Death Race 2 is a 2010 action film that was directed by Roel Reiné and written by Tony Giglio, who co-developed its story with Paul W. S. Anderson.

Death Race 2 was greenlit as a prequel that tells the origin story of the franchise's protagonist Frankenstein without the directorial involvement of Anderson, who was retained as producer, and the appearance of Jason Statham.

He directed the 30-day shoot without a second unit, served as his own cinematographer, albeit uncredited, and opted for locations in which he could have a few sets going all at once, to manage the schedule and the $6–18 million budget.

Death Race 2 earned $8.4 million in US home video sales as well as generally positive reviews—many critics received it favorably over the previous film and praised its action scenes and supporting cast.

Luke jumps into the caged arena to fight Big Bill, briefly assisted by convict ring girl Katrina Banks.

To earn their freedom, prisoners must win five races driving heavily armed, reinforced vehicles over three days, and female convicts must play navigators for each racer.

Additional members of the cast include Patrick Lyster as Warden Parks, DeObia Oparei as Big Bill, Hennie Bosman as Xander Grady, Joe Vaz as Rocco, Danny Keogh as Dr. Klein, Warrick Grier as Calin, and Tanya van Graan as Holly.

Giglio conceived the protagonist, Carl "Luke" Lucas, as a stark contrast to the Jason Statham character that headlined the previous film, saying: "He wasn't framed.

Reiné said he added a fight scene and a high-speed police chase to the bank heist sequence to establish Luke as a skilled fighter and high-performance driver prior to "Death Race".

[23] Likewise, Reiné lobbied the producers to add some slow, tender moments to the script to pause for character and drama and temper its rapid pacing.

[29] Because Universal wanted the film shot in high definition, Reiné opted for the Sony CineAlta F35 and the Phantom digital movie cameras.

Upon performing a test shoot of the cameras, Reiné found the F35 and the Phantom produced desirable image qualities, had better shutter speeds, and could manage with quick hand-held movements.

[33] Goss told Den of Geek he accepted the lead role because he was largely sold on the script, which he thought had a plot-driven story beyond the "fun" action set pieces.

[37][38] Reiné said the production managed to locate almost all of the cars from the original film in the United States, where they would buy them back from the collectors who had purchased them, and that they had to rebuild the missing two—a Dodge Ram and a Chrysler—"from scratch".

[56] A defunct hospital was used as the prison clinic despite Reiné's complaints about its "disgusting" smell of dried human blood emanating from dirty towels "from 10, 20 years ago" in one of the rooms.

[59][iii] Reiné said the police chase on the freeway, which ends at Cape Town's unfinished bridge,[61] could not be shot until Sunday, between six and nine o'clock in the morning.

[63] Reiné had trouble with the dilapidated Ford Mustang when shooting Goss' test drive sequence, saying it would either break down or not start at all on the crew, in which case he "had to push it for the next day".

[65] Reiné stated he resorted to incorporating into the sequences 20 percent of the unused second-unit footage from the original film because, unlike Anderson, he had limited time to shoot his own racing scenes, which he shot in just one week.

[67] Driving stunts were performed with very little computer-generated imagery (CGI), a decision that was influenced by Reiné's affinity for 1980s action films using this approach.

[71]An AOL Moviefone journalist who served as an extra wrote that Robin Shou was nearly killed on set when a rapidly descending metal gangway narrowly missed his head.

Reiné and screenwriter Tony Giglio returned for the sequel, as did Luke Goss, Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames, Fred Koehler, Robin Shou, and Tanit Phoenix, alongside series newcomers Dougray Scott and Hlubi Mboya.

[13] Screen Daily found the action scenes "nicely staged",[89] and Salon.com said they measure up to those of director Roel Reiné's prior direct-to-video sequel film The Marine 2, crediting his "inability to just mail these things in" for the quality of the result.

[90] "Once the diesel starts burning," wrote DVD Verdict, "non [sic] of the chase scenes, sadly, measure up to even the weakest of those found in Death Race",[91] a sentiment shared by The A.V.

[96] While acknowledging the film's commitment to genre fundamentals of '80s or '90s action films, including the portrayal of women as sexual objects, Den of Geek said it is content to leave Tanit Phoenix and Lauren Cohan in perfunctory roles of Goss' love interest and a "ruthlessly ambitious arch bitch", in Reiné's "Bay-o-vision" shot composition which draws a considerable amount of attention to their cleavage.

"[5] The Winnipeg Free Press deemed Goss and Cohan unworthy of Statham and his co-star Joan Allen,[97] and Total Film said the acting is "awful" but that Bean at least "provides welcome respites from all the prison-based dullness".

[90] DVD Talk commented the film's goal is to show not acting prowess but bloody violence, guns, and women as sexual objects, citing Cohan's "agonizing, cleavage-popping performance" in a promiscuous role as an example.

[98] In the opinion of ComingSoon.net, Reiné abandoned plot for "tons of flashy slow-motion shots, multiple 360-degree pans and countless 'cool looking' inserts", and that "the effects look so terrible you'll cringe more than even laugh at how amateur it is".

was just as critical of the abundant slow motion in addition to the "horrible electronic soundtrack seemingly pulled from a decade-old Matrix clone, which grates more than entertain".

[96] DVD Talk described Death Race 2 as "a visually stimulating picture that keeps to basic ingredients", praising its stunts, "crisp cinematography", and willingness to fully take advantage of its premise "with a little more spunk" than its predecessor.

[7] IGN credited Reiné with making the film look slick and more expensive than its budget suggests on Blu-ray,[43] while HorrorNews.net found the editing "top notch" and the soundtrack "pretty bad ass".