Fast and Fierce: Death Race is about a former professional racer named Jack Tyson (Michael DeVorzon) whose brother Nelson (Nelson Tyson?) (Jack Person) is in deep to a crime lord (DMX). His only way out of the debt? Jack needs to race in DMX's underground Mexico to LA competition and win. As always though, things aren't that simple. First, DMX's ex (Paulina Nguyen) has stolen two flash drives that have all the evidence of his criminal operation, and she's jumped into Jack's car; and second, the Mexican cartels have taken DMX, and his crew needs to rescue him. How will Jack maneuver his way out of this one?
Where do I go with this? It's not the Asylum's worst, but not their best either. I like DMX better here than Beyond the Law, but we still lose him for a good chunk of the middle of the movie. Michael DeVorzon was a solid enough lead, which helps, especially with DMX MIA. The problem is the problem most Asylum films have: they try to bang it out on the cheap, and often that means you get what you pay for. First off, Jack is only racing against two other people. What kind of race is that that only has two other cars? I grew up on Wacky Races, we need more than three contestants, but if you're doing it on the cheap, that's all you can afford. From there, when DMX goes MIA, he's replaced by his hench-person, played by Veronika Issa, who's good, but she's not DMX good. Part of me wonders why they even did that, because it's not like they couldn't have just shot a bunch of scenes of DMX reacting to things and looped them throughout the movie, especially since she was doing everything from one location too. Finally, with the short runtime (which I love!), they needed to make up for the areas where the plot dragged at points, so the end was one of those put on some eye protection as the loose ends fly together kind of deals. Just the same, it had its fun moments, and I think it gave us the Asylum mockumentary we were looking for.
In true Asylum fashion, you could say they forced us to put them in the Hall of Fame, because they were the only entity on the site--actor, director, studio, etc.--with 30 tags or more that wasn't in the Hall of Fame. I had two Sharknados in the can, parts 4 and 5, that I could have used for this post, but I decided against it, because when I did 3 during my Shark Week last summer, barely anyone read it. As much fun as Sharknado was, The Asylum couldn't get enough blood out of that stone, to the point people were sick of it. I think one could make a similar case for these Mockbusters, but when they have people like DMX in them, it's hard to say no; plus, Android Cop with Michael Jai White was one that I really liked. I think when these Mockbusters work, they're a lot of fun; and when they don't, there's almost a sense that The Asylum got one over on us, and I tell myself I won't be duped again, until I am. Here's to you Asylum, if anyone earned a spot in the Hall of Fame, it's you.
When I reviewed The Patriot, I included a comment on DMX after his passing, but when I saw that this Asylum film with him in it was available, I had to take the opportunity to give him a further spotlight. When you think of it, the same way Michael Jai White should have been RoboCop in the reboot as opposed to being in the Mockbuster, DMX should have been in the actual Fast and Furious movies too. Seeing him in this is a reminder of that, he would have been at home in scenes with Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, and the Rock. He was truly larger than life, and I think that comes across in this, to the point that when he's not onscreen, there's a void felt that lead Michael DeVorzon couldn't quite fill. The other thing was how this film and Beyond the Law felt like a pivot in his career, and had he not passed, I think he could have put up a Hall of Fame DTV career of his own. Really one of the all-time greats, and someone who will be missed.
It's easy to crush The Asylum and their Mockbusters, but over time in watching a lot of them, I've grown to appreciate the earnestness with which a lot of the casts in their films approach their roles. I don't know what the mindset is when an actor is told by their agent that they're up for a part in Fast and Fierce: Death Race instead of Fast and Furious 9, but to not mail it in is statement in and of itself. For example, Nate Walker plays Mick, the heel. I think you really have to be a professional to not only take a role in a movie like this, but agree to be a character that's so unlikable. Or Paulina Nguyen and Becca Buckalew's parts, they could just be any female leads that look good in leather pants, which for this film would have been enough, but instead they, and a lot of the other actors in the cast, look at this as more of an opportunity to show what they can do. Maybe one day they'll all make it--whatever "making it" looks like to them--and while they're on a press junket for that "made it" project, they can have fun with the guy from Access Hollywood as they talk about that Asylum film they did.
Finally, when The Asylum first started making movies, they had what they called a "temporal refund disclaimer," saying that anyone who complains that they want the time back that they lost in watching an Asylum movie unfortunately is out of luck. In my mind, I thought that ended the whole "that's 90 minutes I'll never get back" commentary on The Asylum's movies, but when I browsed the IMDb user reviews, there they were, people giving one star and requesting temporal refunds. As someone who's done 30+ of these--and will probably do another 30 more before I'm done--I can safely say you're not getting that time back, so the best thing you can do is create a blog and try to make something creative out of it. Blogger and WordPress are free, and I'm happy to give any advice if you shoot me an email. Make lemonade out of lemons, that's what I always say--or in my case, lemon water, which is fine too.
And with that, let's wrap this up. As of this writing, this is available on Showtime On Demand and Hoopla, so if you don't have Showtime as part of your cable package, in the US Hoopla is the way to go, because I think this is more of a free stream than it is something worth renting. Hopefully it'll join all of its Asylum siblings on Tubi soon too. Also, congratulations to The Asylum for their spot in the Hall of Fame. Next stop for you is the 40 Club and beyond--and we have plenty of Mockbusters out there to keep that tag count rising.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11765324
And if you haven't yet, check out my novel, Chad in Accounting, in paperback or on Kindle!
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