Red Line

A B-grade action movie with some well-known actors in it.

Look out for Jan-Michael Vincent as one of the bad guys. Notice anything peculiar about him ? Well, the truth is, Jan-Michael, as we all know, struggled with some drinking problems in real life, got smashed up in an vehicle accident a day or two prior to shooting this movie, but still showed up at the set - to everyone's surprise ! His face was still badly swollen and if you look carefully you will notice the hospital band on his wrist ! This actor quite literally got up from the hospital bed and went straight to the set - Amazing ! Anyway, Jan has been through some pretty rough times and we salute his courage to still honor his commitments in this entertaining, but forgettable "Friday-night video" type movie.

RED LINE is a bore. A sloppy, unfunny mess of an action film with an inviting box and a well-cut trailer. The acting is bad, the camera work is bad, the stunts are bad. Everything about this film, really, is bad. Decent exploitation cast is wasted. Jan Michael Vincent is interesting to watch because his face is a mangled mess thanks to his unfortunate car accident. This is another of those productions that could've been a lot of fun with a competent director concentrating on making the car chase scenes exciting, rather than a hack job to flood a market overflowing with lackluster action pictures.Yawn.

This movie is hideously bad. You can't blame the cast, especially Michael Madsen, but what are they doing in this junk? Even Corey Feldman and Robert D'Zar are completely wasted. Jan-Michael Vincent looks as though he has been in a serious accident--his face is full of scars and his speech is somewhat warbled. I won't even comment on Dom Deluise.

The real problems are the direction and writing, both done by the same no-name. The dialogue is so inept it is laughable. Another problem is the stuntwork, or lack thereof. Most of the stunts consist of cars spinning around on grass or dirt or pavement, cars quickly accelerating/decelerating, or even cars driving off ledges (wow!!) There aren't even any explosions or gunplay.

Do yourself a favor--avoid this movie.

This movie is excellent for Race Car drivers and fans of Nascar, because this movie looks just like my video game, Top Gear Rally on the Nintendo 64 system. This movie has a great deal of good action, stunts, plot, exceptionally good acting, and stars from the past. Chad McQueen did an excellent job as an actor and a stunt car driver in this film, on how he set up two different organized crimes, and they killed each other while he ran off with a ton of smack. Jan-Michael Vincent did an excellent job too, even though his age is really starting to show in this film, but he did have a motorcycle accident the day before they started filming, at times in the film, you can actually see his hospital band believe it or not! Jan-Michael Vincent, dominated this film, just like all his others! Since now that his age is really kicking in, he makes a perfect bad guy or a psycho path (Hidden Obsession). I recommend this film to all Hollywood B-movie fans!

As a fan of car chase films, as soon as I heard about this one I had to see it. I was annoyed that when I tried to watch the trailer on the internet that it wouldn't play, which meant I couldn't get a taster of it. But now I finally own the film on DVD and I have to say that I'm glad I do as RED LINE, while not exactly a great car chase film, is enjoyable enough.

I think it's unfair to try and compare Chad McQueen to his father. I mean, we might as well face it. Chad will never be as good as his father Steve. But I think he should be judged for his own qualities. In this film he is very good in the action hero role, and handles the stunt driving excellently. One problem I had with the car chases was that at times it seems the cars aren't going very fast at all. But they are still exciting. It was a bit cheeky how they have Chad drive a green Mustang like the one his dad drove in BULLITT at one point, but the cars on display are all beauties, especially the contraband-carrying Corvette that the main body of the plot revolves around.

Roxana Zal is quite good as leading lady Gem and Jan-Michael Vincent is very menacing as main bad guy Keller. Strangely though, MIchael Madsen who is given very high billing in the credits is barely involved in the movie, but is still very good. It's a shame Dom DeLuise and Corey Feldman didn't have more to do. I love the way that Chad manages to stitch up both sets of bad guys looking for the Corvette's cargo in the end.

In short, RED LINE is a good enough way to spend an hour and a half in my opinion.