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Death Race is a remake/homage to the fabulous Roger Corman produced B-movie Death Race 2000. Unfortunately this new Death Race is not as fun and certainly not as funny as the 1975 film in which points are scored for hit and runs. Gore and violent death are depicted with exquisite care in this movie, but it’s just not that much fun. Some will like the cars and the driving scenes which are well done and must have cost a pretty penny to produce. Maybe I’m just a cynic, but you just don’t care about any of these characters and so just don’t care who wins or dies. Jason Statham is an OK actor and we should feel bad for his situation, but I just couldn’t. What really turned me off about this movie was the disclaimer at the end admonishing us not to attempt any of the stunts depicted in the film. What lawyer convinced them they needed to have that in there? Or was it a clever Corman gimmick to make us want to do something stupid and blame the movie and create some publicity? I don’t care. If you want to have fun, find a copy of Death Race 2000. It’ll cost less than the ticket to this Death Race.

A Summer blockbuster that isn’t afraid to go there, wherever there is. Movie parodies are not new, but there hasn’t been a movie that pokes fun at a movie genre like this in my memory. This movie won’t appeal to everyone and it’s not for the youngsters. It earns its R rating with some very adult language that is pretty funny in how and when it’s delivered. Robert Downey is once again brilliant in his character. He is really hitting his stride as an actor. Ben Stiller is good as the action hero archetype. All the usual Hollywood stereotypes are presented in their stereotypical ways. The cold-blooded producer/studio mogul, sycophantic agent, crazed director and pampered actor are all played seriously and the decent dialog makes for some clever and very humorous scenes. Some folks will not recognize Tom Cruise in the film, but his voice is easily recognizable. He only has one voice and has never been able to produce any kind of believable accent. His character portrayal was arguably the best thing in the movie, but all the characters and a good script are what make this a worthwhile movie to see.

I just spent a week down in North Myrtle Beach seeing my Dad, Stepmom, and Brother. My brother has been going down for years and his in-laws for decades, so they know the area. My Dad lives in Florida and it is a not too inconvenient place for us all to get together. My brother gets a condo on the beach and we got a good deal on a place less than a mile away just behind the House of Blues. Being off the beach means lower prices and less parking hassles. The resort had a shuttle that would take you to the beach or the nearby shopping plaza, which is a nice added service.

Our condo was very nice. Well appointed with washer/dryer, dishwasher, icemaker, and all the kitchenware you needed. We had three bedrooms and each had its own bath and even its own entrance, if you wanted to use it.The resort pool was huge and was filled with salt water. Not as salty as the sea, but still salted. It must be cheaper to maintain that way. North Myrtle is family friendly and there were lots of kids and families of all sorts in the pool all day. I would go for a walk in morning up and down the marina and look at the boats and wander around the resort roads. With temperatures in the 90’s, it was easy to work up a sweat and I’d hit the pool for a bit to stretch out and cool down. A large hot tub(small hot pool really) was poolside too. Many a golf widow came out early to get some sun, or maybe just to get away from the kids. There was evidence of real money along the quay with some impressive power boats and cabin cruisers. Hummers, vette’s and a white Ferrari F430 were regular visitors to the boats. I’m not into golf anymore, so I left that up to my brother and dad. I would venture out to various pawnshops to see what I could see. Evenings we’d play poker with some of the older kids. I lost several dollars in Texas Hold’em due to knowing how to play, which is a severe disadvantage with my family.

There was a jetski outfit on the dock that would lead you out into the Atlantic to see dolphins feeding around the shrimp boats. I had to try it and took my nephew and his fiance too. They rode together on one ski and I was on one by myself. I hadn’t been on a jetski before and the guide scared me a little saying we’d have to make 30mph along the waterway to get out to the ocean and the swells would be over 5 foot. His claim of 30mph was a bit off. Once out of the ‘no wake’ zone of the marina, I was doing 50mph trying to keep up. I learned quickly to use my legs as shock absorbers. I went over some wakes and hit hard a few times. Out in the ocean it was even more fun with the swells. I was airborne a lot going through the surf. It was so much fun I couldn’t believe it. We did see a number of dolphins, but it was difficult to take pictures. I had to try to control the jetski with the waves coming at me and then try to focus on the sea creatures who came up when I least expected them. I got a couple of shots of fins. I tell people they were sharks.
Coming back we got to just play with the jetskis. I gave my camera to my nephew to get some action shots of me, but he apparently had problems finding the power button and so there is no evidence of me flying across the waters of the Intercoastal Waterway. I got great pictures of him and his fiance, of coarse.

