Never mind Speed Racer. The most revved-up movie of the summer could very well be DEATH RACE. It's due out in August. As you might guess from its working title of Death Race 3000, it's a remake - perhaps reimagination is a better word - of the 1975 camp classic DEATH RACE 2000. That movie starred a post-Kung Fu David Carradine and a pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone. If you read farther down in the credits, you'll see that a pre-"Gopher" Fred Grandy also has a role.
Death Race 2000 provides yet another link to my time in Leeds back in 1986-87. A couple nights a week, some committee or other at the residence hall showed movies down in the JCR, the junior common room. I was a frequent member of the audience and happened to be there in late November '86 when Death Race 2000 was the featured attraction. After seeing it, here's what I wrote in my journal:
... (the movie) was set in the year 2000 and concerned a transcontinental car race from
Will the new Death Race provide that same kind of biting satire and social commentary? I doubt it. But, hopefully, it will be just as much fun to watch.