Crossing Over Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Gran Torino
In his last acting stint, Clint Eastwood dances behind and in front of the camera playing a racist Korean War vet who faces his prejudices after a Hmong teen tries to steal his beloved Gran Torino. James Rocchi said: "Gran Torino is, bluntly, a pretty good film -- sleek and brawny like the title car, but a little clumsy on the corners and with no small amount of knock in its dramatic engine." Rent it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

The International
When you mix Run Lola Run helmer Tom Tykwer and Clive Owen, you get The International -- an action thriller where Owen plays an Interpol agent itching to battle corruption in the world's largest banks. In his review, William Goss said: "Throughout, The International is a thankfully, skillfully mature effort by Tykwer to produce a proper thriller for adults, that of a man on a mission, and one lent little extra resonance in our cash-strapped times." Buy it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

Crossing Over
Not all Harrison Ford films get slapped on the big screen with a bang. There's the multi-story immigration drama Crossing Over. But it's not exactly a little-known gem, according to Jeffrey M. Anderson: "Crossing Over is a bad movie ... about as airless and preachy as movies come." Skip it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

Also Out: Fired Up, Nobel Son, Strike, Guns

Wayne Kramer's Crossing Over is a bad movie, but it's not bad in the usual ways. The camerawork doesn't shake, boom mikes don't dip into the frame, and the actors tend to remember their lines. The story moves forward in a reasonably cohesive way. On most levels it even resembles a good movie. In fact, it very closely resembles something that once won an Oscar for Best Picture: Crash (2005). Like that movie, It tells the story of a cross-section of characters in Los Angeles, all of whom are connected in some way to a sticky issue, immigration this time, rather than racism. Harrison Ford leads the way as Max Brogan, an ICE agent whose colleagues often tease him for being a softie. During a raid on a sweatshop, his heart goes out to a woman, Mireya Sanchez (Alice Braga), who claims to have a young son at home. He nearly lets her go, and later regrets his decision not to.

Next up, we get Ashley Judd as Denise Frankel, who is an immigration attorney focused on finding a foster home for a young Nigerian girl; Denise wears a little Africa pendant just to show how much she cares. Her husband is a louse of an INS official, Cole (Ray Liotta). One day, he gets into a car accident outside his office building. The driver of the offending vehicle is an illegal Australian immigrant, the beautiful Claire Shepard (Alice Eve), who has already found work as an actress but whose paperwork has been lost in the system. Cole quickly arranges to help her in exchange for a series of sleazy, sweaty hotel room encounters.

It's a terrible weekend for movie fans, as the only two new wide releases are a Jonas Brothers concert movie and a film based on the Street Fighter video games. So basically, if you're not a 13-year-old girl or an 18-year-old guy (or whoever the target audience is for a Street Fighter movie), you're hosed -- unless you venture to the art houses and independent theaters, where you'll find some diversity. The Indie Spotlight has the lowdown on what's opening in limited release today. Let us begin!

• Crossing Over (pictured), a multi-story drama about immigration from The Cooler writer/director Wayne Kramer, stars Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, and Ashley Judd, among many others. The critics are comparing it to Crash and Babel, and not in a good way. It's opening on about a dozen screens in New York and L.A., and will expand in the coming weeks.

• An American Affair sounds like an odd mix: It's about a 13-year-old boy's relationship with a 30-year-old woman (Gretchen Mol), set against the backdrop of the JFK years, complete with conspiracy theories. The score at Rotten Tomatoes so far is 7 negative and only 3 positive, with most mentioning the political-thriller elements as being the weakest part.

• The Velveteen Rabbit is based on the classic children's tale and mixes live action with animation. The cast includes Ellen Burstyn, Jane Seymour, and Tom Skerritt. And it was directed by Michael Landon Jr.! It's from Utah-based Feature Films for Families, and the company promises on the film's website that if you don't enjoy it, they'll give you a DVD of one of their other movies for free. Of course, if you don't like this one, there's a good chance you wouldn't like the other stuff they make, either, but still. Just one review at Rotten Tomatoes so far, but it's a rave.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive final poster for Crossing Over, starring Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Jim Sturgess and Ashley Judd. Directed by Wayne Kramer (Running Scared, The Cooler), Crossing Over weaves together several stories about immigrants trying to achieve legal status -- as well as a better life for themselves and their loved ones -- in Los Angeles. The stacked cast should produce a variety of excellent performances (especially for a film released in February), and the Crash-like vibe I'm feeling over this film will definitely appeal to a lot of folks out there. You can check out the full-sized version of this poster by clicking the box below, and the trailer is available over on Moviefone.

