Crossing Over [Blu-ray]

Interesting movie all the way through.

Great movie sad but accurate people need to know what these people go through to have a better life for their children and their sacrifice for their children.

Well, let me say first that I'm continually disappointed by all the reviewers who have nothing better to do than pour venom on movies that have offended them somehow. I freely concede that bad movies can and do get made but I question the motivations of reviewers whose level of vitriolic reaction is shockingly disproportional to the actual offense any movie can realistically commit. Speaking for myself, I'm NOT going to waste readers' time ripping a movie I think is bad; no matter what I say everyone of us is going to have to endure an occasional clinker from time to time, and shouting my angry opinions at you is only going to make me look maladjusted at best.All of which leads me into my full-throated recommendation of "Crossing Over". Intrigued by the synopsis and cast, I took a chance on this and was powerfully rewarded with an outstanding ensemble drama that ought to provoke all sorts of reflection about our national immigration crisis as well as to stir our own thoughts about just what it means to be an American.First, GREAT performances by both the stars and the unknowns sharing the screen here. Harrison Ford is appropriately bedraggled and exhausted as a seen-it-all ICE officer whose conscience forces him to look beyond his enforcer duties and try to ameliorate at least some of the human damage his job inflicts. Check out how he's got his "Blade Runner" square scotch glass back in a similar alone-at-home scene, examining both case history evidence as well as his own moral compass. Ashley Judd & Ray Liotta are as sharp as ever, portraying a husband/wife on opposite ends of the immigration spectrum: Ashley as an immigration attorney, struggling to help families at the mercy of the Federal immigration sausage grinder, and Ray as a jaded & corrupt bureaucrat sinking to his personal lowest as a bent cog in that very system. Anchored by these seasoned pros, the rest of the cast dials into their frequency, powerfully depicting the endless sour treadmill of immigration cat-and-mouse as a tragedy diminishing the humanity of all trapped within its jaws.So many things grabbed me in "Crossing Over"; first was the dilemma of the illegal Saudi teenager who put her entire family at risk by provoking her high school class with an unbelievably inflammatory speech. YES she should have known better, but I almost immediately thought (and this was surely the directors' intent) "it is just the nature of teenagers to say and do risky, ill-considered things". Here we are challenged by the outrageously disproportional official response: would we approve of such a bare-knuckled official smackdown of a native kid who (for example) dropped a cherry bomb into the school's plumbing, or spray painted a swastika? Is it "justice" or is it brutish tyranny to respond so vindictively to teenage provocation like this?I must also comment quickly on the "honor killing" depicted here. "Crossing Over" depicts the problems of assimilation vividly through conflict boiling beneath the surface of an outwardly "model" Iranian family on the verge of naturalization. Children raised and grown to maturity here are going to be imprinted with values and cultural "frames" vastly different from those their parents (or elder siblings) were born into. It's an understatement to say that this will provoke intense generational conflict, and while these tensions(thankfully) seldom lead to murder, unfortunately such things are not impossible or unprecedented. Here again, outstanding ensemble acting dramatizes the conflict and its causes very effectively, sketching all perspectives without artificially tugging our sympathies one way or another.Implicit throughout "Crossing Over" is the question "what does it MEAN to be an American-a US Citizen-when so many outside our country are prepared to risk so much to live in the shadows among us, where they can all too easily find themselves targets of the nation they gambled EVERYTHING to be part of?" Obviously this is and should be a penetrating cause for self-examination on all possible fronts for each of us lucky enough to be Americans by birth. How DO the ideals our nation was founded on perpetuate and express themselves when challenged by outsiders who aspire to those same yearnings? No easy answers but you simply cannot see "Crossing Over" without these dilemmas tugging at your personal sense of who you are and what you contribute to our nation.It's fair to say that "Crossing Over" indeed owes a great deal in many respects to predecessors like " Crash (Widescreen Edition) , Amores Perros , 21 Grams , or  Traffic ". However, each of those was a great, absorbing, and important cinematic work of art in every meaningful sense. Despite its stylistic similarities, I don't think "Crossing Over" should be diminished by comparison; indeed, if you haven't already, see all of them."Crossing Over" never really had a fair chance in theaters to find an audience. I hope my praise can lead a few receptive readers to take a chance and be as amazed as I was by this arresting and consequential film.

