Death Race 2000 (1971)

Roger Corman's classic finds "the United Provinces of America" holding an annual Transcontinental Road Race, featuring modified, super-charged cars. Racers aim to cross the finish line first, and along the way score bonus points for mowing down pedestrians, with a bonus for women, children, elderly or infirm (some fameseeking citizens volunteer or even hope to be among the victims).

Meanwhile, a "terrorist" group seeks to end the violent festivities, making this not only an action film, but one with sume ripe subtext.

Typical Roger Corman dialog permeates the films, the dairy-breathed actors joyously reciting cheesy lines. Still, the cleverness is in the concept, leading to better sight gags than the spoken word. The film's best line, then, is relatively weak: “Hi, Herman. I hope your Buzzbomb has a little more juice in its warhead this year.”

But the true stars of the show are the sensationalistic, over-the-top kills, which include death by land mine, impalement (from an enormous car-mounted knife), smashed heads and “hand” grenade.

One character is even dispatched Road Runner-style, with a hastily-assembled fake tunnel that leads off the edge of a cliff.

Much of the action features sped-up film to create the illusion of driving fast. It looks bad, and is very obvious, but it deftly reflects the low-budget tone of the film.

The wardrobe and hairstyles are typically disco-tastic, not that the clothes stay on: each racer has an opposite-sex “navigator,” whose duties include overnight “pit stops” that allow for nude full-body massages.

The characters deliver their lines with gusto, especially Sylvester Stallone, who shouts almost every line, and David Carradine, who in typical droll Carradine fashion seems almost bored.

Stallone and Carradine have one of the worst fight scenes in cinematic history, where they visibly whiff on several punches, grab each other and roll around in place of any kind of real choreography.

Each racer represents a stereotype: Frankenstein (Carradine) is a leather fetishist and government-appointed hero; Machine Gun Joe (Stallone) is a Depression-era gangster. The script also ably lampoons sports commentators. Cornball cameo Watch for Martin Kove, the villainous sensei in “The Karate Kid,” as racer “Nero the Hero.”

The recent Jason Statham-starring remake of "Death Race," while one of the few that manages to stay true to the original's spirit, is undeniably inferior to this camp classic. Whether you've seen the first film or not, "Death Race 2000" is required viewing for all exploitation film students.

5 Yaps (out of 5)