This reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Running Man, Shawshank Redemption if you know where to look, and of course Battle Royale.

There’s not much you can say about this type of movie because it follows a strict set of ingredients in making it. No twists or turns that is going to surprise you; you even know exactly what the twist will be, when it will happen and how the story is going to end. What’s left to entertain is the literal entertainment from what the movie is all about – the thrill of the violence. But even that it was just passable entertainment.

One thing for sure was that, even when the vehicles themselves weren’t the main focus of the movie, and I’m wondering now why they weren’t made to be (there should have been proper introductions to each vehicle and what they could do); but they became the most entertaining bits whenever they were onscreen, and that’s saying a lot.

And here’s a movie-making flaw which directors should just come up with a new way of doing it: When the girls first came off the bus, their deprived counterparts were cheering and grabbing onto themselves as if they’ve never seen them before when in the story, they were there almost everyday. Their reaction just wasn’t consistent with the facts.

As for the acting, Jason Statham was doing what he has always been doing ever since arriving in this side of the ocean. It’s about time he did something else for his own sake. Joan Allen as the uptight bitch should have been more “down and dirty” in this setup than being “high up there” with the corporates. Ian McShane was uneffective and Tyrese Gibson was, well, Tyrese Gibson. And nothing here will help newcomer Natalie Martinez except announcing to Hollywood that she’s got the goods.

Rating: 5 / 10

(all images from imdb.com)