The Line (2009)

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Wow, it's getting to where I really can't trust IMDb ratings to decide what to watch anymore. This movie is underrated. I suspect many people who rated it low, wanted more explosions and car chases. This is not an action film. It is a subtle yet intense look at how a person can be extremely tough yet so very vulnerable at the same time. There are no feel good characters. No role model action heroes. No clear cut lines between good and bad.Other reviewers have noted that it was confusing. Admittedly the script was confusing at first. It wasn't clear who was motivated by what, and what flashbacks meant what to whom. But about halfway through the film it starts to come together beautifully and continues to do so to the interesting and somewhat moving end. If you stop waiting for the gratuitous action scenes which never happen, and just watch the story, it works well. Yes, some plot points seem a little unrealistic, but that's why I put the story at only a 7.While the story is good, the acting is all around superb. I have never been the biggest Liotta fan. He's good, but like a lot of tough guy character actors, sometimes his tough guy persona crosses the line into bluffery in my opinion. Not here. He was near perfect. Almost everyone was, including minor characters played by people I have never heard of. No fake looking bluffery, nothing overdone. I would give this a 7 for story and direction, but the acting puts it up to 8.Also, the music was as wonderfully chosen as the actors. There was a point in the middle of the movie where one character began to cry. We aren't shown explicitly why, no details, but we are shown enough to understand and fill in her story for ourselves. I found that one scene, with the song from Melody Gardot, particularly beautiful.In a nutshell, I would describe this as a smoulderingly intense drama. If you are looking for an action thriller you will be disappointed.

On the face of it this looks quite good, an interweaving plot involving drug smugglers, a bounty hunter, the CIA and some terrorists. Unfortunately it didn't live up to its potential. But more of that later, here's a bit about this complicated plot first, without giving too much away. It is modern times and the location is the Mexican border town of Tijuana.Mark Shields is a bounty hunter, he has been employed by… well let's say by parties as yet unknown, to kill the current leader of a drug smuggling ring, Pelon. The previous leader, Javier Salazar, is very ill and has brought Pelon in to oversee his business much to the disgust of his son, known as Diablo. To help him, Mark has employed Wire, another American. The American authorities are also looking into the smugglers activities, especially since they have word that they are about to do a deal with some Afghani poppy 'farmers' to get their product into the United States. The route they use is known as 'The Line' of the title. Mark is haunted by visions of a woman from his past and, at times, he loses grip on reality. He is befriended by Olivia, who takes him in after he is mugged. But he still has a job to do… I won't say any more, I think that's enough for now.Quite a well made film which gave you a good flavour of life on the seedier side of the streets of Tijuana. Quite a slow deliberate pace that, I felt, didn't really help the telling of the story. Having said that, decent performances, with Ray Liotta as Mark Shields and Valerie Cruz as Olivia standing out for me. Honourable mentions also go to; Andy Garcia as Javier Salazar, Esai Morales as Pelon, Armand Assante as Padre Antonio, Jordi Vilasuso as Diablo and Kevin Gage as Wire.At the end of the day I felt this wasn't a great movie, the slow pace and the over-complicated plot made for a bit of a damp squib. There is a neat twist at the end, but by then I had stopped really caring. The plot centred too much on the bad guys which I found a little off putting because I really couldn't engage with them. Over all, not great and not recommended.My score: 4.6/10

An all-star ensemble in this crime thriller set in one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico, Tijuana. Veteran hit man Mark Shields(Ray Liotta)is assigned to track down Mexican drug lord Pelon(Esai Morales), who is the head of the Salazar Crime Cartel. Pelon has been the target of the American government for quite some time; now they expect Shields and his 20 years of killing experience to bring him down. Pelon puts himself in the cross-hairs with his decision to switch from Colombian cocaine to heroin from Afghanistan. The film lumbers a bit; the acting tries to make up for the lack of action. Others of note in the cast: Andy Garcia, Armand Assante, Bruce Davidson, Danny Trejo and Valerie Cruz.

I'd never heard of this film at all but snapped it up when I saw the cast and read the back of the jacket. Suffice to say it didn't quite live up to expectations and once again proved the age old adage of 'don't judge a book (or a DVD) by its cover'. Watchable for the most part, this is a film that adds up at the end to a little bit less than the sum of all its parts. I guessed correctly that the director was pretty new to this game and I must say those behind the scenes did pretty well to secure Liotta, Garcia and Asante for this.In a nutshell, when the Taliban attempt to form an alliance with a powerful northern Mexican drug cartel, supplying drugs in exchange for being able to use their smuggling network, they attract the attention of US intelligence agencies and the covert ops heat is brought down on them (or so it appears). At the same time there's a power struggle for control of the cartel amongst the heirs apparent to the throne. Little is seen of officialdom and we are instead treated to local operatives/soldiers of fortune and their controllers south of the border.There is no shortage of violence, tempered by the character of Liotta, a man haunted and tormented by the female victim of a previous hit. Naturally he's seeking some kind of redemption which is nicely and conveniently laid out at the end of the film along with a twist that merely serves to undermine much of any credibility previously established throughout the rest of the film.The film is short of dialogue and any real character development, instead relying on visuals and the score to create atmosphere, set scenes and keep the story moving along, Some of the editing and camera work seems a bit attention deficit disorder orientated as well, with perhaps a time limit of a couple of seconds placed on any one shot. I didn't find it too much of a problem but I know that it's a major annoyance for some people.This film was let down badly both with the twist ending and the inclusion of a 'Taliban' plot, both of which were unnecessary and I thought damaging to the credibility of the rest of the film. Not only that, but after an hour and a half or so of portraying Tijuana as a seedy sh!th0le full of thugs, thieves, gangsters and hookers, the director had the audacity to insert a big 'what a wonderful place Tijuana is and what wonderful people live there' message just at the start of the closing credits. I thought this summed up the whole project quite well, not quite doing what the makers thought they were doing.Worth a look, but not a must see.