Ass Whoopin Wednesdays: Death Race: Inferno (2012)

As everyone knows from the first Death Race film, that Frankenstein is replaceable and that continues to be the case as Carl Lucas (Luke Goss), a convicted cop killer is back once again for Death Race: Inferno. This time all he needs is to win one more race (to equal five total wins) and he is a free man. The only problem is that a billionaire hot shot named Nile York (Dougray Scott) has bought the rights to Death Race and he has other plans for Carl. He plans to move the race to Africa to make it more dangerous, but there is only one other thing and that is he doesn’t want Lucas to win. Can Lucas obey the plans of his warden and let down his team or will he take a chance and go for it all knowing that death may be imminent. The film also stars Danny Trejo (The Devil’s Rejects) as Goldberg, Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible) as Weyland, Fred Koehler (Pearl Harbor) as Lists, Tanit Phoenix (Safe House) as Katrina, Robin Shou (Mortal Kombat) as 14K, Jeremy Crutchley (Doomsday) as Psycho, Tanya van Graan (Starship Troopers 3: Marauder) as Amber, and the film was directed by Roel Reine (Death Race 2). Before we get into the review of the film, let’s check out some stats:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First thing is first and that is I loved Tanit Phoenix in this film because she is absolutely sexy, but we have some stats to get into here. In the film, Carl Lucas has about 29 kills although I cannot confirm how many guards were in the towers so the kills could be a little more than that. He does have an origin story and you’ll just have to watch Death Race 2 to figure that out. His love interest is Tanit Phoenix’s character Katrina and their love is definitely tested in this film. One of his crew members is killed in the film so I think it’s safe to say that someone was hurt. The big boss was definitely defeated, but you have to see how it was done because it was clever. They kind of do that thing in the end where they explain how everything went down so that it all makes sense and to reveal how masterful the plan really was. I am not sure if this is my favorite of the three films that came out, but I have to say that I definitely enjoyed this one because it has all of the racing action you could want, but man these guys are really bad shots. Death Race is a little more brutal in that department as guy’s cars were getting hit with everything imaginable, but this one had mostly body damage. If you’re a fan of racing and death then check this one out for all of that and drama and cool music. I am going to give the film an B+ for a final grade or 3.9 fists out of five.

Tanit Phoenix

Ass Whoopin Wednesdays: Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

Once again, we are continuing on our countdown to Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation with our Ass Whoopin Wednesdays presents the Mission: Impossible series. For today’s film, we are looking at Mission: Impossible 2 which was the sequel that took four years to make and once again stars Tom Cruise (Top Gun) as our favorite IMF Agent Ethan Hunt. This time around, a deadly virus that was created by a scientist named Dr. Nekhorvich (Radé Sherbedgia) called Chimera which has been stolen by a former IMF agent named Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) and he plans to sell it in the market for lots of money. With the help of a former girlfriend of Ambrose (Thandie Newton), Hunt has to destroy both the virus and the cure before it gets into the wrong hands. The film also stars Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction) as Luther, Anthony Hopkins (The Silence Of The Lambs) as Swanbeck, Richard Roxburgh (Van Helsing) as Hugh Stamp, John Polson (Swimfan) as Billy, Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges) as McCloy, William Mapother (The Grudge) as Wallis, Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) as Ulrich, and the film was directed by John Woo (Face/Off). Let’s check out some stats from the film before we get into the review of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can definitely tell the difference between the first film and this one just by who the director of the film is which happens to be John Woo. Just from that little piece of info, you know that the action sequences are going to be more epic and more outrageous because let’s go for broke after all. For one, Ethan Hunt knows some bad ass martial arts moves in this film and his kills/knockouts count triples in this film than what it was in the first film as he has 26 kills/knockouts overall. Once again, Ethan has no origin story to speak of in this film, but he does gain a love interest and he has a sexual conquest with her. In the film, she is infected with Chimera virus so Ethan is on the hunt for the cure before it is too late and the big boss is eventually defeated. Now the question going into this film is do I think that it was better than the first film? To be honest with you, while the action was turned up a notch for this film, I still find the first film to be better than this one. There was  more of a clever story in the first one than there was in this one, but this film is still pretty good in it’s own right. One thing that it has working for them is the cinematography as we get some great shots of Sydney, Australia during the film. While the rest of the series is not available to stream on Netflix as we speak, the first two films in the series are and you should definitely check them out if you love the whole action spy espionage thing that so many of us have craved for years which is why we continue to love James Bond. I am going to give this film four fists out of five for a final grade.