Bullet Points: Fast and Fierce: Death Race
2020 will forever be known as the year of the Coronavirus Pandemic. This world altering event has impacted everyone and everything.
Well maybe not everything… because while entire sports seasons have been cancelled or postponed and the release of blockbuster movies like F9 have been delayed, The Asylum’s “mockbuster” factory is still churning out fresh content like the subject of this edition of Bullet Points, 2020’s Fast and Fierce: Death Race…
- Family: Michael DeVorzon plays former NASCAR driver Jack Tyson. Jack has traveled to Mexico to help his compulsive gambling younger brother Nelson out of a jam, but Jack is about to get more than he bargained for. Nelson is seven figures in debt to a crime boss named Davie (DMX, Cradle 2 the Grave)… but Davie doesn’t want Nelson to pay him back in cash, he wants Nelson to convince his brother Jack to compete in an illegal race known as The Outlaw 1000, a race that Davie is taking gambling action on.
- The Outlaw 1000: Jack retired from the racing game a few years prior and pretty much swore off racing ever again due to an event that still haunts him to this day, but here he is… back behind the wheel to save his brother’s life. Jack will have to compete against two other racers in the Outlaw 1000. One is a cocky, young street racer named Mick (Nate Walker), who looks at Jack as some sort of dinosaur. The other is Nina (Becca Buckalew), who fancies herself an Instagram celebrity. The race starts in Navoja, Mexico and ends in Los Angeles, California. And considering the race starts around the movie’s ten minute mark, I got the suspicion that it was not going to go perfectly or this was going to be a really short movie.
- Checkpoint Carlos: There are three designated checkpoints programmed into each driver’s GPS that they must check in at during the Outlaw 1000 (it doesn’t hurt the gambling end of things either as bets can be taken on who gets to each checkpoint first). Jack Tyson arrives first at the first checkpoint, proving there’s no substitute for experience. The checkpoint is a restaurant that Davie owns in Hermosillo, Mexico. Once all three racers arrive, they have lunch before the race resumes. As the racers are wrapping up their lunch, a mysterious woman sneaks into the kitchen and opens a safe that is hidden in the restaurant’s industrial sized refrigerator, she manages to snag some thumb drives and narrowly avoids death by meat cleaver… she darts out of the building and hops in Jack’s car and franticaly tells him she needs to get to Los Angeles.
- Jack and Bianca Raced Up a Hill: We learn that the mystery woman is a former lover of Davie named Bianca (Paulina Nguyen). Bianca has cut a deal with the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles to bring down her former boyfriend and the thumb drives she stole include the ledgers of all of Davie’s illegal activities. Jack is reluctant at first and wants to drop off Bianca at the nearest bus stop but Bianca manages to convince Jack to help her get to L.A.
- Maximizing Her Minutes: Aside from learning his former girlfriend has possession of evidence that could put him away for a long time, things are about to get worse for Mr. Davie when La Policia show up and take Davie away because he didn’t cut them in on the Outlaw 1000 gambling action. This effectively takes DMX out of the movie as he only appears briefly after the arrest, but it allows the Gillian character (played by Veronika Issa) to step up and take control of Davies’ operations. As great as DMX was as the villain, including a verbal dressing down of Nelson that was punctuated by DMX’s deep and menacing voice, Gillian may have actually out heeled her boss when it was all said and done.
- This Ain’t No Joy Ride: Don’t let the trials and tribulations of Davie make you think Jack and Bianca have an easy road ahead of them… They have to deal with everything that Gillian throws at them including using family members against them, plus there’s a Cartel roadblock, Mick (who has a major hard on for Jack and wants to take him out) and Bianca doesn’t have a visa to cross the border into the United States!
Fast and Fierce: Death Race was the second stop on DMX’s action movie comeback tour following last year’s Beyond the Law and I hope we get to see more of DMX in the world of action entertainment in the future.
With the exception of DMX, I was seeing the cast of Fast and Fierce: Death Race for the first time. Michael DeVorzon made a great first impression with me… he had just the right amount of swagger and the character of Jack Tyson was believable and felt genuine.
Also genuine was the vehicular action. Fast and Fierce: Death Race was filled with practical effects and real stunt driving.
Before we get to the finish line, I’ve got some real Bonus Bullet Points for you, no CGI required…
- ICYMI: Fast and Fierce: Death Race is actually The Asylum’s second “Fast and Fierce” movie, the first was 2017’s The Fast and The Fierce starring Adrian Paul and Dominique Swain.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see a toilet brush used as a weapon, then Fast and Fierce: Death Race is the movie for you.
- Directed By: Fast and Fierce: Death Race was directed by Jared Cohn, who also directed the action horror flick, The Horde, starring Paul Logan.