So, many leave their countries in hope of the American Dream and when they get here they find out what we know it is not paved with streets of gold, but one room apartment flea bags where 15 to 25 people live till they find away to afford an apartment where they bring other family members over to help with working here to survive the very high cost of living here in America. Harrison Ford is the do gooder of the boarder parole, Ray Liotta is the man whose car is hit by an illegal struggling actress from Australia, who he blackmails for sex to help her stay in America Legally as he works for the immigration department. Find out what happens to a small child, whose mother is held waiting to return to Mexico, as she is caught working in a factory illegally and Harrison Ford takes on the child, as his good deed to help the struggling mother who is just making it to survive in an America where we no longer welcome others..........

Crossing over is often compared to movies like Crash and Traffic with multiple characters with mostly independent story arcs that cross over each other. What Crash was to racism and Traffic was to drugs, this movie is to the immigration system. It offers different views and perspectives of the immigration system and how people get treated much differently depending on where they come from. The movie stars Harrison Ford as Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Max Brogan, who is portrayed as a heroic, stand-up agent. He is contrasted by Ray Liotta's character, Cole Frankel, who trades sex for a green card with Alice Eve's character, Claire.The movie bounces back and forth between various storylines and various characters. It basically plays like a bunch of case studies involving different people, and it does have political undertones. So, if you are one that is triggered by politics you do not agree with, this film is probably not for you. I think the movie would have been better if it pared down the number of characters, focused on just a couple of them, and intertwined the stories more. The movie is definitely not something that is appropriate for younger kids as it does have a lot of adult themes as well as some sex and nudity, including a topless scene by Alice Eve.The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray is fine. Obviously, the movie is not effects-heavy at all, and it does not have over-the-top cinematography so it is not really something that needs to be seen in HD. There are no extras of any kind, most likely because of the rumored production issues that plagued the movie while it was being made. So, it is just bare bones. I think it is best described as a movie you can easily have on in the background without having to watch every second of it. It is an okay drama, but it is definitely not a must-see, even with star power including Ford, Liotta, and Ashley Judd.

It's been a long time since a movie surprised me like "Crossing Over". I'll be honest, I didn't know much about this movie, other than it starred one of my favorite actors, Harrison Ford, and that it tackled the immigration issue. I expected a decent movie and Ford doing his usual great performance, but what I found was a riveting moving drama with superb acting from a very talented ensemble cast! What a fantastic movie and one I HIGHLY recommend. As I watched this movie, I was reminded of other ensemble movies with weaving story lines such as "Magnolia" and "Traffic". I consider myself a serious movie buff and not an easy critic but this movie really won me over and I consider it one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while. Don't miss this one!!

Mi è piaciuto, riguarda anche l'attualità

Great flick great storey . Heat warming and heart breaking .Harrison Ford never disappoints.Plus great nude scene of Alice eve Great body.

Nice movie better than what I expected. Worth it for Alice Eve.

The comparison between Crossing Over and Crash begins and ends with the style of the film in that there are several stories or in this case about ten that weave and interweave together.MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS: Max Brogan(Harrison Ford) is a Border Immigration Field Agent and his partener Hamid(Cliff Curtis)is of Iranian descent. They commit raids on sweat-shops,factories and similar to trace illegal immigrants and send them back across the border.Cole Frankel(Ray Liotta) working in the Immigration Office,sees his chance to use his position to abuse a young girl who'll do virtually anything to get a Green Card, while his wife Denise (Ashley Judd)does her best to find new foster parents for a young African child while at the same time trying to keep together a family of recently discovered illegal immigrants? Keep together?Half the family have been told they can stay in the USA without further harassment on condition the other half leave - forever? Who stays and who goes? A young Iraqi girl, too Westernised is bringing shame on her family and they have to find a solution to stop this? How far will they go?A Chinese youth is another led astray while awaiting Naturalisation and becomes involved in a robbery which could lose him forever his opportunity to become an American Citizen, something his father has worked and sweated for.Will he make it or not? These queries will ALL be answered in this brilliant film by Wayne Kramer when it all comes together.

Danke