REDLINE

I like visual spectacles. Love them, in fact. I've been known to forgive some less than stellar stories as long as they provide stunning visuals. They have to be mind-blowing, though. The same can be said for epic fight scenes, battles, or whatever else can that create a testosterone-driven fist-pumping yell of badassness. You know, where you just want to get up and act like Richard Sherman did that one time after making a good play. Just pretend you are a professional wrestler and beat your chest and talk smack like you just whipped someone's ass. Of course, all you're doing is watching a movie, but if the movie is cool enough then it essentially is the same thing, right? 

REDLINE is that movie for anime fans. It doesn't bother so much for a complex story, but it delivers in spades when it comes to stunning animation and fantastic race scenes. Every square inch of this movie is animated. You know how there are sometimes scenes in certain anime where there's a crowd, but they aren't moving at all and yet you still hear random voices and the cheering of a crowd anyway? There's none of that in this movie. There's a reason REDLINE was released several years after its intended date. Hell, there were practically 100,000 hand-made drawings used in the process, too. Also, I should stress that this was Koike Takeshi's directorial debut. For a newbie at the helm, I can say that motherfucker brought it. 

All of that work paid off big time. I read somewhere in a review that this film was called "animation for animation's sake" and that is certainly true. Don't let that push you away, though. This movie risks it all on intense visuals, but it succeeds. 

You'll care enough about the main characters to keep watching for the story, but it's those race scenes and those perfectly drawn shadows that inspire awe. Just looking at stills from the movie makes me want to watch it again. 

This is one of those movies that you just watch because you love the craft of animation. It's animation done right by people who are good at what they do and took time to do it. 

The story itself has to do with a race called Redline that our main character Sweet JP is trying to get into by winning the Yellowline. Unfortunately, JP loses the Yellowline in spectacular fashion and his car is destroyed. 

However, one racer backs out when he discovers Redline is going to be held on the cyborg planet Roboworld. The cyborgs there don't want the race to be held there because they don't want to take a chance that any of their (illegal) military secrets will be discovered. The cyborgs have made threats of violence and even have big ole satellites with laser beams on them. So who'd want to go there for a silly race, anyway?

JP doesn't back down, though. With help from his mafia-connected mechanic Frisbee and his junker Old Man Mole, JP plans to resurrect his car and race it in a race that could possibly be the start of a massive military conflict between worlds. Yep, that's exactly the kind of racing movie anyone should see. 

So if you like awesome animation, racing, stuff about robots, weird-looking aliens, and chicks wearing little or no clothing then this should be your movie. Basically, it's like Scooby Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf if the creator of Scooby Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf had developed an addiction to speed, hentai, and Monster Energy Drinks. How could you possibly say no to that?