Frankenstein for President

It is the year 2000. America's thirst for violence and sport has finally been slaked by the Transcontinental Road Race, a gladiators-in-cars event where drivers score points for every pedestrian they kill. The finest racers in the world — Machine Gun Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone), Calamity Jane (Mary Woronov), Matilda the Hun (Roberta Collins) — have gathered in all their stereotyped glory to compete against man/machine Frankenstein (David motherf'ing Carradine), the champion of champions. But there's a fifth column striving to expose the race for what it really is: a blood-and-circus spectacle designed to distract American minds from the totalitarian regime and its endless wars. Oh, and there's some random hatred of the French, and the president is a power-mad dick. Yeah, we'll say it: Cult classic Death Race 2000 was pretty accurate in predicting the America of 2000. Especially since it was a low-budget, sex-and-violence stoked sci-fi thriller from Roger Corman circa 1975. Carradine plays the battered antihero to perfection, Woronov is a sexbomb cowgirl, there's gallons of fake blood splattered about and the cars — oh, the cars are flat-out ridiculous. The Strange Brew division of the Webster Film Series does everybody a solid by screening Death Race 2000 at 8 p.m. at the Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue; 314-968-7487 or www.webster.edu/filmseries). Admission is $4.
Wed., Nov. 4, 2009