“Death Race 2000” is sort of a mixture of “The Running Man” and the “Mad Max” series with its intense driving scenes and its sinister future that glorifies senseless violence. “Death Race 2000” is funny, thrilling and engaging.

In “Death Race 2000”, we see a dystopian future in which the favourite sport is one where you score points by running over pedestrians. David Carradine (“Lone Wolf McQuade”) stars as Frankenstein (not to be confused with the horror character) as he takes on competitors such as Machine Gun Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone “Rocky”, “First Blood”). All the while a group of rebels hope to ruin the race by targeting the drivers.

David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone are alright as the main racers and Carradine looks especially hilarious while wearing a rubber mask. The other racers such as one who wears an old-fashioned German army style helmet and one who dresses like a cowgirl are okay. However, by far the best characters in the whole film are easily the presenters who pop up several times through the duration of the picture. They’re the best because almost all their scenes are presented like the television ads featured in “RoboCop” and it makes the film all the more amusing.

“Death Race 2000” features some impressive, explosive and all-round entertaining car sequences but it’s the dark humour that makes the film work so well. While this film may seem like merely mindless violence, it’s a biting satire like “Starship Troopers” and “RoboCop”. “Death Race 2000” often seems as if “Wacky Races” became an exploitation picture with tons of brutal violence and nudity. The picture is violent and shocking and will certainly turn off many and it gets a little slow at times but it’s also really funny and you have to love the car chases.