MBunge Everything that's wrong with this movie is right there in the title. It should have been called either "Across the Line" or "The Exodus of Charlie Wright". No film should ever have a colon in its title unless it's a sequel and even that is pushing it. Yeah, I know it seems like a nit picky thing, but just read it again. If you're the sort of person who would be intrigued by something called "The Exodus of Charlie Wright", do you really need the stuff before the colon to sell you? If you're the sort of person who responds to something punchier like "Across the Line", are you going to impressed by the pretentious stuff after that? This title reads like someone crossed a Chuck Norris/Steven Seagal action flick with an art house rumination on personal discovery. It indicates that either the people who made this motion picture didn't think hard enough about what kind of story they were telling or that there was a struggle over it which was never resolved.Charlie Wright (Aidan Quinn) is a financial con man who steals billions of dollars through a Ponzi scheme. When FBI agent Hobbs (Mario Van Peebles) moves in to arrest him, Charlie disappears like Houdini from a milk can and resurfaces in Tijuana. He's searching for a woman and her child, but plenty of people are looking for Charlie besides the FBI. There's Mexican crime boss Jorge Garza (Andy Garcia), who needs Charlie's ill gotten gains to pay off a debt to the Mexico City cartel, and Jorge's younger brother Gabriel (Danny Pino), who's determined to save his family until he simply gives up. There's also Damon (Luke Goss), a hit-man from the Russian mob who teams with a trio of mercenaries to get to Charlie before the Garza's do because Charlie scammed a hundred million dollars off a pair of Russian mobsters. As Charlie turns to an insecure, needy, middle aged love muffin (Claudia Gerri) for information, Agent Hobbs' gay subordinate (Jordan Belfi) walks out of a Tijuana gay bar and sees the fugitive fraudster on the street, bringing Hobbs down to Mexico to complete the starting line up in the Charlie Wright Derby.This movie is so typical of early 21st century cinema in so many ways. Not just because a decent amount of money got flushed down the rathole to produce yet another direct-to-DVD release that will soon vanish beneath the waves of new releases every week. It's that Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright shines on the surface but it rotten underneath. This thing looks good. It's shot well and is nicely paced. The dialog is above average and the cast is more than capable. The concept of the story is also solid. Underneath it all, though, is a plot that is a huge minefield of one poorly thought out and illogical storytelling mistake after another.Let's start with the basics. Why should anyone care what happens to Charlie Wright? He's a thief and the awful nature of his theft is repeatedly emphasized, although the only specific victims every presented are the Russian mobsters. If you're trying to tell the story of a bad man's redemption, you have to give people some reason to want to see that bad man redeemed. But you can't diminish his "badness" by presenting his only visible victims as even worse people because it not only undermines the whole redemption them, it cripples any interest in whether the FBI catches him or not. It's the same thing with Jorge Garza. He's presented as a crime lord who's in trouble entirely because of his own actions, so why should I care what happens to him? Why should I care if Damon and his crew grab Charlie or wind up dead? There are either no answers to these questions or the answers are feebly self-negating.And then there are two essential points in the story that are so unsupported and unsupportable that it's like the Almighty Plot Hammer has been replaced with the Almighty Plot Jackhammer. At the start, Agent Hobbs' boss (Corbin Bernsen) is enraged at Charlie's escape and is 100%, absolutely, totally and utterly committed to tracking Charlie down and bringing him to justice. T hen when Hobbs brings him the tip about Charlie being in Tijuana, his boss not only completely disregards it but actually calls off the whole search for Charlie. And at the end, when there's a literal Mexican standoff between the FBI, the Garza crew and Damon's team over Charlie, the cold blooded mercenaries and the Mexican gang simply quit and walk away. Now, maybe you can explain the mercenaries walking away because the risk is not worth what they've been paid, although writer/director R. Ellis Frazier clearly thinks Damon making that decision is a big deal even though Frazier's done nothing in this film to justify such importance. But Gabriel Garza is facing the murder of his older brother and the destruction of his family…and he merely says "Screw it" and gives up? What?I've noticed that each new generation of filmmakers is better and smarter at how movies look and sound and are edited and all of those technical questions. Simultaneously, they're getting worse and dumber about the most basic elements of storytelling. The result is movies like Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright that are great on first glance but fall to pieces if you think about them for 5 seconds. This is not worth your time.

cmahoney9-120-805838 It is the biggest story of the last five years, yet H-wood will not touch Bernie Madoff because he sold them out and he sold out his own people.Instead we get films like Across The Line, a shaky shot that takes Bernie's story and dumps it on an anglo guy seekng redemption.Shaky camera equals tension in this one - to the director that is...to the audience it plays like an episode of 24.Low budget...original dramaesque.The real story of a billion dollar ponzi is right there: The criminal Madoff, the son who pays the sins of the father. Is Hollywood brave enough to tell it...only if they change the name of the man.

