Precisely the kind of a movie that the film critics pan for having no merits, Deathrow Gameshow follows a dystopic and amoral TV show that puts Deathrow convicts competing in various events in order to save their lives – not unlike something you would read from Judge Dredd comics.

If the concept seems familiar from The Running Man, another 1987 movie with the same kind of concept, here the emphasis is more on the comedic mishaps that the ruthless gameshow host faces as he drives his convertible from his hillside Malibu home to work to shoot another three episodes of the show.

Although the movie is such an obvious one trick pony, the movie makes for a surprisingly easy to watch experience. The humour is hit and miss, but when it hits, it surely finds its target. The end commercial spoof reel demonstrating various uses for the deceased bodies for example got a pretty decent chuckle out of me.

Being as crude and uneven as it is, Deathrow Gameshow cannot really be recommended to anyone. But I do applaud the nonconventional approach here to try to do something a bit off the beaten path. The world occasionally needs stupidity like this.

80s-o-meter: 86%

Total: 61%