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Gives Groundhog Day a run for the money, until the pffft ending. Apparently, all possible realities are filled with young hipsters in quirky coffeehouses, though.

Strong performances by the central characters give this delightful what-if experiment an emotional core... and give us a reason to care about them.

Even the title has alternate meanings...

Border Run is a bare-bones, gritty, raw film about a very serious topic. Sharon Stone must have chosen to endure this demanding role to support the film's effort to show the incredibly inhumane treatment of illegal aliens on both sides of the border. It forces the viewer to confront the real human suffering caused by the enforcement of the Mexican/American border and the criminals who take advantage of desperate people. With few words and an emphasis on clear-cut situations, the script is effective without putting its themes into unnecessary comments by the characters. Some of the supporting actors are so immersed in their roles that it is hard to realize they are not actually these unfortunate people. This is one of those real-life stories that plays out like a movie, with twists and turns, but is true nonetheless. It certainly deserves a better overall rating than 4.2.

Last night, we went to see a screening of a new film to see the on-screen debut of my long-time friend and collaborator, singer-songwriter Evyn Charles... a comic-book-styled film noir called "Break"...

... and it was good to see Chad Everett again, after all these years, in a pitch-perfect performance as The Man.

... and we laughed many times at bodyguard Haiku's haiku sentences, Michael Madson's enthusiasm for BIG women and especially at David Carradine's perverse epicurean sex-voyeur. ("Would you like to feed Rupert?")

... and we agreed that newcomer Xin Sarith Wuku has the makings of a martial-arts movie star with his muscular neo-Bruce-Lee fighting style.

Though a bit uneven at times, this film certainly has its pleasures.