cult film freak: DAVID CARRADINE WITH CLAUDIA JENNINGS IN 'DEATHSPORT'

Title: DEATHSPORT Year: 1978 Rating: **1/2 Grade: C—

In the Roger Corman production DEATHSPORT, featuring a matte-painting used in the Corman-produced hit DEATH RACE 2000 now representing a Roman Colosseum facing the titular dirt-bike battle straight from the gladiator sub-genre... but that only happens for a relatively short time...

What this super-low-budget post-apocalyptic science-fiction adventure really entails... beyond caveman-clad David Carradine and sporadically-naked Claudia Jennings as primitively-enlightened heroes battling both Fascist upstart Richard Lynch and various desert-dwelling cannibals... are sound effects seeming straight out of the previous years' blockbuster STAR WARS...

Claudia Jennings in DEATHSPORT

That includes Darth Vader's asthmatic-breathing for whenever the futuristic white-walled dungeon doors open and close, or exterior tie-fighter engine-noises combined with wild-west pistol ricocheting as the armor-clad dirt-bikes zoom in and out of the camera...

Manned by stock Corman director Allan Arkush, the movie's action flows decently enough while sword-wielding Carradine seems more comfortable channeling another version of The Force, all of it based on Buddhist philosophy... that had suited his iconic KUNG FU persona...

David Carradine in DEATHSPORT

Thankfully the fast-paced fun stuff overpowers the slow-paced first act's all-too-familiar attempt to establish a built-in rebellion story... hindered by practical effects too cheap to take seriously...

But at least the popular niche-hobby of 1970's dirt-bike racing (used in the far superior cult movie DAMNATION ALLEY after being documented in ON ANY SUNDAY) gets handsomely exploited for the sake of stylized action over any effectively substantial plot-line.