Sob o Comando do Crime

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.

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.

Lots of cars get wrecked in this movie which is only fitting, as this is a car wreck of a movie. You know you shouldn't stare, but you go ahead and do it anyway. If you hang in there and keep watching, you'll be treated to classic scenes such as a car chase in which identical film clips keep looping to give the impression that the chase stretches over an extended period. A lead actress so bad she would be hooted off the stage of a high school production. And former "big name" actors who have some explaining to do if they ever want to be taken seriously again.

Red Line is a cult classic in my house. Me and a buddy of mine have watched it about a hundred times. More recently I've uploaded it to iMovie and edited it down to a 45 minute version with a Rolling Stones soundtrack that works perfectly with it. Thing is, this is not a masterpiece but 50% of it is really good fun. It has a wonderful cast who look like they're having a great time. The dialogue is hilarious in some places, not necessarily intentional every time, but a lot of it comes across as very natural or possibly ad-libbed. Either way, much like Star Wars (which is renowned for bad dialogue) it's endlessly quotable. A few of my favourites include -

"Kill us and the deal's off"

"I got a name for ya Larry, Squidlips"

"No, no not the fag!"

"DD, VD, DD what the feck is a DD?"

"You ask a lotta questions, are you a fekkin cop?"

On top of all that you have Jan Michael Vincent who had been in a serious road accident just before filming. His face is a mess and looks horribly painful, but that doesn't stop Michael Madsen from making jokes about it in a scene with Chad McQueen. The soundtrack is terrible and makes some of the car chase scenes seem boring, when in fact they are actually well done. Add in a bit of the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack (as I did) to accompany the chases and suddenly they're great fun. Anyway if you get a chance to see this, it has a lot to recommend. Like I said half of it is great, the other half just shows up how low budget it is. But I love this film all the same.