Deathsport

Starring:David Carradine, Claudia Jennings, Richard Lynch, William Smithers, Will Walker, David McLean, Jesse Vint, H.B. Haggerty, John Himes, Jim Galante, Peter Cooper, Peter Hooper (II), Brenda Venus, Gene Hartline, Chris Howell, Valerie Rae Clark, Archie Freeman, Paul Kimatian, Linnea Quigley
Director: Roger Corman, Allan Arkush, Nicholas Niciphor
Studio: New Concorde
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

After the success of the wicked little sci-fi satire Death Race 2000, producer Roger Corman quickly recast David Carradine, this time as a rebel warrior in the year 3000 paired with B-movie vixen Claudia Jennings. The resulting mix of barbarians and bikers lacks the inspired humor and satirical twist of its inspiration, but it works just fine as a drive-in action picture about gladiators on motorcycles and bug-eyed mutant cannibals in second-rate makeup. Carradine gets to go all kung-fu and Jennings bares all in completely gratuitous (and frankly bewildering) torture scenes, and for all their New-Agey philosophy mumbo jumbo, they rise to the occasion in the gladiator ring (the deathsport of the title), where they pack in enough cycle stunts and fiery crashes to please an exploitation junkie. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

this follow-up to deathrace 2000 isn't as much fun but as an action movie it's top notch.......2006-04-27

after "deathrace 2000" hit it big they quickly got david carradine together with the lovely and talanted claudia jennings(sadly not long after this movie she would die in a car wreck at 29,and never get to show the world her talent in bigger movies) to play "range guides" future "trail guides" for people moving around after the great "neturon wars". taken prisoners of the evil lord zipora(going mad as the brain tummor he has is killing him)and put into the "deathsport" where they are to be killed by his new motercycles that he plans to use to fight new wars . of corse these two warriors escape and the chase is on.
like i said not as great as deathrace but as a pure action movie it's pretty good. give it a chance and you'll like it i think.

Bilge.......2005-10-13

Yes my friends, it's time to review yet another one of Roger Corman's Comedy Classics. The 1978 film "Deathsport" arose from two significant incidents. One, the box office success of George Lucas's "Star Wars" virtually ensured that Corman would attempt to capitalize on that film's success. Two, Rog needed product to follow up on his "Death Race 2000" flick. Retaining the services of David Carradine and throwing in sound effects lifted directly from "Star Wars," Corman must have thought "Deathsport" would rake in millions. There's just one problem, however. "Deathsport" is an awful film. It's poorly scripted, cheesily acted, suffers from cheap production sets and lousy props, and generally runs about seventy-five minutes longer than its eighty-two minute runtime requires. I've seen many Roger Corman films thanks to the miracle of DVD technology, and have even enjoyed more than a few of them. For instance, I think "Humanoids From the Deep" is a massively entertaining movie. But "Deathsport" is in a category all its own. It's easily one of Corman's worst efforts. If you're familiar with his particular brand of low-grade sludge, you know that's saying a lot. When he misses, he misses big time. "Deathsport" is a huge miss.

The opening scenes of the film tell us that what we are about to see takes place in the future, 1000 years after an event called the Neutron Wars decimated humanity. Umm, o.k. Why not? It could happen. Then we see Carradine loping through rugged landscape clad in a cloak, a loincloth, and a few stock post-apocalyptic accoutrements. He's Kaz Oshay, a member of a rabidly individualistic sect possessing mental abilities and a tendency to speak dialogue that sounds like it came from a box of fortune cookies called the Range Guides. An evil dude by the name of Ankar Moor (Richard Lynch) sits nearby on a mountaintop, watching our hero through a scope while issuing frantic ambush orders to a bunch of hapless foot soldiers. Moor wants to capture Carradine's character at the behest of the evil Lord Zirpola (David McLean), a tyrant who rules over Helix City, so that the people in the city can watch Oshay die painfully in a spectator called...wait for it...DEATHSPORT! Predictably, Oshay falls into the hands of Moor and soon learns of a plot to wipe out as many Range Guides as possible. He teams up with one of them, Deneer (Claudia Jennings), to bring down the hegemony of Zirpola and Ankar Moor.

Along the way we're treated to one ham-fisted scene after another. Geez, where to start? How about with Ankar Moor's obvious comparisons to Darth Vader. He dresses in black, was once a Range Guide himself, and now works for an evil emperor...I mean Lord. Then there's the Deathsport itself. Set in a huge coliseum surrounded by cheering crowds--it's all created with canned sound effects and large paintings--the actual game is so lame I hesitate to describe it. Contestants drive fearsome death machines that shoot lasers that vaporize their enemies. Sounds great, doesn't it? It is until you realize these "death machines" are simply dirt bikes covered in molded plastic. Moreover, all they do is drive around popping wheelies and jumping over dirt ramps. Oshay and Deneer compete by running around this dirt obstacle course knocking the bad guys off the bikes, which then explode with big blooming fireballs. We even see one of the riders stumbling around on fire in slow motion. The subsequent escape, and thus the rest of the film, consists of endless chase scenes, explosions, and dialogue so dumb it'll lower your IQ score by fifty points. Will Oshay battle Ankar Moor in the end? Who will win? Who cares?

