समाचार

Director: David Hogan.

Writers: David Ray, Robert Ozn, and Rachelle S. Howie.

Cast: Hamza Adam, Julia Benson and Cameron Bright.

When producers start running out of ideas for the next disaster flick because every single earth-borne extinction scenario has been done, the next logical step is to look into outer space for new ideas. To save mankind, asteroids and comets have to be blown up and solar flares have to be deflected. But there is more out there that can be dreamt of in scientific philosophy. A gamma ray burst or a star going nova has not been done yet.

Or when the next cosmic weapon happens to be a fragment of a neutron star, even the smallest amount can shred away magnetic poles before it reaches the planet Earth. Its own mass and magnetic attraction is a billion times that of the planet Jupiter.

Anyone who has watched History Channel...

Promark Entertainment Group

Flimsy title aside, "I Witness" is an otherwise solid, absorbing crime thriller about a Mexican murder cover-up that is considerably enhanced by spare direction and smartly understated performances.

The reliable Jeff Daniels is particularly well cast as a human rights investigator who is dispatched to Tijuana (actually played by Puerto Rico) to monitor a labor dispute at an American-owned factory. Coinciding with his arrival is the discovery of 27 bodies in a border tunnel that at first have been linked to a notorious drug lord. But Daniels' seen-it-all activist isn't so sure.

In the course of his own inquiry, he butts heads with a local homicide detective (Clifton Collins Jr.) and a U.S. Commerce Department rep (Portia de Rossi), among others, but ultimately uncovers the grisly truth.

Written by Colin Greene and Robert Ozn, this competent blend of "Traffic" and "CSI" is delivered straight-up, with gimmick-free direction by Rowdy Herrington ("Roadhouse") that for the most part allows the various plot curves to land unexpectedly.

Given some breathing room, the cast, also including James Spader in another one of his patented creepy/ambiguous performances, delivers the goods, with Daniels and Collins (memorable as a psycho hit man in "Traffic") establishing a particularly lively dynamic.