Review of Red Ridge (2006) by Wayne S — 10 Mar 2011

Got hold of this oddball somehow, probably at a "previously viewed" DVD sale. It's what I would call a "drive-in" movie, even though they don't really make those anymore. Maybe "direct to disk" is a better category. The good news is that it's somewhat original and held my interest throughout. It involves a good-natured alcoholic who's driving to see his estranged wife who's holed up in a cabin somewhere near the Mexican border. He gets lost near a place called RedRidge. Meanwhile his wife's younger sister is driving down to the cabin with a boyfriend in tow. They get lost somewhere near RedRidge. (It's an easy place to get lost.) A sex trafficking ring happens to lure the young girl off the road with a hand-painted sign "Free Puppies." They're operating out of a nearby whore house, the Casa Azul. Bad news for the boyfriend, and the girl is kidnapped, tied up, tortured, assaulted... things don't look good. But when our strung out protagonist gets a flat tire and ventures into town for a repair, he gets drawn into the mayhem and may in fact prove to be his sis-in-law's salvation.

The bad news is that the acting is all amateurish, the production cheap, and as for plotting, it's pretty loose. The motivations of some of the bad guys at Casa Azul are kind of fuzzy. For a gang of bad boys, they're somewhat lackadaisical. Add in a (may be) good sheriff and a definitely bad deputy (a woman!... that's refreshing!), heroic action by a simpleton mechanic who reminded me of Ronnie Howard's creepy brother, lots of shenanigans with handcuffs and duct tape, running in the house, out of the house, cars tearing down dirt roads... it should have been a total mess, but I called it a drive-in movie because it has the following qualites: unpredictable, sloppy, but Fun! I've watched better movies that have delivered less.

If you come across "RedRidge" at a garage sale, buy it, and save it for a Friday night when you're slumming! It's a beer and pretzels movie.