Deathsport

Riding in on the wave of success from the entertaining comedy movie Death Race 2000, a number of similar movies came out, including Deathsport. In the anti-utopian future, this time David Carradine is not forced to race in a funny-looking car, but to fight for his life on a funny-looking motorcycle - and now hold on, it is meant absolutely seriously, which is for a movie in which naked girls lit up by psychedelic lights accompanied by strange synth music dance between poles charged with electricity, an unfortunate mistake. So it is only slightly passing for funny in scenes where characters with frowning seriousness deliver their cheesy banal lines. Unfortunately, this movie is so far from being unintentionally funny it could never pass for actual entertainment. Deathsport is therefore a terrible movie but fortunately, in my eyes director Allan Arkush regained his reputation a year later with Rock 'n' Roll High School. (10.01.2019)

The second Corman film starring David Carradine, which pretends to be a sequel to the successful B-movie Death Race 2000. In reality, however, it was just a marketing gimmick and the two films have only Carradine and the sport of motorcycle gladiators in a dystopian future in common. This time, instead of cars, there are armored motorcycles with laser cannons, fought by desert “Jedi” with big disappearing flashlights, while cannibal mutants with ping pong balls for eyes watch everything. Deathsport is the pinnacle of what Corman could cram in front of the camera and pass it off as a movie. The same gimmicky shots are recycled over and over again (mostly a staggering amount of gratuitous explosions). Alongside this, the film tries to impress with weird sci-fi sounds that accompany even the most mundane movements (from opening doors to swinging swords), and avant-garde editing that masks the actors' inability to fence with ridiculously huge swords during action scenes. The whole thing sounds like great fun. The problem is that while Death Race 2000 was a hilarious satire, Deathsport takes itself dryly serious and lacks the slightest bit of charm and wit. The actors reportedly drank and smoked a lot of weed during filming, but not enough to save the whole thing. The only thing that can't be denied about this forgotten trash flick is that it basically predates the famous Road Warrior with its crazy bikers in the post-apocalyptic desert. (18.08.2016)