License to Ill

1975. David Carradine has just laid down his nunchucks as Kwai Chang "Grass-hoppa" Kane in Kung Fu. Sylvester Stallone is an unknown pug whose mug will soon be known all over the globe. B-movie producer Roger Corman is at the peak of his power. Together, this unlikely triad will create Death Race 2000, setting the template for all road-kill/future-shock movies to come -- including 1979's Mad Max and Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race remake, scheduled for release next year.

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More About

• Death Race
• David Carradine
• Kung Fu (TV Show)
• Sylvester Stallone
• Roger Corman

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Having seen DR2K in its original theatrical incarnation, we can tell you that it's pretty bad. 20/20 hindsight? Still rank. But there was a saying back then -- "That's bad meaning good, not bad meaning bad" -- and Death Race 2K has aged like fine synthetic lubricant. Inspired by the video game Death Race, the cult fave takes place in a denuded future America whose tyrannical leader, Mr. President, has, just for yuks, created a coast-to-coast competition designed to reward the wack job who mows down the highest number of pedestrians.

Carradine plays the semi-mechanical man named Frankenstein -- a character who reputedly influenced George Lucas in his creation of Darth Vader -- and Sly portrays his main rival, Chicago mobster "Machine Gun" Joe Viterbo, in the vehicular-manslaughter cheese fest, which screens as part of Midnite Movie Mamacita's monthly Grindhouse Redux series. A showing of John Hayes' drive-in cult classic Jailbait Babysitter follows at 11.