Stale Popcorn

Sometimes, just sometimes, a movie can play differently in the comfort of your own home then it does when you’re sat out there in a cinema. Look at Rambo for example? I was no fan of that movie at the press screening I attended (check out my review of that movie right here) but, sat at home with a few beers, I come to really dig it quite a bit. Then there’s my famous Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Dull (typo intended!) debacle in which I wrote a love letter to that film at 3am, an hour after leaving a showing of it on opening night, and then watched it again at home in various forms and resolutely disagreed with everything I had previously written.

And now there’s Paul WS Anderson’s Death Race. A film in which I said… Well, erm, let me quote myself:

“… Nothing can shake the fact that Anderson has delivered another crappy half-baked too-stupid-for-words movie. You can watch this, you can find moments to enjoy for a brief moment within it but there’s no escaping the fact that, by the time the end credits roll out just under ninety minutes later, you will feel dirty and as if you have been fucked in the eyes! And whoever did the fucking has no intention of returning your calls, let alone giving you a kiss on the cheek goodbye! BUT a fucking is a fucking after all huh?”

You can read the full review right here.

Perhaps I was just having a really bad day eh? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that, on a lot of occasions, when I attend a press screening I have to drag my arse out of bed at an ungodly hour on a SUNDAY morning, drive a considerable distance to a cinema I don’t like trapped within a massive shopping complex, park, walk and then get seated. If I’ve been out the night before with friends or whatever, I can be in a considerably ‘dark’ mood before the BBFC certificate is up on the screen. And maybe this can sometimes taint my opinion when I’m watching schlock that I think is not necessarily worth all that hassle for.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still stand by all my criticisms levied against this film when I originally saw it but, I don’t know, with a couple of bottles of Corona and a king-sized bag of frazzles in the comfort of my own home, on blu-ray, this film played a whole lot better. As I said last time out, there’s moments here where the various bouts of crash, bang, wallop, violence and high speed mayhem sort of beligerantly get in your face and refuse to leave until you bow yourself over and come to accept this as a form of entertainment.

Up on a big screen your senses are obliterated but in blu-ray you start to sort of admire the fact that they’re doing as much of this car-nage (see what I did there? Thanks! That took me a while!) “as real” with as few visual effects as possible. As a fan of old school, long-shot, stunt-work this quality is quite winsome. I still think Tyrese Gibson is all shades of awful, I still think the script is beyond inane and I’m not quite ready to forgive Anderson all his cinematic sins (and there has been ALOT!) just yet, but I am willing to admit that this film is a whole heap more fun then what I originally give it credit for. Last time round any kudos extended to it was sort of begrudgingly done. This time I’m doing it willingly.

Jason Statham is fast becoming the ultimate king of B-movie fodder like this and, for a guy that seemingly knows and stays within the confines of his limitations, he’s a likeable presence. He’s supported by Ian McShane and Joan Allen, both extremely talented and gifted performers, who have both clearly looked at Statham’s abilities and the screenplay itself and thought “Fuck it, let’s have some fun eh?” McShane and Allen make this movie, really, if you’re going to ignore the car-tasms (no, that one didn’t really work did it?). Only Allen could semi-sell the banal, machismo soaked nonsense she is being asked to speak. And only McShane could look into a friggin’ camera and speak shite and still make you sort of smile at his antics!

Death Race is utterly stupid, beyond ridiculous, under-written and over-performed tripe. But it is fun tripe. It is enjoyable and, in better hands, it could’ve been awesome. Yet as it is, it’s sort of gloriously, nonsenically enjoyable gumf! And it is the best thing Paul WS Anderson has ever done – although you should really look to his filmography to see how veiled a compliment that actually is!

Posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 5:22 pm under Blu-Ray Reviews by Gazz.

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