Death Race Trilogy [Blu-ray] (Region Free)

This review is for the Death Race Trilogy.First off, despite this being a UK set, these movies are region free and work on American Blu-Ray players just fine.I'm giving this set 5 stars not because these are great movies. I'm giving it 5 stars because they are very entertaining movies and they are not low budget (or at least they don't look low budget).My favorite of the lot is the second movie.COMMENTS: I'm not going to go into depth about the plots. Rather I'm going to just make a few comments.FIRST MOVIE:The first movie was very good. This was well done and I was surprised at how entertaining it was. I'm assuming that this was the biggest budgeted movie of the lot since it had Jason Statham in it.-Unfortunately, this movie, in my opinion, has the weakest ending.SECOND MOVIE: The second movie was very good and in some ways it was better than the first. I like the origin of Frankenstein. I like how the movie ended. I thought perhaps they should have left room for a movie for each race won by Frankenstein.-For me, this is the best movie. It has the deepest and most interesting plot.THE THIRD MOVIE: The third movie was not very good. However it did have the mystery angle going for it. That was unexpected though I'm not sure it really belonged in this move. But I'll take it since I did not really like the rest of the movie. The ending is interesting.- All of these movies are 'over the top' but this one was really, really, 'over the top'.- The rally race was not a particularly good idea since in rally's you rarely come into contact with other vehicles. As usual Hollywood just treats the audience as if they are idiots. Though to be fair, a large part of the audience often is....less informed! I do think a change of pace with a different setting was a good idea. They just picked the wrong way to do it. At the very least, if they wanted to have a dirt track type of race they should have enclosed the course.-The whole Danny Trejo romance thing was a bit forced to say the least.-I'm not sure how they intend to progress from here since the new Frankenstein isn't exactly a good guy, they way the made him appear at the beginning of the first Death Race.-They could have handled the escape a bit better. I do admit they caught me off guard since I was not expecting the original 'Frankenstein' to escape and I thought his girlfriend would end up being killed.-I didn't like how they made Frankenstein's face just about perfect. This is just way over the top.-Even though I thought the twist ending was out of place it helped make the movie better.CONCLUSIONS: My biggest complaint is that the movies did not do a good job of allowing the viewer to see who was winning the race. You never really know who is winning and who is in what place. This is poor editing. That aside, the races are quite entertaining.I haven't seen the fourth movie yet but I'm not hearing good things about it. I think that if you are a fan of racing movies, dystopian future movies or science fiction in general, you will probably find these movies to be mindless but entertaining fun.I Recommend this set for anybody who likes science fiction and/or horror films and is not squeamish.

The death race movies are full of high-octane adventure and action. If you like this sort of thing you're going to have fun with these movies. class cars, sexy women, and dangerous men on a death race to win their freedom. It's pretty much as simple as that. If this is not your cup of tea avoid

I have loved the first movie from the word go, and to get the complete trilogy in a single click what more could i ask for.. Was my thought i was shocked to find out, i got it a lot sooner than expected in the most secure way they could.. the dvds were in great condition and i look forward to getting to see them again but on my bigger tv..

The movies may or may not be good, we will never know. What was sent to us (in the USA) was a boxed set of DVD's in "PAL" or "Region 2" Format. That may mean something to you, it didn't mean anything to us until we got it, opened it, found out that it wouldn't load, and were told "so, sorry, can't take it back because you opened it."

Movies seem fine but the case was broken. Could not tell from the outside so not the fault of the seller.

Very disappointed because the way the DVDs are set up I cannot play them in any DVD player in the United States

Great movie set.

