Now Playing: Death Race

Ahh, mindless action movies... isn't this what Summer is all about? It was a toss-up between this movie and Wall-E (which has been getting rave reviews, but is still a kid's movie and, really, I'm just not that into them). It was an uneventful Sunday night and I had spent the day working (both paid and not) so I thought, what the hell, let's go munch some popcorn.

Enter, Death Race.

Plot? Well, it's a bit thin and full of suspension-of-disbelief moments. But no one's coming here for the plot. There are only two things that matter in a good summer action flick: hot cast and cool effects. So.

Cool Effects: they did a good job of making the CGI look real (even though physics was bent at every turn) and it had some pretty cool wtf moments.

Hot Cast: Joan Allen is fab as the ice queen prison warden/CEO. Really. It was so much fun to watch her unravel near the end. Supporting cast wasn't bad either. I was looking forward to Ian McShane and he didn't disappoint (yes, I will always think of him as Swearengen and yes, I think he's a very good-looking man, if a little old).

But oh, poppets, this movie was all about the drooltastic Jason Statham.

I've only seen him in two other movies: The Italian Job (where he stayed disappointingly covered up) and In the Name of the King (eww, Uwe). So let us take a moment to indulge in some sighing and squirming. It starts with a scene in some future-foundry where there's lots of sweat and heat. You only see glimpses of JS's hotness, and that in shadow. Then there's a shirt-off moment, but he's wearing a white singlet. It's not until the chin-ups in the prison that we see the sexiest back I've ever had the pleasure of feasting on. And they really allowed us to feast, with a solid 20 seconds of nothing but JS and his ridiculous back. You know what makes him that extra bit sex-ay? He's not all steroid-pumped and muscle-bound... oh no, he's lean and mean and then, he does a chin-up *melt*

This movie probably only deserves a 2.5 out of 5 stars, (it was entertaining) but I'm laying my cards on the table. For JS's yummilicious back alone, I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

PS: it's not that I didn't want a poster of Death race, I just couldn't readily find one. No matter. Gorge on JS goodness.