Ugh!--and yet, how amusing!

This is one of those films that is really incredibly bad, but somehow amazingly entertaining.
It's basically the cinematic version of the game 'Carmageddon' (or the other way around, since this came first). The plot involves the Death Race, which is a car race where the participants also score points for killing innocent bystanders. This is horrible, but you somehow can't hold it against the film.
I mean, I try. I say to myself, "this is awful! At least in your standard bloodbath action film you have the underlying assumption that the people being slaughtered are bad, evil, enemy people who deserve to die. Here, the unfortunate slaughterees (if I may invent a word) are openly admitted to be innocent observers who got in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is vile and nasty and should disgust any decent human being!"
But still, it's kind of fun. I guess you could think of it as a commentary on the cruel and arbitrary nature of life in the year 2000, or whatever time (some unstated future in America) this is supposed to be set in. You could...except it's really not that kind of a movie.

It's a movie with David Carradine in a weird mask and Sylvester Stallone looking young and sulky. I like to think they're both very proud of their work here. I like to think that because it amuses me.
There are also some occasionally semi-naked women in the movie, and there's even a plot, which involves the fact that David Carradine is actually a hero who hates the Death Race, although he's really good at it and kills tons of people. We eventually discover that he's plotting to overthrow the corrupt government through the use of a clever weapon that is also a terrible pun, which I will not reveal here in the interests of preserving the surprise for those who have not seen the movie.
The plot unfolds with great subtlety--no, wait--OK, lets just say the plot unfolds, and then there's a dramatic conclusion. And before that a lot of people get squashed and there's some sex and fighting. So basically everything you could really want in an action-packed film, except for a surprising lack of gunfire. Oh well...you can't have absolutely everything, I guess.

But mostly it's a movie about people driving mean-looking cars and threatening each other and displaying a full range of wooden facial expressions, and about gruesomely squashing pedestrians ('scores'). It is a truly bad movie, with terrible film quality and bad acting and ridiculous dialogue and no sign of any redeeming qualities. It seems to have been tossed together scene by scene. There's no sign of a 'point' and nothing you could call an 'artistic vision.' But rather than making you cringe and clutch your head to prevent your brain from shriveling and falling out your ear, it's one of those awful movies that you actually enjoy. "You'll willingly allow your brain to shrivel!" That's about the best slogan I can think of for this particular film.

I'm not a huge fan of bloodbath action movies or 'Carmageddon' or running down pedestrians, but I did find this movie entertaining. And to give it its due, it starts with a pretty creative premise, and you have to give points for originality.

A friend showed this to me, saying "you HAVE to see this movie," and I kind of agree. If you have any interest in fabulously bad films, you do have to see this movie. It's that amazingly bad, and that wonderful in its own terrible way.