I watched Death Race a few days ago, and it was pretty much what I expected it to be: an over-the-top, check-your-brain-at-the-door explosion fest with a thin plot and mediocre acting.

It was the kind of movie that Isaac Asimov used to go watch whenever he had written himself into a corner: apparently he used so little brain power while watching these movies that his subconscious was free to develop some of his most brilliant ideas in the meantime.

The great thing about this kind of movie is that none of its flaws really hurt it all that much, because everyone who comes to see the movie expects those flaws to be there. Honestly, if I had walked into Death Race and been confronted with a movie with genuine character development and solid, clever dialogue it would have just felt wrong.

So all in all, I was very happy with the movie. Of course, part of what made it so interesting to me may have been its stunning, nostalgic similarity to a little gem of a computer game from way back in 1996 called Death Rally. Published by 3DRealms, the makers of Duke Nukem 3D, the game allowed you to race around winding tracks while raking your opponents with chainguns, slamming into them with bumper-spikes, and liberally applying nitrous oxide to your fuel stream.

It was an awesome game, and you can still download the basic shareware version. I recommend you check it out, although, as with most games that old, if you don’t have any nostalgia for it you’ll probably find it unplayable. Your loss!

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