Director: Paul WS Anderson

4 stars

It would take a team of semioticians to explain why Jason Statham is somehow more compelling when hidden behind an iron mask. But he is, as this vicious thriller’s Web-celeb racer, ìFrankenstein,î avenging a murdered wife. You soon forget all the contrivances—the action takes place on a maximum-security prison island, but one where the drivers can have their racktacular girlfriends bused in—and roll with the lunacy. This new Death Race doesn’t indict our own bloodlust as much as Paul Bartel’s subversive 1975 original did; no points are awarded for innocent run-overs. But a massive onscreen warning after the film, ‡ la Jackass, comments enough.