Whew. You'd have to check out "The Shape of Things to Come" or any of the Italian post-apocalyptic actioners to find a movie that compares with the mind-numbing banality of "Deathsport." Every actor associated with this boilerplate ought to have his or her SAG card seized and burned. It's been awhile since I've seen a film fail on so many levels. Ripping off sound effects and plot points from "Star Wars" is only the tip of the iceberg. Witness, for example, the over the top shenanigans from David McLean as Lord Zirpola. The actor who plays the character, David McLean, looks like a low rent Vic Morrow. His performance consists of threatening underlings when he's not clutching his head and roaring in pain from the "radiation poisoning" that's threatening his sanity. Then there is Claudia Jennings's sultry dance in her birthday suit. O.k., I really liked that part, but I couldn't help suppress a chuckle and a groan when I noticed that her dance was part of a torture devised by Lord Zirpola. The method of torture, you ask? Deneer must sashay through a bunch of dangling Christmas lights encased in plastic. When Zirpola flicks a switch, they cause immense pain. At least that's what I gathered from the ominous music and sound effects. Speaking of the music, the score consists of random synth noises slapped together. It's utter garbage.

Extras on the disc consist of trailers for "Big Bad Mama," "The Capitol Conspiracy," "Knocking on Death's Door," and "Death Race 2000." There's also a talk that lasts for roughly five seconds, long enough for David Carradine to punch out an interviewer who has the temerity to mention the word "Deathsport" to him. I'm kidding. There is no interview, but one could imagine such an incident occurring since the film is so incredibly awful. Still, I'm going to give the movie two stars because of the lovely Jennings and because I can't get enough of these terrible post-apocalyptic flicks. Avoid "Deathsport" like the plague unless you have similar interests.

Better than Kill Bill!!! Carradines best work!!!.......2004-07-07

Oh man. My friends and I went to Blockbuster to look for movies, and saw this movie. The cover looked totally tremendously spectacular! it was like.. omfg it owns the matrix special effect. The motorcycles were totally cool looking, and theyr swords are SO AWESOME, CUS THEY WERE CLEAR!. and oh man, i love how they recycle scenes over and over and put funny buzzing noises everytime the awesome motorcycles roll bye. The BEST, AND I MEAN BEST PART about this movie is when the girl gets naked in the torture chamber omg, my friends mom came in while we were watching, and we changed it right away, but thats another story. HAHA OMFG, THIS MOVIE IS AWESOME, the girl is hot too! and i love their ray guns, where whatever they shoot just dissapears, i also love how things explode for no reason. Yeah thats about it. A+!! I REALLY SUGGEST YOU BUY THIS MOVIE!... lol oh man... their swords... are... GREAT.

Death Sport.......2004-06-16

Entertaining cheerful low budget crap, that is strangely less dated than the bile of sword & sorcery films that came in the next decade.
Looking at this film now it is basically an adult version of Battlestar Gallatica, with violence and female nudity
David Carradine sleepwalks through this and he is still superb.
However this not in the same league as the brilliant satire DeathRace 2000. Still it's fun to see films like this, that would
not have a pray of being made in this day and age.

Post-apocalyptic World of the DeathSport.......2004-01-27

Death Sport is one of my favorite films. It is the best of the post-apocalyptic action genre which, sadly, with the fall of the Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union has seen its heyday. No one has done it better than Roger Corman. David Carradine, a free and independent "guide," exhibits a cold-blooded and deadly swordsmanship showing no mercy to the "enforcers," a uniformed, motorcycle-riding force of "state-men," the conformist and totalitarian-ruled city-dwellers of the future "after the neutron wars." Claudia Jennings co-stars as a warrior equal in prowess to Carradine and equally deadly to the "enforcers." Richard Lynch is superb as a renegade "guide" who joins the "enforcers" and leads them in their evil plans to capture enough "guides" to hold the Death Sport, a gladiator-like motorcycle combat in which the "enforcers" hope to prove the superiority of the "Death Machine" over the swordsmanship of the "guides." It's the details that make this movie so different. Carradine cleaning the blood from his sword on his cape, the sound-effect when he skewers an "enforcer," the short screams of the "enforcers" when they see imminent death in the upraised swords of Carradine or Jennings, or get vaporized by a "Death Machine," and the whole cold, death-embracing world created in the film. I find myself strangely attracted to this world in which I wouldn't last my first encounter with an "enforcer." Finally, Jerry Garcia did electric guitar-work on the soundtrack. The special features don't match the DVD case - there is no eight page booklet of an interview with Roger Corman - but I didn't buy this DVD for the interview.

Average customer rating:

this follow-up to deathrace 2000 isn't as much fun but as an action movie it's top notch
Bilge
Better than Kill Bill!!! Carradines best work!!!
Death Sport
Post-apocalyptic World of the DeathSport

Deathsport [Region 2]
Starring: David Carradine , Claudia Jennings , Richard Lynch , William Smithers , and Will Walker
Director: Roger Corman , Nicholas Niciphor , and Allan Arkush
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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