The week didn’t last very long at all and I had to return to my hovel here in Western PA. I look forward to my next visit and can see how it can easily become a tradition for anyone.

Saturday started out pretty dreary, but I headed down to Morgantown, WV to compete in the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) West Virginia Championship. It had stormed off and on overnight and anyone who has ever set up a match knows how the weather can really muck up the best laid plans. I pulled into the Mason-Dixon Rifle Club wondering not only if I was going to need a rain jacket, but maybe waders too. The M.D.R.C. is kind of my home club and I know what water can do to the shooting bays. Lew Soccorsi is the President of the Club and coordinates the IDPA events. He and his crew worked tirelessly preparing for this event and it was evident that Lew had all his ducks in a row. This was their second time hosting the WV State Championship in as many years and Lew doesn’t leave anything to chance. The shooting bays were in great shape and we were lucky that we only suffered some light rain off and on throughout the morning hours. The schedule said shooting would start at 0800 and you know what? I do believe I heard rounds going down range at 0759. Getting started on time has a big psychological effect on folks. It told me we were going to have another well run match. There were 10 stages of fire spread out over 9 shooting bays including an indoor stage with reduced lighting. There were 10 squads and most squads had 10-11 shooters. RO’s shot the match Friday, so I figure close to 130 people participated in this match. I met shooters from South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and even a few from West Virginia. It’s hard to find a friendlier group of people. In IDPA I’ve found there are only a few degrees of separation  between us all. You talk to a perfect stranger and within a minute or two you both were at a match with so-n-so, who everybody knows.

The stages were fairly straight forward, yet tested a number of essential gun handling skills. There were strong hand and weak hand only strings on one stage and several stages required shooting from unconventional positions such as kneeling, prone and supine. The use of cover was emphasized throughout. There were doors to open and vehicles to shoot around. Targets were standard IDPA and poppers. Many of the paper targets had hard cover areas painted black that attracted a fair number of hits in our squad. This forced me to really concentrate on that front sight.

There were some targets activated by poppers and one interesting mover set off by an electric eye. That was arguably the most challenging stage with a variety of targets and when the mover was triggered it was exposed for what seemed like only a second and a half. Even though you knew it was coming and you could be ready for it, it moved by really quick. I fired 3 rounds and got 2 hits (both down 1).

Everyone in my squad was impressed with how smooth everything went and how professional the RO’s and volunteers were. They were great! They made sure the shooters experience was the best it could be. They were fair and very helpful. Safety was stressed at all times. We only had one reshoot due to a popup target malfunction. We actually finished almost an hour before the scheduled time and no one was complaining about that. Even the lunch provided was exceptional. A nice catering job. Everyone had plenty to eat and even leftovers during the awards presentations.

The swag bag was decent. A nice T-shirt design and some vendor samples. Springfield Armory donated a couple of XD 9mm’s. One was raffled off to raise money for the club and the other was given as a door prize for the RO’s. A very considerate gesture to recognize the folks that worked their butts off before, during and after the match. Had I known I could have won an XD (even a 9mm), I might have tried to get into an RO class this year. The prize table was pretty good too. Blackwater and Storm Mountain donated certificates to attend one of their classes and Starline donated gift certificates for some brass. Glock owners were particularly happy to see the number of donated magazines. There were the usual range bags, T-shirts and various vendor items.

Oh, and how did I do? Well, I’m proud that I placed First as Sharpshooter in the Stock Service Revolver division. Revolvers are seriously under represented in IDPA. I shot my stock S&W 686 4″ in a Bladetech Kydex holster. I used Remington 158gr. Lead hollow point +P ammunition that factory specs says would make a 140,620 power factor. Nobody can accuse me of using wimpy loads for an advantage. The spirit of IDPA is to use real world handguns with real world loads. If I can be accused of any ‘gaming’ it might be the Safariland Comp III’s I used. They are big and bulky and I honestly haven’t carried them on the street where the Comp II’s are hard to beat.

So, it was a fun match and I did pretty good for my ego and have a piece of wood for my wall. I met some interesting people and got to shoot almost 150 rounds in a day. Some may think my expectations are low, but to me it doesn’t get much better than that.

If you carry a handgun for defense of self and/or those in your care, then competition like IDPA can only improve your skills.