Crossing Over hits theaters on February 27.

Potter and Pixar magic, a new Watchmen trailer and Roland Emmerich courts the apocalypse once again. Here's what's happening in trailers:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Not to be outdone by those vampires over in Twilight land, Warner Bros. has released a brand new, full-length trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which, of course, should satisfy those Potter fanatics who were pissed the release date was pushed back from next week to this July. Check it out below:



2012
If Roland Emmerich hadn't chosen the career of film maker, I suspect he would have become a super villain as this film marks his third attempt to destroy the world (after Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow) -- and fourth if you count Godzilla, though the big lizard confined the devastation to New York City. Evidence as to what can happen when a dripping faucet gets out of control, this teaser looks pretty darn spectacular. Whether or not the film has any soul to back up the effects remains to be seen, but it opens on July 10.

Up
This preview spends a fair amount of time reminding us of all the hits Pixar has had before giving us a glimpse of this newest effort. We meet Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner), a grumpy old man who devises a unique plan for dealing with urban sprawl that's encroaching upon his home. Still just a teaser here, so story info is light, but I'm betting Pixar has another winner on its hands when the flick arrives in theaters on May 29, 2009.

If they got some sort of financial bonus for every year they kept an unreleased movie on the shelves, I could understand it -- but this is getting a little ridiculous. According to a rather interesting L.A. Times piece, the Weinsteins are taking all their movies (save for Zack and Miri, The Reader, and perhaps the inevitably brilliant Extreme Movie) and bumping them back to next year. That includes some oft-delayed titles like Killshot and Fanboys, as well as higher-profile stuff like Crossing Over (with Harrison Ford and Sean Penn) and Shanghai (with John Cusack). Ah yes, and the highly-anticipated adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cormac McCarthy novel The Road.

Despite the fact that The Weinstein Co. is losing employees by the fistful, Harvey W. insists that the reasons for the delays are legit: Killshot he wants to hold for Mickey Rourke's The Wrestler; Fanboys is waiting for a Comcast promotion in January; Crossing Over deserves to enter a non-crowded marketplace; and Shanghai isn't even finished yet. Regarding The Road ... hmph, it never came up.

"She really found me at a point when I needed to be found." -- Jim Sturgess on Julie Taymor:

In 21, which hits theaters tomorrow, Jim Sturgess plays Ben Campbell, an M.I.T. student who's recruited into a group of Vegas card counters by a fellow student. In fact, the entire group is made up of students and its leader, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), also happens to be a professor at the University. The fact-based film was inspired by the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, and most of what you will see in 21 really happened -- with certain faces, places, names and events changed to fit a more Hollywood-ized mold. Directed by Robert Luketic, 21 also stars Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira.

Sturgess is a relatively new face to Hollywood. His first major film role only came last year, when director Julie Taymor cast the soft-spoken Brit opposite Evan Rachel Wood in Across the Universe. From there, this musician-turned-actor appeared in the recent The Other Boleyn Girl before taking on his first lead role in a major Hollywood film, 21. Upon meeting him, one can immediately tell this boy has the looks and charm to carry him real far. He's already scheduled to appear in the star-studded Crossing Over and the flick Fifty Dead Men Walking. Cinematical sat down with Sturgess in New York recently to talk about 21, as well as his blossoming career.

Having finished the immigration drama Crossing Over, which will come out this December in time for the last-minute Oscar push, Ashley Judd is getting ready to get depressed for her next film. Variety has reported that the actress is going to star in a drama called Helen, which will head into production next month, and is being made by Egoli Tossell Film and Insight Film Studios. Sandra Nettelbeck, who wrote and directed Mostly Martha and Sergeant Pepper, will wear both hats again for this production. The film is about "a music professor and mother who suffers from a deep, debilitating depression. Her family tries to help her, but no one can relate to her pain other than a young female student who knows depression all too well." So, Judd is bummed, but there's no word on who will help her through her struggle.

