Deathsport (1978)

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Siskoid
Somewhere between He-Man and Deathrace 2000, there is Deathsport, a Roger Corman production that has some moments of grandeur, but is mostly tedious. Maybe it's just me, but the stupidest exploitation genre is the motorcycle movie. And for all its sword and sorcery tropes, this flick is a motorcycle movie. David Carradine plays a barbarian warrior in the year 3000, dragged to the big fascist city to die in a killer motocross event, and eventually getting the chance to topple the entire regime. There is a LOT of motorcycle stuff, and while it's accompanied by very nice, but not always motivated, explosions, it gets to be a drag after a while. I appreciate the weird myth-building, but it comes with stilted dialog meant to represent an other world. The mutants subplot should have been jettisoned, and some scenes are obviously out of sequence. The final duel is actually pretty cool though. Visually, the expressionistic lighting in the city seems a precursor to sci-fi art film Beyond the Black Rainbow. It's like every time I want to throw a compliment at it, we get another interminable motorcycle sequence that makes you wonder how these "death machines" are in any way going to help the bad guys defeat the insurrection. 4 years 2 months ago