The story goes that after the success of Death Race 2000, Roger Corman asked Paul Bartel to make another car picture, but this time more ‘real’. Bartel had no interest but he needed the money, hence this rehash that strips out the dystopian setting and vicious satire — as well as the gore and mean spirit — for a lighter action jape across America, loaded with cameos and familiar faces and one especially witty scene (Bartel’s favourite, as it happens) where the director plays a Cole Porter pastiche on the piano while Dick Miller gets the shit kicked out of him. Honestly, I enjoyed this a fair bit more than Death Race 2000 but it’s all but forgotten in the shadow of its predecessor, and the dust kicked up by the Cannonball Run flicks that followed (hence the print I saw isn’t exactly pristine). ★★★½
Cross-posted from Letterboxd