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List Price: $19.97 | | Label: Weinstein Company
Salesrank: 8694
Released: June 9, 2009 |
| Our Price: $8.98 |
| Used Price: $3.03 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones films) is on a quest for justice as an immigrations agent investigating the case of a missing illegal. In a cross-fire of crime and bureaucracy, fraud and murder, he must race against time to try to save a family from becoming collateral damage in the fight for the American dream. Critics rave, “Harrison Ford is terrific. An engrossing, thoroughly entertaining movie with great performances from a first-rate ensemble cast” (Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com). Co-starring Ashley Judd (Twisted), Ray Liotta (Smokin’ Aces), Jim Sturgess (21), and Cliff Curtis (10,000 BC); Crossing Over will keep you riveted until the final mystery unfolds.
Stills from Crossing Over (Click for larger image)
Description of Crossing Over:
The director of The Cooler tries a bigger canvas: Crossing Over is Wayne Kramer's take on nothing less than the vast subject of illegal immigration, coming at the topic from a dozen or so directions. Hefting the most star power is Harrison Ford, scurrying about as an L.A. Immigration and Customs officer whose conscience is sore from having trundled so many illegals back over the border--now he's worried about the child of a particularly vulnerable woman (Alice Braga). Cliff Curtis plays Ford's partner, an Iranian-American whose family is not as assimilated as his casual manner might suggest. There's a bit of pulp swagger in other sections of the picture, as Kramer tries to channel his inner Sam Fuller: for instance, an Immigration official (Ray Liotta at his piggiest) coerces an Australian actress (Alice Eve) into a sex-for-green-card affair, and an adolescent Arab-American girl (Summer Bishil, from Towelhead) gives a cheeky speech at school that puts her family under suspicion as possible terrorists. Other strands of this scenario aren't as urgent, as Ashley Judd dreams of adopting the African child she's tending, and Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe), as a British non-believer, tries to convince Immigration authorities of his commitment to working at a Jewish school. The movie's single best scene has him "auditioning" to convince a rabbi of his commitment to Judaism, a funny moment that also carries an echo of the history of Jewish exodus. The movie has a tendency to bash from one thing to the next, too neatly connecting its Crash-like plotlines, like a really spirited first draft of a better movie. --Robert Horton
Crossing Over Reviews:
What happened to this movie? 
2009-12-20 - What could have been a good movie, falls apart with the bizarre plot that tried to have too much in it. While that might works for such films as Shortcuts, Crash, or Traffic, it doesn't work here. The movie was also very choppy, I suspect there were some crazy choices made during editing. Perhaps the film in its original form would have been pretty good. Anyway, it just didn't work. Also, the soundtrack and background music is HORRIBLE and very distracting in several parts. What a waste of money and a good topic (immigration issues).
DVD Crossing Over 
2009-11-12 - Harrison Ford in another excellent role, showing his versatility as an all around actor of the highest caliber.
Over Dramatizing
2009-10-14 - I suppose some people love a drama, for them this is a 10 star movie. But to me when I buy a movie by Harrison Ford I expect top notch acting and a script that Hollywood money can afford and the right knowledge of how to make it all happen. The end result is supposed to leave me feeling highly entertained and look forward to watching it again some day, because after all thats why I bought it, not rented or borrowed it from a local library. In the case of this movie I wish I had gotten it for free from the Library instead of wasting my money on it. Its all drama, all tear jerking drama. I wanted to be entertained, not dramatized! After viewing it I put it in the "to sell" pile, not on the shelf. Like I said, if its a drama you want, then buy it, but if you want more than to cry constantly for the constant onslaught of crap that happens to nice people, then go ahead and buy it. personally I prefer an uplifting movie or pure entertainment, whether action, sci-fi, true story, ect. anything but non stop tear jerking gut wrenching drama. I might as well watch a video of the day we buried my beloved Mother! Meaning simply: you dont need a movie to remind you of some things, you just don't!!! so I give 2 stars, only reason I dont give it just one star is because Harrison Ford does act well, but there's just no story, its all just a bunch of situations designed to give you grief! All clumped together to pretend its a movie, which it isnt. You need a great story to make a great movie, not just dramatic situations one after the next! Sheesh!! They should have thrown the whole thing out, sorry, but I really do feel that way, and I know a good movie when I see it! I've tried to be as accurate, honest and fair as I could be on this review. If you really do like this kind of movie, please buy my copy, its for sale.
Involving, Bittersweet Stories of Illegal Immigrants...
2009-10-06 - Let me say, from the beginning, that I admire Wayne Kramer's remarkable "Crossing Over", as a sincere attempt to humanize the real problem of illegal immigration in the United States, and to remind us that many nationalities are a part of the situation, with some immigrants, in our country nearly all their lives, fulfilling all of the obligations of American citizens, except for actually being citizens. For those who see every person illegally here as either enjoying a 'free ride' on law-abiding citizens, or plotting acts of terrorism, I hope this film will open their eyes to the bigger picture.
Saying this, I have to admit that the film isn't entirely successful; in telling so many stories, Kramer is forced to nearly stereotype some characters, and tie up too neatly some of the subplots. While this doesn't hurt the more important plot elements, it does lessen the film's credibility, somewhat. And in only portraying sympathetic immigrants, it does paint an occasionally unflattering picture of the our immigration services, which isn't entirely fair; this is a problem of epic proportions, and the agents trying to enforce the law are not villains with personal agendas, they are simply doing the job they were hired to do.
The multiple storylines involve a veteran agent (Harrison Ford, who was never better), searching to find a young mother he helped deport, to reunite her with her son; a young British atheist (Jim Sturgess), forced to return to his Jewish roots to stay in country on religious grounds; an outspoken Islamic girl (Summer Bishil), threatening her whole family's future by simply saying in a classroom that the 9/11 terrorists had a reason for resorting to violence; a Korean boy (Justin Chon) endangering his family, by gang pressure to join in an armed robbery; an Islamic family, whose son (Cliff Curtis) is Ford's partner, overreacting to their daughter's relationship with a married non-believer; a successful lawyer (Ashley Judd) hoping to adopt an orphaned African child; and her Immigration Department husband (Ray Liotta, in one of his less-likable roles), 'buying' an young Australian actress (Alice Eve) and her favors, in exchange for a new green card. While the stories have interconnecting characters, they are not locked as firmly together as "Crash", and other recent multi-story films, and the Judd subplot gets a bit shortchanged, while the Liotta one occasionally seems little more than an excuse to repeatedly show Eve's exquisite nude body. There are, however, powerful moments in the other storylines, that help offset this.
"Crossing Over" is not perfect, but it is an important film...and should be seen, more than once.
a sad movie about California, the land of the illegal alien 
2009-10-04 - What I like about this movie is that it points out that not just latins/ Mexicans
are coming across the southern International border. An Islamic girl
writes a report about suicide bombers and is deported when it is found that both she
and her parents are illegal.
A beautiful Australian girl makes a deal with a government official
of a sexual favors sort to get a green card. A singer -song writer
finds his Jewish roots in order to stay in the country.
Life and death on the streets of LA where groups from everywhere in the world
have joined in a gold rush to come to the promised land of the USA!
There is a perversion of the land of the free here...