It's surprising -- as big as Ashley Judd's name is, she's definitely not one of those actresses with oodles of credits to her name. After starting her cinematic career with the terribly (yet pretty enjoyable) Kuffs, you know, that Christian Slater cop movie, she's averaged a few a year, which has slowed down lately. After a busy 2002, she's starred in Twisted and De-Lovely in 2004, Come Early Morning last year, and now Bug and Crossing Over this year. Now if we could only hear more about her Dame Alyce Kyteler adaptation...

The Weinsteins always enjoy a bit of controversy when it comes to their films, which is probably why it seems a little odd to see the larger than life Harvey Weinstein keeping so uncharacteristically quiet this time. The Guardian reports that the Weinsteins have been fielding complaints from the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) over a scene in their upcoming immigration drama, Crossing Over. Resulting in writer/director Wayne Kramer making some changes to the screenplay.

The complaint originated with "an actor of Iranian descent not on the project but who read the screenplay took umbrage over the scene, in which an Iranian-American man kills his sister after discovering she has been having an affair with a Latino man." According to the president of the NIAC, the reason they made a formal complaint was that "Honour killings are accepted in some Middle Eastern cultures but not accepted in Iranian culture," and that, "They sometimes happen in remote areas of Iran, but there are no cases of Iranians doing this in the U.S." So far, no one on the production has commented on the revised screenplay or who the actor in question was.

Crossing has an all-star cast that includes; Harrison Ford, Sean Penn, Ray Liotta and Ashley Judd, and neither they or the Weinsteins have commented on the changes, or what took place during discussions with NIAC. But a spokesperson for The Weinstein Co. was quoted as saying, "While we believe strongly in freedom of expression, we also believe in the importance of constructive dialogue between artists and the communities they seek to portray." Maybe in the end, it's just not that big of a deal. Don't most screenplays go through all sorts of changes before they make it to the screen? I guess we'll never know; that is, unless someone starts talking.

Here are some of the words Harvey Weinstein is using to describe his critics: jealous; disgruntled; has-been. The first two, you may have assumed, refer to the many people criticizing the ability and financial stability of The Weinstein Co. The latter, though, is directed at an internationally respected filmmaker, Luc Besson. The comment was in response to Besson's claim that TWC mishandled the American release of his animated film Arthur and the Invisibles. Weinstein says he'll give the "has-been" $1 million if he can prove that Arthur actually cost $85 million, as Besson claims. So, once again, a film industry dispute turns into a messy blame game, battled with egos rather than brains (and here, I thought Weinstein actually believed Arthur failed because audiences are not used to films that feature both animation and live-action).

But Weinstein could never be personally apologetic for his company's failures. Then he wouldn't be Harvey Weinstein. And it has become a regular thing for him to tell reporters, such as Variety's Anne Thompson, how everyone else is wrong about The Weinstein Co. Despite the obvious, which has been easily noticed by all of us following the film business, Weinstein continues to claim that TWC is doing just fine. Sure, most criticisms are speculative, but mostly they are reasonably so. According to Thompson, rumors are floating around that the Weinstein brothers could lose TWC to its investors; either they will be forced to sell the company or merge with a studio. She also questions TWC's chance for independent success given that even Dreamworks was unable to survive on its own.

Still, Weinstein feels secure in the future of TWC, stating to Thompson that the only thing it's missing is a "glamorous theatrical hit." And he seems hopeful about this summer's release of SiCKO, as well as next year's slate of in-house productions like The Great Debaters, Crossing Over and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. According to Weinstein, anyone who is doubtful about TWC making it is either a jealous competitor, probably some exec just trying to look cool, or a disgruntled former employee. Considering Weinstein has already surprised me once this year, with his almost personally apologetic reaction to the disappointment of Grindhouse ("We obviously didn't do it that well."; "We didn't educate the South or Midwest."; "We missed the boat." -italics mine), I will just have to be open-minded about the possibility of him turning TWC's reputation around.