Death Race Redux

I saw the movie Wanted today. I thought it was okay, definitely had a good twist in the plot. Of course there were previews beforehand and one of particular interest was for the flick: Death Race. It is a loose interpretation of the 1975 cult-classic film Death Race 2000 which starred David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. The plot is set in the year 2000 (duh!) in which the United States is destroyed by financial crisis (does that ring a bell?), oh, and a military coup. The race is a cross-country tour with gladiator-like cars equipped to dismember unlucky pedestrians along the way. I suppose trying to adapt that last part into the modern remake wouldn't actually be PC, so instead prisoners are trying to kill each other on the way to the finish line. That makes much more sense!

Conducting a search for this title on Wikipedia also generated another appellation: Death Race 1976. The arcade-style video game was perhaps one of the first controversial, violent video games in history (think Grand Theft Auto for the 1970's). The modern version for the Playstation 2 and PC is called Carmageddon. And while the graphics of the original game were nothing to write home about, the thought of gremlins leaping out of your vehicle then having to run them over and upon doing so would generate a tombstone (which resembles a cross more-or-less) is pretty outrageous even by today's standards. I'm sure this game didn't gain popularity on the religious front and is a part of history we can share with our children and children's children; just make sure to show them photos or bust out the Atari 2600 for emphasis.

DWD: 16, Miles: 834: Survived a packed movie theater parking lot again. Was everyone at the movies today?!