Redline (2007)
Directed by Andy Cheng
Written by Robert Forman
Starring Tim Matheson, Eddie Griffin, Angus MacFadyen
Release Date April 13th, 2007
Published April 14th, 2007
I've never heard of Chicago Pictures before but based on the company's first feature, the misogynist racing picture Redline, this is likely some fly by night outfit unsatisfied with fate as a direct to video product purveyor. Redline is an ugly, low budget Z-movie that only Roger Corman could love. Babes in bikinis are one thing but when the female lead is cast only for the look of her bust in various tight tops you know you are not dealing with a high class outfit.
How can a film so blindingly inept as Redline actually get released to theaters? It is a complete mystery. I have seen films made by teenagers on a budget no bigger than a six pack of Mountain Dew make a better movie on a cellphone camera than Redline. To be fair, the kid with the cellphone did have the advantage of a far better script.
Ostensibly the story of gangsters and an illegal off road classic car race, Redline is a z-movie take on Fast and the Furious without artistic integrity. A guy just back from the army accepts an invitation from his gangster uncle to participate in this illegal race only after his beloved cousin is killed in the course of a race.
Our army man is determined to find the people responsible for his cousins death and in the process finds a love interest in the form of a sexy car mechanic who gets roped into the race by a shady gambler (Eddie Griffin) and is then lost by the gambler as part of a bet on the race. Not knowing that she was the subject of a wager, our mechanic friend is not exactly a good sport about all of this.
The climax is an inevitable damsel in distress rescue with guns and explosions and no doubt a big smooch at the end for our heroes. I have no idea what actually happened at the end of Redline because I walked out. Yes, I know, that is not very professional of me. In my defense; you haven't seen how truly excremental Redline is.
There is only so much misogyny that I can put up with and Redline simply crosses the line. In the background of nearly every scene of Redline are women dancing in cages, women running around in bikinis or, directly in front of the camera is the female lead of the film in a too small tank top pointing her breasts toward the screen.
Now, as a man I won't deny enjoying looking at beautiful women in various states of undress. However, if I want to objectify women, I'll do it in the privacy of my own home. Redline is so disgustingly misogynist, so leeringly creepy, that it really feels like porn even though there is no nudity. Oh yeah! no nudity and yet Redline manages to feel dirtier than most of the softcore garbage on Cinemax late at night.
Mostly, it's the perverse attitude of the film. The fact that there is no strong female presence that isn't somehow an objectified piece of meat. The fact that every frame is filled with the cast offs of Girls Gone Wild. I realize that Redline is all in good fun and that the women in the movie take part of their own volition but I failed to see the point of it all.
Making things worse is the utter ineptitude of the making of Redline. From the awful, grubby cinematography of Bill Butler to the slipshod editing of Dallas Puett to director Andy Cheng's stunningly incompetent direction. It's fair to say I was almost as offended by the sheer awfulness of Redline as I was by its attitudes.
Blindingly awful, Redline is an example of the kind of film that for a long time didn't make it to theaters. This trash used to go directly to video stores. Now, more and more, movies of this ilk are ending up at the multiplex and it is an absolute mystery to me. A movie like Redline may not have cost anything to be made but how much money could this garbage have made in the week it was in theaters? Enough to pay for the film that was wasted on it?
I doubt it.