great movie

Death Race:The premise of Death Race is simple: give ten murderers a heavily armed vehicle and set em loose on each other on a racetrack. What makes it stand head and shoulders above other summer explosion movies is the cast, headed by the ever-entertaining Jason Statham and the director Paul Anderson. Now Anderson is an erudite, intelligent man who knows what food the audience want on their plate and serves it in generous portions and enjoys what he does. His commentary tracks are always worth listening to as they mix technical details with cast stories, background and insights that make you realise there's a lot more to the film than just throwing explosions and lens flare about.Despite the somewhat daft premise the film is played straight with everyone throwing themselves into the role with abandon. Statham is his at his best here as the brooding, sullen driver Frankenstein who can more than take care of himself on the track and off it, Ian McShane is the gruff, dependable sage and Joan Allen is having a blast chewing up the scenery as the ruthless warden. Anderson as always packages his film with a slick, easy-to-follow style that allows you to savour the carnage without suffering headache from the relentless cuts and jumps of any blockbuster. Death Race is fun, it's enjoyable. For those who prefer more intellectual fare, savour this as a break from reality and devour it. For those who demand fine action and people getting shot/beaten this is comfortable, relaxing territory.Death Race 2 & 3Death Race 2 is a prequel to the first, showing how the death matches originally came about, something that's only briefly addressed in the opening of Death Race. The film, follows not only the history of the Death Race but its most famous driver, Frankenstein. Given a much reduced budget and only one of the original actors, Dutch director Roel Reine has wisely opted to make the film as brutal and functional as the racecars. Again, what could have been a low budget nightmare becomes a taut, demanding and ultimately satisfying thriller headlined by the excellent Luke Goss. I have a lot of time for Goss, since Blade 2 and Hellboy The Golden Army he's been making a name for himself as an action star of sorts, substituting Jason Statham's devastating muscular strength for a whipcord fit combination of agility and intelligence.Reine's films them largely take Death Race as one intense pre-credits sequence and concentrate on making parts 2 and 3 more character driven films about betrayal and revenge. It's far closer to a prison drama than an effects extravaganza and pays off handsomely, eschewing high speed cuts and edits for gutsy, brutal action sequences of the best 80s thrillers. The cast is uniformly good, benefitting from Ving Rhames as the original fight promoter of the Death Race and Robert Rodriguez regular Danny Trejo filling in for Ian McShane with the world weary mix of charm and imminent anger that comes from a man who was once really on Death Row. In fact the only sour note in this trilogy is Sean Bean trying too hard to do a poor Sean Bean impersonation and appearing about as terrifying as an extra from The Bill.Overall the three films offer a good mix of drama, action, black humour and above all satisfaction as the various plots are resolved and your learn how cleverly the films are connected to one another. Overall the picture is crisp and sharp, and the extras are uniformly good, particularly Andersons commentary which never has a dull dry moment. The series is worth a blind buy its that good.Note for collectors: all three films are housed in one 14mm triple Amaray case with a slipcover

Chances are, like me you bought/ are buying this set because you've seen the first 2 films and wanted to get the third film. What you need to know before you watch them is, watch 2 1st, 3 next & 1 lastly.This is because 2 is a prequel to the first film, so you'd think 2 then 1 then 3.But no, the third instalment carries neatly on from the 2nd and loops very neatly and cleverly to the first film.You have to do something similar with Fast and the furious, watch Fast 3 - Tokyo Drift after Fast 6 then Fast 7

While I'm not a big fan of lower budget, straight to DVD releases, the Death Race movies have set the bar for these types of movies so ludicrously high, these'll be the best straight to dvd movies you will ever see.While the first Death Race has a fairly higher budget than it's later movies, Paul WS Anderson knows how to put the budget on screen so the movie has the visual aesthetic of an A star movie with the script of a cheesy B movie actioner. But with enough action and good performances from Statham and Ian McShane himself, the first movie is an above average action movie that takes the idea of murderous car games and pulls it off successfully. 4/5Death Race 2 is a prequel to the first, following the origin story of a notable character throughout Death Race's universe. Despite the lower budget, Rolfe Reiner blew me away with how much he put the budget actually on the screen, with awesome action, a surprisingly decent story with good performances from Luke Goss, Sean Bean and Machete (yes, he's in this movie). Along with a great choice of music for the soundtrack (features Celldweller!) Death Race 2 shows how to make an entertaining movie with such a reduced budget 4/5Death Race 3 continues the story of the second with the same director who doesn't faulter this time around and produces the same quality movie seen before with a location change to South Africa which adds much more variety to the games itself while allowing a welcome to change to scenery. The action and soundtrack is just as good as before with even more action that it actually rivals the first movie in its enjoyment factor. The story attempts to link directly to the first movie and I was worried how it'd be executed; my worries were put to rest because they did a phenomenal job and flawlessly connected the prequel stories to Statham's Death Race. 4.5/5The Blu Ray Visuals and Audio are excellent, the first movie looking more theatrical due to the sequels shooting digitally rather than on film, but they all look fantastic on blu ray.These movies are a perfect example of taking a semi decent idea and making movies that surpass expectations and deliver in creating awesome action movies with surprisingly good performances and story. These movies are better than they had any right to be and I'm thankful for that. Recommended for those who enjoy movies like The Running Man, Battle Royale and The Hunger Games and those who enjoyed the original Roger Cormack Death Race with Sylvester Stallone!

Dystopian prison world where prisoners take part in racing where the winner is whoever can survive. Great action, spectacular crashes and explosions fairly gory. The first film is the best and the other two go downhill, but all are full of action and violent deaths! Good for a few hours of escapism.

Love these films, good entertainment