Redline Reviews

Despite a tendency to repeat itself, REDLINE is a fairly imaginative action pic. This post-Glasnost corruption adventure delivers plot twists that keep viewers off guard, set decoration that envelops the audience with a sense of rotting tradition, and a cynical tone that suggests rampant capitalism is more of a moral plague than communism ever was. Moscow, the near future. Petty criminal John Anderson Wade (Rutger Hauer) is shot to death by his partner, Merrick (Mark Dacascos) during his last smuggling run prior to retirement. Wade is selected for official resurrection by shadowy bureaucrat Vanya (Randall William Cook). Head of a corruption task force, Vanya misleads Russia's president about the true purpose of his scientific program that brings criminals back from the dead. Claiming that vengeful Wade will lead authorities to the Mafia Troika protected by Merrick, crooked Vanya actually intends to have Wade eliminate the leaders of the Troika and then usurp its power for himself. Allowed to escape from Vanya's clinic, Wade touches base with former colleague Mishke (Patrick Dreihauss), who then tells Merrick about Wade's rebirth. Wade's only ally is Marina K. (Yvonne Scio), a self-serving hooker who nonetheless rescues Wade on several occasions. Meanwhile, Merrick is pressured by leaders of the Troika--tycoon Serge (Michael Mehlman) and Army Commandant Udo (John Thompson)--to kill Wade. Zeroing in on his enemies at an Extreme Fighting match, Wade pays back Mishke by shooting him in the leg. Wade is then arrested and tortured by Udo's men, but gets released through Vanya's intervention. Using Marina K. as sexual bait, Wade infiltrates a society party where he finally executes Merrick. Later, gunning down Udo in front of fellow Troika member Serge, Wade insists Serge pay him money owed by Merrick. At a pay-off rendezvous, Vanya turns on Serge and his bodyguards, only to be killed by Marina K., who turns out to be a CIA agent. Grabbing his back pay, Wade retires with Marina K. With enough plot for three Russian Mob exposes, REDLINE is a Yankee gangster pic transplanted to the financially shaky terrain of the former Soviet Union. Sly suggestive visual touches portray a culture being eaten away from within: the opening and closing scenes transpire against a backdrop of toppled statues of Communist heroes, lying on their sides like fallen Olympian gods; a crime re-enactment on "Moscow's Most Wanted" copies the Odessa Steps sequence from THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925). REDLINE is filled with clever approximations of a desperate economic future. Ambitiously indicting capitalism in the format of an action flick, REDLINE does hit a few snags. Gratuitous martial arts interruptions and sex scenes pad out the running time. And while Yvonne Scio makes for an indelibly ballsy heroine, the script features too many reversals about her character, including a coda that hints she is the reborn version of Wade's murdered girlfriend from the film's opening. Despite these plotting hiccups, REDLINE offers action buffs both brain and brawn. (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, extensive nudity.)