100 points for people over 75
My sleeping schedule is SO. FUCKED. UP. It's almost 5 AM and I'm wide awake. I swear I keep vampire hours, it's really bad because I'm gunna be a mess when school starts.
Anyway, since I can't sleep, I've decided to update. I recently watched "Rollerball" and "Death Race 2000," two movies which are fraternal twins. Both were made in 1975, both are in the dystopian genre, both are centered around deadly sports wildly adored by the masses, and both were remade into horrible (I've heard) films earlier this decade. I really enjoyed "Rollerball." The society in that movie is completely controlled by a group of corporations (New World Order allusion?)and the titular game is used to convey to the viewers the futility of individual effort (media to suppress the working class). I liked the execution of the movie; the main character's search for answers; the action of the rollerball games and the like was quite good.
"Death Race 2000" was also fun, but pretty minor and underdeveloped story wise. It's an exploitation movie though, so what would one expect anyway? I liked the different personae and costumes the racers wore, but the concept of the game didn't make much sense. Basically, the racers collect points by mowing over pedestrians, but since everybody knows the race is going on, they all stay inside to avoid getting killed... Would the game really be that popular with such minimal carnage? The remake changed it so that the competitors are prisoners on a prison island who have to destroy the other racers, which makes much more sense, but other parts of the plot (Jason Statham's false imprisonment, other dumb ass modern action movie trappings) don't really work. I think the concept of the death race would be more interesting if they didn't feel the need to force a sympathetic protagonist into the movie; just have the competitors try to destroy each other to see who is the last one standing, forget the prison island (it's more interesting with volunteers), make killing pedestrians a bonus or a side effect and not really worry about that part either way, since it is amusing.
I'd still recommend both movies. B-movie vixen and Warhol superstar Mary Woronov plays Calamity Jane in "Death Race 2000," which is awesome in and of itself. It was also David Carradine's break-out movie role.
Another dystopian movie I saw but don't have much to say about is Woody Allen's "Sleeper." Amusing, but also minor.
Anyway, since I can't sleep, I've decided to update. I recently watched "Rollerball" and "Death Race 2000," two movies which are fraternal twins. Both were made in 1975, both are in the dystopian genre, both are centered around deadly sports wildly adored by the masses, and both were remade into horrible (I've heard) films earlier this decade. I really enjoyed "Rollerball." The society in that movie is completely controlled by a group of corporations (New World Order allusion?)and the titular game is used to convey to the viewers the futility of individual effort (media to suppress the working class). I liked the execution of the movie; the main character's search for answers; the action of the rollerball games and the like was quite good.
"Death Race 2000" was also fun, but pretty minor and underdeveloped story wise. It's an exploitation movie though, so what would one expect anyway? I liked the different personae and costumes the racers wore, but the concept of the game didn't make much sense. Basically, the racers collect points by mowing over pedestrians, but since everybody knows the race is going on, they all stay inside to avoid getting killed... Would the game really be that popular with such minimal carnage? The remake changed it so that the competitors are prisoners on a prison island who have to destroy the other racers, which makes much more sense, but other parts of the plot (Jason Statham's false imprisonment, other dumb ass modern action movie trappings) don't really work. I think the concept of the death race would be more interesting if they didn't feel the need to force a sympathetic protagonist into the movie; just have the competitors try to destroy each other to see who is the last one standing, forget the prison island (it's more interesting with volunteers), make killing pedestrians a bonus or a side effect and not really worry about that part either way, since it is amusing.
I'd still recommend both movies. B-movie vixen and Warhol superstar Mary Woronov plays Calamity Jane in "Death Race 2000," which is awesome in and of itself. It was also David Carradine's break-out movie role.
Another dystopian movie I saw but don't have much to say about is Woody Allen's "Sleeper." Amusing, but also minor.