Crossing the Line

My review was written in September 1990 after watching the film on RCA/Columbia video cassette.

"Crossing the Line" is a teen melodrama about motocross racing, shot in South Africa. Some young talent is introduced in an otherwise ho-hum effort.

You have to have an eagle eye to spot the terrain and other identifiers (mainly in the supporting cast) of a Capetown quickie here. The all-American youthful frontline cast is led by Rick Hearst as a rebel without a cause, a spoiled rich kid whose dad (John Saxon) is ashamed of him.

At the urging of his incredibly beautiful girlfriend (Colleen Morris, who deserves better roles), Hearst joins a dirt bike racing team coached by Aussie action star Vernon Wells. This leads to ineffective sentimentality (Hearst crying over his long-dead mom and reconciling with daddy Saxon) and a motocross championship race.

Cameraman turned director Gary Graver films the big race in boring fashion with a remote camera, followed by several anticlimaxes in the final reel. Having worked with everyone from Orson Welles to the slain porn star Shauna Grant, Graver has little to show for his trip to Jo'burg.

hi i saw crossing the line when i was like 8 maybe 10, one night when i was going through my uncles VHS collection. and what i remember of the movie it was a pretty good flick since i was just starting to get into riding motocross, so i was just wondering if anyone knows where i can get this movie from in Australia as i would like to see it again now that i am older, maybe i will find the movie rather ridiculous. anyway it would be much appreciated if anyone does know where i can get it from. if anyone has the information i need please email me at princess_shay06@hotmail.com much thanks

Shay

I rented 'Crossing the Line' expecting a terribly cheesy late 80s movie, and even these expectations are too high. The problem with this film is that it is premised upon an exaggeration, so none of the characters reactions to the situations, nor the events that ensue as a result, seem to make any sense. The whole thing just becomes ridiculously funny because it is so bad.

Rich kid dirt-biking enthusiast, Rick Kagan, who, for some reason, the filmmakers want us to think (without actually telling us why) is the misunderstood kid who was never given a chance to prove his successes. In particular, he and his father have a non-existent relationship because Rick doesn't think his father cares about him and, since the death of Rick's mom, they're just full of misunderstandings. (Although, that's not all they're full of...).

Trouble hits good-intentioned Ricky when he and his friend, Josh, are out dirt-biking on the course one night and, on their way back to town, are chased by a cop for speeding. Josh falls off his bike and injures himself pretty badly, winding up in a coma shortly thereafter. So for some reason, everyone blames Rick for the incident (despite the incredulity in this plot point so far). And the town gets strangely violent about the incident too (one guy actually knocks over a brick wall in a bathroom stall), with the major force being Josh's older brother.

Meanwhile, Rick, feeling ostracized picks up with the daughter of the dirtbike shop owner and she's basically his source of inspiration and encouragement (and doing so with plenty of bad acting between the two of them). And she encourages Rick not to clear up the misconceptions that the town has about him, but to take up racing and prove his worth to himself and I suspect, his father, as evident from the corny line, "You're a winner to me, Rick." At least the last few minutes of revenge between the goon brother and his gang of lackeys against Rick was interesting, but definitely out of kilter for a movie that kept wavering between good action and insulting cheesiness.

For a good dirtbike-themed film, I would suggest looking elsewhere. This movie was just far too long and utterly boring.

I just watched it on cable and man, I was dying laughing, the cheesiness of the acting was way beyond anything "Kraft" or "Laughing Cow" could've come up with...Lol I am a motocross race and fan for a long time now and it's always good to see my sport on film I could not take this flick seriously. It seemed like it wanted to be too many different films all at once. I love John Saxon who was a staple of movies I watched as a teen, especially sci-fi flicks.

Cable messed up and had a different logline under the title of the movie so I was confused for a long time until I realized the error.

Amazingly, some minor plot elements are almost the same as in the motocross movie I am writing. I had never seen Crossing The Line before so it was weird to see the creative element in all it's mysterious glory. I suppose it was just that the writer has good knowledge of motocross and any similarities between mine and this film were purely coincidental.

It's good to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you don't want to think your way thru a movie, just vegg out and stare at the screen.

L8r daze, mJ