The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Monday, August 25, 2008

Death Race

So I took Nicki and her boyfriend Mike to see the re-make of Roger Corman's classic. I kinda liked it, in a REALLY dumb way. It delivers the action goods, and Jason Statham is a terrific action star. If you can put your brain on hold, a "B"
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WARNING: SAMBO ALERT

And there are two black racers. One dies. The other (Tyrese Gibson) seems to be gay: at any rate, he is CALLED gay, and is the only driver without a female navigator, and has no discernable reaction to a female presence. The film makers suggest that maybe he isn't gay, maybe he's just too violent to be around women. Wow. That's deep.
"Hey! You! Jungle Bunny! Out of the gene pool!"

5 comments:

Irene said...

That's just because all women are delicate, fragile flowers, incapable of coping with violence or violent people. They must be protected, sheltered, tenderly cared for and shielded from all dangers.

Steve Perry said...

I haven't seen this -- I think wrote the story it was ripped off from, back in the seventies -- but doesn't everybody but the guy and the girl die in it?

Wouldn't this be an equal opportunity slaughterfest?

Bennett said...

"That's just because all women are delicate, fragile flowers, incapable of coping with violence or violent people. They must be protected, sheltered, tenderly cared for and shielded from all dangers."

Well not /all/ dangers. I mean, there's a pretty serious risk of scalding, minor cuts, and of course fallen arches if you're appropriately barefoot and in the kitchen.

(*since I realize tone doesn't always come across online, I shall be safe and tag this as very /sarcastic/ faux chauvinism.*)

Christian H. said...

Like I say the only way around it is making movies without these "Sambos." I mean, hell we all know where Tom Hanks started. Very few white actors have made it without dressing like a woman, screaming like a bitch, or being dumber than a rock.
Black actors are not exempt.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you irene. Women is like when they have protected, sheltered and so on.