“Death Race” is a hyper-masculine and partially sexist quest for the ever elusive super cool. Unfortunately, just as Ponce de Leon’s search for the fountain of youth, this quest proves to be fruitless. This film straddles the line between realistic and cartoonish violence, making the ever fatal mistake that its audience finds the story even remotely believable. Unlike the original “Death Race 2000,” starring a 1975 era Sylvester Stallone, this remake can’t seem to decide between over-the-top and semi-realistic: never enough carnage to make the story nigh-comical, yet always having too much to prevent it from being nigh-enjoyable.

Jason Statham plays out-of-luck ex-NASCAR driver Jensen Ames. Ames is framed by the maleficent Warden Hennessy, played by the once respectable Joan Allen, and is sent to her prison. In the film, all of America degrades to the point of no return. All correction facilities are run by private companies who pit the prisoners against one another as a televised event for profit. This new sport takes the form of a deadly race in Warden Hennessy’s prison, and as a means to boost ratings she brings in a once famous NASCAR driver. And so, the plot thickens.

Statham produces the same action-hero he has played for the past three years. Frederick Koehler plays an almost offensive mentally handicapped sidekick; whereas Ian McShane takes the roll of the Morgan Freeman-esque “Coach.” Allen acts well, but this is overshadowed by the fact that she is acting in a world that doesn’t even begin to make sense.

However, not all is lost in “Death Race.” The lighting is well planned, and the film makes good use of color. Everything keeps a consistent shade of gray that lends a fairly convincing pre-apocalyptic environment to the sight. The camera work, on the other hand, proves to be a bit over-zealous. It seems that the only working cameras on the set were dollys and zooms. Every shot seems to either move past the image or towards it in an attempt to show chaos in the prison world. Instead, it only makes the audience nauseated, part from vertigo and part from visual boredom.

I’m not sure where it is written that no good movie is allowed to come out during the late summer, but the fact is, apart from the holidays, autumn is a far superior season.

Dave gave this film a rating of 1.5 stars out of 5

See the movie trailer.