As a reward for keeping our house from flooding last weekend, my wife and I took our 15-year-old to go see Wanted yesterday. It was much better than I thought, though not the 2nd coming of The Godfather or anything like that. I enjoyed it. While watching the previews they showed one for Death Race. Looks like the remakes of the pessimistic future films of the 60s & 70s are still being remade in full force (Planet of the Apes, Rollerball and allegedly Logan's Run... I wonder if they'll remake Futureworld).
By strange coincidence, I actually watched Death Race 2000 a few days ago on my DVR. It was on Turner Classic Movies and I wanted to check it out since I hadn't seen it in about 30 years. Wow, I can't believe how cheesy the movies were in the 70s prior to Star Wars. It was hilarious stuff, but still entertaining. I loved seeing Carradine as "Frankenstein" and Stallone as "Machine Gun Joe Viterbo". Our 2-year-old had a bad night and didn't fall asleep till 3:30 a.m. so my wife also stayed up to watch it. I wouldn't have been intrigued by the idea of a remake until rewatching the original. I don't think I'll run out and see Death Race on opening day, but I'll probably check it out on a random weekday on a day off or maybe in the $2 flicks later on after it gets downgraded.
Okay, I admit that I've always been a fan of cheesy flicks. Anyone but me remember the original Death Race 2000 and actually saw it in a theater like I did? I think I was 4 or 5 years old then. Wow... I also saw Logan's Run in theaters double-billed with Star Wars... where did my youth go?