There are so many different types of car flicks. From racing movies such as ‘Days of Thunder’ to sci-fi classics like ‘The Wraith’ and yes, many of them suck. But could a fast film be so bad that it contributed to the decline of western civilization?
Yes, that movie is ‘Redline’ a 2007 release that looks just like the F&F rip-off it is. The movie was focused on fast cars and hot girls and was a ‘vanity project’ for producer Daniel Sadek. A wealthy financier who made his millions in the subprime mortgage business, ‘Redline’ allowed Sadek to show off his collection of supercars, and his super-hot girlfriend Nadia Bjorlin who wanted to star in motion pictures after appearing on TV soap opera ‘Days of Our Lives’.
No low-budget film, Sadek allegedly spent $30 million on the project, and the footage looks impressive. That’s a real Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren racing against a Lamborghini Diablo on winding desert roads. But the dialogue is so bad and the performances so horrible, that the entire movie is just a joke. The plot is supposed to revolve around a group of millionaires who travel across the country holding high-stakes races where they bet a million dollars on the winner. The whole thing seems to be an excuse to have sexy women in bikinis around, occasionally waving a checkered flag.
On movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 0% of 27 critics gave positive reviews. In fact, the movie was not even screened for critics in advance of it’s disappointing theatrical release, to avoid bad press. But there are lots of bad car movies. So what makes this one the worst of all time? The answer is the man behind the movie, Daniel Sadek.
Before the release of the movie, Sadek pulled-off an outrageous publicity stunt. The only recognizable name in ‘Redline’ was B-list actor Eddie Griffin. To promote the movie, Griffin took part in a charity race at Irwindale Speedway a month before the movie’s theatrical release. He ‘accidentally’ crashed Sadek’s $1.5 million Ferrari Enzo into a concrete barrier. The incident got worldwide headlines, but wasn’t enough to entice patrons into cinemas. It’s just an example of Sadek’s excessive behaviour during the subprime mortgage boom years.
But the 2008 stock market crash quickly put an end to Sadek’s get rich scheme. Since establishing his subprime lending firm Quick Loan Funding in 2002, his company had approved $4 billion in shady subprime mortgages, and Sadek was raking in $60 million annually. During the financial crisis, Quick Loan Funding crumbled and Sadek lost his lending licenses after taking millions from business accounts to gamble in Vegas, in an attempt to get out of the hole.
An investigative article in Vanity Fair at the time included Sadek in their “100 to Blame” for the economic crisis, dubbing him “Predator Zero in the subprime-mortgage game.”.
Some of the cars really were cool. Too bad such a snake owned them.
I can’t believe he deliberately wrecked such an expensive car. I mean, a Porsche, sure, but a Ferrari?
What an entitled jerk.
Looks like it had a few cute women.
The movie hadd the winnjng formula. Cars and girls.