Bottom Line: Your $10 would be better spent on a few gallons of gas for YOUR car.
Death Race is a pretty ambitious undertaking, Paul W.S. Anderson not only has to attempt to recreate the feel of the original movie, but he has to prove that his imagining of the film is superior. While he recreated the gritty feel of the movies from the 70’s fairly accurately, nothing was done to prove the superiority of his film. Starting in the beginning with the opening words (a totally unnecessary attempt at explaining the setting and story to us) to the consistantly horrid dialogue, all Mr. Anderson proved was his ineptitude in writing scripts. The back story provided in the beginning of the movie (and later repeated in flashbacks) should have only been introduced in short flashbacks, instead of taking up almost 15 minutes of the movie.
The acting in this film is far from good, Joan Allen is shown as the stereotypical power hungry woman, and her dialogue is full of prosaic statements. The rest of the supporting cast is mediocre at best. As the main character, Jason Statham provides a nice breath of fresh air to this film, but it is not enough to salvage it.
The cinematography in this film is nothing special. At times it comes across as a little too dark, a problem that could have easily been rectified.
The one thing done right in this film is the action, it is brutal and relentless. As long as you ignore the claim that 35 gallon gas tank would take a several ton Mustang around a 4-5 mile course several times, it doesn’t dissapoint. The action is so severe that there is a nice little disclaimer at the end of the film.
Death Race isn’t going to win any awards (Razzie?) but if you are looking for a mindless action film, you may enjoy it when it comes out on DVD (as long as you mute it). One (more) plus about this film is that it would make one hell of a video game.