To sum up the 2007 film “Redline” in one brief description, it would basically be “The Fast and the Furious: The Music Video.” This 90-minute intended joyride is definitely just a lemon with a wax job and some new car
To sum up the 2007 film “Redline” in one brief description, it would basically be “The Fast and the Furious: The Music Video.”
This 90-minute intended joyride is definitely just a lemon with a wax job and some new car smell.
The plot of the movie is…. well…. it’s sort of hard to say, actually. There’s a family feud that involves revenge, a faux millionaire who owes more than he can counterfeit, a band looking to make it big, a Vegas playboy who loves to throw his money around, a recently returned American soldier who can’t go five minutes without throwing down in fisticuffs, a kidnapped mother, a dead brother, a music mogul with a drag race fetish, a tragically killed race car driver, plus a love(?) story.
It takes a truly skilled writer to intertwine all these plot points into a coherent piece of cinema.
One would have been useful on this script.
The whole movie revolves around illegal drag races organized by millionaires who enjoy gambling on their own cars, without concern for human life.
Director Andy Cheng, who has just two director credits to his resume, uses plenty of quick cuts and close-ups during the race sequences, which actually turned out half-decent, while still implausible. The problem is the rest of the movie, as there are no characters we have a vested interest in, nor one main storyline we care about.
The movie tallied an impressive 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with nary a critic willing to say anything positive.
The dialogue is pretty terrible, with a few exceptions. Comedian Eddie Griffin, playing a rapper named Infamous, is mostly cringe-worthy, though he does deliver a few good lines in his trademark speedy cadence.
Angus Macfadyen gives the only completely believable performance, playing an eccentric villain. He saves any scene he’s in, at least as much as it can be saved.
The lead is played by Nadia Bjorlin. No, I’d never heard of her either. Apparently she’s now a soap actress, which isn’t surprising. Sure she’s beautiful and did bring some vulnerability to the character, but not much else.
The other lead was some guy named Nathan Phillips. He was certainly the most entertaining part of the movie, with the cheesiest and most cliché delivery imaginable.
This movie featured rare cars that cost upwards of $3 million. You would think they could have used a small chunk of that loot to bring in someone somewhat likable to play the lead role, a character we are supposed to be rooting for.
It wasn’t that this specific character was out of his range, but that any character with the ability to speak would have been out of his range.
Tim Matheson shows his face in another terrible movie, which has become his calling card.
The most interesting aspect of the movie is that Griffin totaled an Enzo Ferrari, valued at $1.2 million, when he crashed into a barricade while promoting the film. The car belonged to Daniel Sadek, the movie’s producer.
If they could have somehow included that footage (which can be found on YouTube), the movie would have at least had a small slice of drama and realism.
Many details just don’t make any sense, like a gun fight on an L.A. street corner as nobody else around seems to mind or Griffin watching one back-alley street race on a TV in his limousine without the race actually being recorded.
If you like fast cars, scantily-clad women and, well, little else, there are plenty of better resources to appease those desires than “Redline,” which will only make you despise them.