Robert J. Maxwell Aidan Quinn has run off with a couple of billion dollars of ill-gotten money and is living in some shabby dump in Tijuana, of all places. Three agencies are out to get him and/or recover the loot.One is a gang of bald-headed thugs, the leader with Lee Van Cleef eyes, all of whom are professional mercenaries. They simply want to get some of their client's money back, preferably with Quinn left underground. The second is a lone agent of the FBI. The third is a Mexican gangster who owes to some illegal organization as much money as Quinn stole, plus some. Everyone seems desperate to get their hands on Quinn and his pelf.Quinn, on the other hand, is in search of a woman he loved years ago in Tijuana. She's now dead but she left their daughter behind. The daughter has emigrated to the states and is now in college.This kind of story has a good deal of potential. For one thing, there's the cast. Aidan Quinn, whose character is fifty-one years old, looks the right age. He's gotten thicker and more frightened with the years -- and he does "fright" very well. Andy Garcia as the Godfather figure who needs to pay off a debt is older as well, no longer the handsome slick youth. He's bearded and his voice has descended into a resigned growl. Luke Goss leads the gang of thugs from the states. He's got those Lee Van Cleef eyes and he acts as if he knows precisely what he's doing. The older man who hires him is excellent too, a little reminiscent of William Hickey.And in fact the writer/director has given the viewer a couple of refreshing surprises. Yes, there's a car chase, but it doesn't amount to much. And there's a wild shoot out between Goss's goons and the gang hired by Garcia, but there's little blood.But here's a treat. Near the end, all three agencies after Quinn and the loot find themselves in the mercado in a Mexican stand off, so to speak. Everybody has guns pointed at everybody else, except for the quivering Quinn. The guns are cocked and ready to go. Moments of jaw-clenching tension pass. Then everybody says to hell with it, holster their guns, and let the FBI agent walk away with Quinn. How could the writer/director have let this opportunity pass? There should have been fountains of blood and brains all over the market place. Quentin Tarentino certainly couldn't have let it go by, but Frazier has, and good on him.There are also moment of low-key but extremely human pathos. A Tijuana whore who befriends Quinn and puts him up, begs him to spend the night with her because she's horrified that she's now middle aged. Customers have grown few. She sobs at the "wrinkles." It's not the kind of thing you expect to find in a cheap thriller.But the story is almost undone by its own excess. It's a tale about making up for all the harm you've done to yourself and to others -- about guilt and absolution, which can be found even in death. It's all spelled out in the end, especially noticeably in the dying Quinn's flowery philosophy as he sits in a beach chair. The viewer who has made it this far -- without changing channels and looking for more gore -- already knows this.And the photography of Tijuana and environs is sublime, except that the camera wobbles all over the place far too often. Even a static high shot of the bullfighting ring -- vast and empty except for a tiny car in the center and a few fluttering birds -- wobbles. Note to Frazier: At least one viewer, chiefly me, is getting mighty tired of bald thugs and wobbling cameras. And unless Quinn has an MFA from Yale, he ought to be conducting an inner narrative in the demotic, the parlance of the common man. Ordinary language CAN be moving if it's handled properly. Look at Terry Malloy in "On The Waterfront."

Siamois Just as his billion dollar financial empire is about to crumble, a scheming businessman evades the authorities and goes on the run. Hot on his trail are two different crime organizations as well as the FBI.The scope of the story is enormous considering what looks like a shoestring budget but "Across the Line" is what I'd call a straight-to-video thriller done right and much of the credit should go to R. Ellis Frazier who wrote, directed and produced this movie. Frazier has penned a classic thriller which would end up below average but thanks to the different story threads he has crafted as well as an attention and love for the characters and the setting, it rises from mediocrity. The direction is gritty, down to earth yet tasteful and aesthetic enough for the genre, with tight editing and a great score. However, where this movie shines the most is probably in the acting department when again, we consider this is a straight-to-video thriller. This movie's casting stands out in all ways. Aidan Quinn stars as Charlie Wright, the con men on the run who now seems haunted by his past. Quinn is simply amazing and it is almost unfortunate to see him give such a performance in a movie that will give him absolutely no chance of recognition at any kind of award ceremony. Andy Garcia is also breathtaking as a crime lord. Far from the standard caricature of the merciless, threatening boss, Garcia plays up the fragility of his character due to past failures. There is a lot of depth here thanks to Frazier's writing and Garcia's portrayal. Every other cast member is good or even better. Even Van Peebles, who has mailed performances in so many direct-to-video lemons gives a better than usual performance. Despite Quinn getting the lion's share of screen time, this is very much a story with an ensemble of characters, a dozen or so. Many of those given more attention than we are used to, even in bigger productions. There are few action sequences here but one stands out in the middle of the film. An intense shootout that may not be as spectacular as Michael Mann's Heat or Christopher McQuarrie's Way of the Gun but is close enough and memorable as well as unpredictable.The film is not without flaws and unfortunately, loses steam in the last third or so. Clocking at around 90 minutes, there could have been a few more twists and turns and an added 15 to 30 minutes further exploring some of the characters. Perhaps due to the short running time, the film also relies a bit too much on unlikely coincidences and certain characters crossing path a little too often. But all in all, this is great writing by Frazier (who seems to favor stories taking place south of the border), a solid directorial effort and some smart choices as a producer to surround himself with actors whose stars may have faded a little but are still able to deliver great performances.I'll be sure to watch Frazier's next effort.