DEATH RACE: BEYOND ANARCHY (2018) *

1975’s Death Race 2000 is one of my favorite productions from Roger Corman’s New World Pictures.  Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2008 remake was a top shelf Jason Statham vehicle that was better than it had any right being.  Its sequel was less than stellar, but the recent sequel to Corman’s original film, Death Race 2050 was breezy dumb fun.  Somehow, I didn’t see Death Race 3, but that didn’t stop me from seeing this fourth entry in the remake cycle. 

In the near future, the Death Race has expanded to a massive prison known as “The Sprawl”.  Frankenstein (Velislov Pavlov) now rules over the racers with an iron fist.  A new inmate named Connor (Zach McGowan) teams up with a grizzled prisoner named Baltimore Bob (Danny Glover) to beat Frankenstein at his own game and take over his throne. 

Beyond Anarchy is closer to Mad Max in inspiration than the original Death Race, with a little Escape from New York thrown in there, just because.  I wouldn’t have minded the blatant homages so much if the execution was borderline competent.  However, this one is pretty much a chore to get through thanks to the rampant ADD editing.  Many sequences feel like leftover footage from a Korn video, and the editing is especially incoherent during the racing and action scenes.  Beyond anarchy is right. 

It’s also weird that they make Frankenstein the villain this time out.  Imagine if Mad Max was the villain in Fury Road, and that’s kind of what it’s like.  Now, I didn’t see Part 3, so I don’t know if there was some incident in that film that changed his character and turned him into a half-assed Colonel Kurtz, but I highly doubt it.

There are a few not-terrible parts.  The nudity is rather plentiful, bordering on completely random.  We also get an OK game of motorcycle chicken.  It’s just that at 111 minutes… yes… 111 minutes, it goes on forever.  There are way too many subplots, irritating supporting characters, and superfluous action beats that make this race a marathon rather than a sprint.  Add to that the fact that it is sorely lacking the zany spirit of the original (or at the very least the brain-dead fun of the remake) and you have yourself a helluva slog on your hands. 

The original Death Race 2000 was a lean and mean 79 minutes.  Part of its success was that it didn’t wear out its welcome.  This one has too many preliminary races (including an actual Death Foot Race) and undercooked subplots that could’ve easily been cut out without anyone missing them.  In fact, the Death Race in this one starts at the 79-minute mark; right when the original film would’ve been over! 

Strangely, the race scenes in the third act feel rushed and are frantically over-edited.  It’s particularly strange when you consider how slow moving and dragged-out the first eighty minutes were.  Plus, it seems like the drivers spend a lot of time getting out of their cars to engage in fights and shootouts with one another, which kind of goes against the whole aspect of racing.  

McGowan has no screen presence whatsoever, so it’s hard to root for him.  The character of Frankenstein is even worse.  He’s devolved over the years from an iconic drive-in hero to just some biker dude in a mask, which is equal parts frustrating and heartbreaking.  Glover is basically there to earn a paycheck as he merely goes through the motions as the obligatory mentor figure, and Danny Trejo is given fuck-all to do as the bookie taking bets on the race. 

If there was more of an emphasis on the race itself, and the racing scenes were clearly photographed and edited properly, this might’ve been a passable sequel.  Heck, even if the action sequences still sucked and it clocked in at 79 minutes, I could’ve been more generous.  As it stands, this Death Race feels more like a Bataan Death March.

AKA:  Death Race 4:  Anarchy.  AKA:  Death Race:  Anarchy.