Death Race 2000

Admit it, we've all thought about it before. No, not sex, but racking up point for hitting pedestrians in our car. Extra points for the guy who hits a pregnant nun. Well, take that idea and set it in the future (now it's the past, but 2000 was the future in 1974), and you have this film. Roger Corman produced it on a budget of 300,000. And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, it stars David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone in a pre-Rocky performance. It the future, this is the national sport. It's not uncommon for sci-fi films to propose a futures with a semi-fascist government that lulls the masses by satisfying their blood lust with violent games (Rollerball, The Running Man). The Romans did it once upon a time. Actually, had this film made the mistake of taking itself seriously it would be horrifyingly violent. As it is, however, it is cheap satire, and the kind of low budget exploitation thrills that we all love and wish we could make (at least I do).