Death Race 2000 was an original cinematic charm. A timeless gem with great casting and raw implementation. This one tries too hard to capture the original magic and fails. Everyone's trying too hard without the same natural charisma. The characters in the first were cast as naturals, but not here, which is the flaw. Loved the original. Perhaps a concept that does not replicate well, but this one's not even close to the original. The first, a classic; this one, forgettable.

I'm not a fan of remakes. If something was good to start with, you don't need to remake it. If it wasn't, you shouldn't try again. This is technically the second remake of Death Race 2000, the first one was a soulless endeavor that missed the point of the original movie.

This one gets a lot closer to the spirit of the original, updated with Virtual Reality and Social Media. So they have a set of alternative racers to try to beat Frankenstein, reflecting modern fears.

Some points- The resistance terrorists in this film aren't as effective as they were in the original, where they did manage to kill several racers. IN this, they manage to kill each other.

Some of the commentary is fun, with Malcolm McDowell playing a Trump-like president and the US being converted into a corporate state.

Where the movie falls down is with Manu Bennett, who has a very limited acting range, which goes between "Brooding" and "Extra- Brooding". Most of the supporting characters are equally weak.

so worth watching? Not so sure. I didn't hate it, but I didn't enjoy it like I enjoyed the original.

"Death Race 2000" (1975) was a trash film classic. "Death Race 2050" is an attempt to squeeze a few more dollars out of the concept...with generally predictable results. In some ways, this film is a bit like the original along with bits of "Idiocracy" and "Rollerball" tossed in as well. Like "Idiocracy", the public is unemployed and skill-less...sitting around the house watching television all day and breeding like rats. And, like "Rollerball", a tiny group of corporate plutocrats rule the world...and use the Death Race to keep the stupid masses content...as well as cut down on some of the overpopulation!

So is the film that different from the original? Not really. Sure, the CGI and cars look a bit nicer but none of this make the film better. In fact, because it is so similar, it is generally very predictable and takes few risks. Sure, there is a homo-erotic quality to Frankenstein's nemesis, Perfectus (instead of Machine Gun Joe) and a few of the other drivers are mildly interesting and the leader is actually hoping that Frankenstein LOSES...but none of it provides any reason to watch this instead of the original. I scored the original film a 2...it's bad but VERY entertaining and has cult film written all over it. This one is also a 3....but has none of the cult-like qualities and is only mildly entertaining when it makes commentary about the banality of mankind in the future.