gun-laden car, except the guns are obviously lengths of painted drain pipe, and one has snapped but the production crew have run out of duck tape so it swings flaccidly while Love for Death Race turns to ash and blows away in the wind..

Death Race 3 is an endurance race through the desert, the 'film' Death Race 3 is a survival test through stroke inducing bad dialogue, acting that is so horrible a new word is needed to describe its severity, wonky cameras, rubbish fight scenes and a make-up department so inept they even managed to make Taint Phoenix look rough.

Everything about this movie is bad. It has a production level way below the likes of 'Mega Shark vs Giant Octpus'. The direction is the clumsiest I have ever seen (this is coming from the man who gave 'Zombie Women of Satan' a 7!)

Scene: Where could we be? Well there's a red bus in the back ground, some church bells and a good old Bobbie pounding the beat. Are we in London by any chance?

Scene: What's that Mr York? You don't appreciate your secretary? Well how could you possibly communicate your feelings to the audience, short of punching her in the stomach. Oh, like that.

Don't be sold by the high calibre of the cast. I get the feeling the actors had real guns trained on them or they awoke one day unable to account for the last two months of their lives, their sun tans and the massive amount of rohypnol in their systems. Possible both.

Don't be put off by the IMDb score, or any negative reviews, this movie is a more than worthy successor to Death Race 2, and has earned its place in the franchise.

Lots of subtle humour, stylish action and surprisingly memorably characters, all combined with sufficiently varied and suitably over-the-top set pieces make this feel more like a cinema release than a direct-to-video offering.

Sure, the plot gets a bit silly at times, and there are clichés and stereotypes liberally scattered throughout, but I still found the new setting, the new (if often short-lived) characters and the tidy wrapping up of the story arc to be effective and entertaining.

Dougray Scott shines as the enthusiastic antagonist, relative unknown Jeremy Crutchley provides a great Russell Crowe-esque caricature, and even Luke Goss manages to steal some good moments.

All of the actors look like they're having lots of fun, and I too thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Dig it up and give it a go. Watch all three movies back to back for the full experience!

In Death Race 3, the Wayland corporation suffers a hostile takeover by some very rich and evil guy, but because he's also very smart he's got a British accent. He wants to turn Death Race into an international series of races at a bunch of prisons all over the world.

Meanwhile Frankenstein is one victory away from gaining his freedom. But Niles (that's the new guy) changes the rules of the game. If Frankenstein wins, he dies. Niles moves Frankenstein and his crew to South Africa where the next multi-stage race will take place. The jail there is some sort of working mine as well.

During the first couple of stages Frankenstein indeed decides not to win, but for the final one he'll have something up his sleeve.

The races themselves are alright, we see lots of interesting scenery and the racers will have to deal with the locals as well as missiles that Niles shots at them whenever he feels like it. There are plenty of fights and lots of neat explosions, but dialogue is something the director can't and won't deal with. Not to mention that at the times the script is pretty painful to have to listen to.

This is one of those movies where at the end you get a recap of how the solution was accomplished. It's interesting but because you don't really care about any of the characters, including Frankenstein, it's almost like it doesn't matter. There is a story here, lots of action, lots of cleavage but only a split second of nudity, the director just doesn't manage to get us involved in any of it.