52 Pick-Up #29 – Redline (2009)

Readers...START...YOUR...ENGINES

Cause it's time for another installment of 52 Pick-Up!

Okay. That was a little underwhelming. Hey, can't win 'em all. For those just jumping in for the first time, this is my year long project to keep writing and keep expanding the cinematic horizons with 52 first time movie watches.

The summer is flying and as we work into the big spectacle of the summer movie season, it feels fitting to roll a movie that would be considered as going big to match.

In some ways, Redline might not be considered this. Rather than being a huge studio offering, the movie was the years-in-the-making hand drawn passion project of Takeshi Koike and animation studio Madhouse. On the other, this is a movie that goes big, loud, and as a result it is an incredibly fun ride that I now hope someone sorts out the distribution for, because I would love a chance to see this on a big screen.

So what is Redline?

I'm gonna give two pitches here – one that is the actual story, the other that is the vibe of said story.

The story – It is your proverbial far away galaxy in time and space. As the opening crawl states, even with advances in technology, racing still continues to be a thing. This is best embodied in the galaxy's most popular race, the Redline – a high stakes, traveling race that moves from planet to planet. The movie starts by introducing us to our hero, Sweet JP, during the last round of eliminations to qualify for Redline. JP is a skilled driver, but also a professional spoiler – he races just well enough to skew the odds, then is prevented from winning to allow the mob to cash out on anyone who bet on him. Following his being taken out of the eliminations, it looks like JP will be sitting out the Redline, until he is informed he qualifies from a mix of popular demand and the fact two other racers dropped out.
Why did those other racers drop out? Because this time the race is slated to be held in the demilitarized moon of a planet called Roboworld: a world where the inhabitants are technologically enhanced, armed to the teeth and have NO interest in hosting Redline. So, JP and a roster of various other colorful racers now find themselves pitting against each other and an increasingly hostile military force in a winner-take-all race for the grand prize.

The vibe pitch? You're a studio exec. You pitch the idea of a big budget remake of the cartoon Wacky Races. For your creative team? The staff of acclaimed cult genre magazine Heavy Metal. Their payment? Cocaine. Lots and lots of cocaine.

If that sounds insane in a fun way, it's because it is.

I'll admit to some transparency here. Part of why I took a while getting around to watching this was for years I mainly heard its reputation purely in the technical terms. Talk of how this was seven years of hand drawn animation. Which sounds impressive, but at the time initially had me wondering if this would just be a case of a movie that was technically impressive but otherwise pretty forgettable.

Having now watched it, let me just say this is some of the tastiest crow I have eaten in a LONG time. Yes, the movie is visually stunning and a technical marvel, and that is well worth singing the praises of. But alongside that, the movie is also bolstered by an incredibly fun, outlandish sense of style. The galaxy of Redline feels like a weird, wild, wonderful place that would be a fun time just to wander around in and see all the things going on in the background.

Which isn't to diminish the race itself. As much as I joked about it with my vibe description above, the full throttle energy at play in the Redline race itself is incredibly fun to watch. Where it's seeing a car piloted by two idol singers turn into a robot and start fighting against military intervention (no, this is not exaggeration) or a grudge between one of the Roboworld soldiers and a racing team played out as a car to car argument of Looney Tunes-level proportions, there is no line seen as too over the top to play. Every racer has their weird element and storyline to play out over the course and they all get their chances to shine as they speed and fight to the finish.

I can't rightly say I have any complaints for this one. At least as far as the movie itself goes. In terms of a release, I'm a bit surprised there isn't a more recent release for it. There was a Blu-Ray back in 2012, but it looks like it's no longer in print, and while not prohibitively expensive on the second hand market, it's gonna run up a bit of a cost (the DVD can be obtained cheaper, but a movie like this definitely calls for the better visual quality.) It can still be watched online thanks to the good folks at Tubi, but I would gladly welcome a good 4k release if one comes down the line.

I'm sticking to just screenshots, but I would say look up some clips
to really appreciate this. The stills are nice, but they can't
beat seeing this all in motion.

What can I say? I had a lot of fun with this.

Said fun also stands to continue next week, albeit with a bit of a possible bittersweet tinge. Next week, we come to the end of the sub-series Uncharted Waters as I dig into the last unwatched John Waters movie from my to do list, his 1998 feature Pecker.

See you back here next week for that, and, as a bonus, my overall John Waters rankings.

Till then.