#220: Red Line

Release Date: December 8th, 1995

Format: Streaming (YouTube)

Written by: Rolfe Kanefsky, John Sjogren, and Scott Ziehl

Directed by: John Sjogren

3 Stars

What a crummy little hidden gem of a b movie. I loved it.

Featuring an all-star cast - I’m not joking - the movie is about a retired racer turned small-time thief, Jim (Chad McQueen), who works out of a garage by day and pulls off heists by night. One evening he’s spotted by a client, Keller, robbing a liquor store. Unfortunately for Jim, Keller is a shot-caller involved in organized crime.

The two come to an agreement: If Jim agrees to steal a red Ferrari from the mansion of a rival gangster (Michael Madsen) who’s living up in the Hollywood Hills, Keller won’t go to the cops about the liquor store robbery.

With no other options, Jim agrees, and when he successfully boosts the Ferrari, Keller is impressed enough to offer Jim a bigger job: Find a beloved blue Corvette that went missing somewhere in the San Fernando Valley and Keller will reward him with $25,000.

Sounds like a pretty good deal. But why such a big reward? That’s what Jim’s new girlfriend, Gem (Roxana Zal), wants to know. There’s gotta be something hidden in the car that Keller wants.

It’s a good plot, even though the movie can be pretty lousy at times. Director John Sjogren tries to instill some gritty swagger into his genre flick, but he can’t maintain a consistent tone with his camera or his performers. At its best the movie creates some excitement during the high speed chases, with a front bumper-mounted camera capturing some great low-angle shots of the pocked Los Angeles asphalt whizzing by at breakneck speed. I especially loved the scene of McQueen speeding his green Mustang through a cemetery and its maze of headstones. At its worst, though, the movie is a hammy mess. Sjogren can’t block or shoot dialogue to save his life, and Red Line consistently puts out a low-budget porno vibe as a result. 

But there’s a slummy allure to this movie. It’s not intended, but it’s there. 

Let’s start with the movie’s lead, Chad McQueen. He has shades of his dad’s charisma, and I actually think he’s quite good in the film, but there’s something cheap about him as a star. That iconic surname of his carries such heavy cinematic weight, he can never seem to get out from under it. This might be the best performance of his career, but you still never get the sense that he could be an actual star. 

As for Jan-Michael Vincent, Red Line catches him as his career and personal life were in the midst of a total freefall. Just days before filming, Vincent nearly killed himself in a cocaine and alcohol-fueled car accident, and the script had to be revised to include an explanation for why his character has horrific cuts and swelling to his face. The poor bastard can barely speak his lines in the film, and his character is seated in most scenes since Vincent was in such pain during the shoot. 

Roxana Zal is great as the young female lead, to the point where you sort of feel bad for her. Her performance is playful and she has a nice chemistry with McQueen; of course the script relegates her to an obligatory motel sex scene with frontal nudity. She seems too good for all this.  

Quite the supporting cast, too. Michael Madsen has just a few scenes. He’s in full ham mode here, squinting and chuckling, rasping out his lines as only Michael Madsen can. We also get a couple scenes from Corey Feldman who, like Jan-Michael Vincent, was in the midst of a career downfall and substance abuse issues. He’s kind of funny in the movie, but mostly pathetic, this former A-list child actor (a Goonie of all things, damn it), picking up a bit part as a slimy little creep in a straight-to-video b movie. We get a little Dom DeLuise at the beginning of the movie, too, yucking it up as McQueen’s boss at the mechanic’s shop. He’s clearly riffing most of his lines.

There are even a couple cameos, from sleazeball degenerate Ron Jeremy as a gardener and everybody’s favorite Estevez, Joe, as a tow truck driver.

Factor in the on-location shooting in mid-’90s Los Angeles, and Red Line becomes a strange b movie brew, where the sum is greater than its parts. 

Can’t you imagine all these minor stars wrapping the shoot for the day and grabbing a drink at some seedy dive on Sunset Blvd.? Dom DeLuise and Joe Estevez are probably trading Burt Reynolds and Charlie Sheen stories to see who can top who. Michael Madsen is off in the corner with Chad McQueen, sipping whiskey, and bothering him all night for more and more anecdotes about his dad. Jan-Michael Vincent and Corey Feldman are in the parking lot scoring god knows what. Hopefully somebody keeps Ron Jeremy away from young Roxana Zal, who’s gotta be thinking, “Is this it? Is this what it means to be a star?”

Red Line ends up being a great snap shot of a particular time and place, littered with has-beens and never-wases. It’s a slummy little success.