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Crossing Over

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Crossing Over (2009)

February. 10,2009
|
6.7
|
R
| Drama Crime
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Immigrants from around the world enter Los Angeles every day, with hopeful visions of a better life, but little notion of what that life may cost. Their desperate scenarios test the humanity of immigration enforcement officers. In Crossing Over, writer-director Wayne Kramer explores the allure of the American dream, and the reality that immigrants find – and create -- in 21st century L.A.

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Cubussoli
2009/02/10

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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UnowPriceless
2009/02/11

hyped garbage

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Bluebell Alcock
2009/02/12

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

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Tymon Sutton
2009/02/13

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

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stevengarman
2009/02/14

In this movie all of the illegals are good. Law enforcement is bad. American bourder policy is unjust and the USA treat illegals terribly unfairly. This film screams political agenda with its heavy-handed, one-sided message that buries a potentially fair story..

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Sankari_Suomi
2009/02/15

In recent months I have watched few movies which have infuriated me more than this one.Starts well but quickly descends into farce as a bunch of ethnic stereotypes lurch from one predictable crisis to another in a series of tangled story arcs.Harrison Ford (starting in a role better suited to Ben Affleck, who withdrew from the production citing 'stomach trouble') does his best with what he's given, but to no avail.I found myself despising most of the people I was supposed to empathise with because they had either gratuitously broken the law and/or were simply objectionable.Why should I feel sorry for the Bengali family who entered America illegally not because they were refugees (they weren't) but simply because they couldn't be bothered to go through the proper channels? They're just irritating ******. Sod 'em! How can I empathise with the Australian wannabe actress who cuts an illegal deal with an immigration officer, exchanging back door access for... er... back door access?This could have been an excellent drama about the complex issues facing legal and illegal immigrants, but the scriptwriters were either too scared or too lazy to do the job properly.It's an intensely frustrating movie because you can see what it could have been, but it never actually gets there.'Crossing Over' currently sits at 16% on Rotten Tomatoes, where it has been justifiably savaged as 'Tired, preachy and about as thought-provoking as a Blackpool hen party howling We Are The World on karaoke.'Give this lemon a wide berth and watch 'Crash' (2005) instead.I rate 'Crossing Over' at 13.32 on the Haglee Scale, which works out as a solid 4/10 on IMDb.

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duskovic
2009/02/16

I stumbled across this movie on TV, a few minutes after it started. After awhile I realized that the movie had been made by the people who made Crash, but I was wrong. It had the same kind of pattern and similar dramatics, etc., so I was surprised that whereas Crash was a hit with the critics, Crossing over was a flop. Who know why, probably something to do with packaging and selling.It was on again tonight and I had it on while doing housework. I still found the drama punchy, but the idea of people absolutely craving to be in the US a bit silly. What, do they wanna be mugged or go obese? But apparently, there are opportunities in the US; you can open a burger joint, a pizza place, a coffee shop, etc., that mostly fail (80% in the first year). And yes, as somebody commented, the idea of being deported to Australia (a better country than the US) is amusing, but the girl deportee wanted to become an actress in the US, where good films like this one fail but junk like Transformers hits the stars.

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tieman64
2009/02/17

Wayne Kramer's "Crossing Over" consists of several interlocking short stories, all dealing with immigration, culture clashes, power abuse and extortion. Derivative of "Crash" and "Grand Canyon", each story is also a collection of clichés.Kramer's attempting to knit a grand tapestry. One of his tales observes as immigrant Mireyna Sanchez is deported from America to Mexico. Another tale focuses on a teenage Bangladeshi who is bullied for sympathising with the 9/11 hijackers, leading again to deportation, this time due to FBI investigations. More deportations occur when immigration officer Cole Frankel blackmails a beautiful actress – desperate for a green card – into sleeping with him. Things go bad, he loses his job and she's booted from the United Unites. The film's packed with similar stories, the silliest of which involves a group of South Korean teenagers who are pushed into gang violence. It's all very heavy-handed.Each of the film's subplots involves a figure of authority abusing power to the benefit or detriment of immigrants. One such incident, for example, sees Gavin Kossey, an atheist Jew, being allowed to stay in the United States because a rabbi lies on his behalf. These actions lend the film's title a double meaning: to "cross over" to the "other side" (ie, to help the Other, to see through the Other's eyes).While Kramer is clearly attempting to portray immigrants and minorities in a sympathetic light, the film also does the opposite: all immigrants here are resorting to prostitution, are fundamentalists, America bashers, murderers, ritual killers, follow barbaric rituals etc. It's an unintentional byproduct of an overly sensationalistic script.6/10 - Trades in the condescending insights of generic race-relations movies ("Babel", "Higher Learning", "Crash" etc). Worth one viewing.

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