Crossworlds - Dimensioni incrociate

As explained in a scrolling text prologue, Crossworlds is set in a universe where there are multiple dimensions and travel across dimensions is made possible by a "key" of sorts that unlocks doors between them. The key is powerful, so obviously there are various parties vying for it. As the film proper begins, we see a man head into a cave to retrieve some ancient relic, only to be confronted by sinister looking men. Then we head back to "contemporary" California to meet Joseph Talbot (Josh Charles), your average film world young, partying college student. Soon Joseph encounters Laura (Andrea Roth) who introduces him to dimension-hopping. It seems Joseph has some role to play in the war for the key.

Much has been said about the resemblance between Crossworlds and The Matrix (1999). Although some of the similarities are surely coincidences, many may not be. I suspect there will be no end to discovering source material that was somewhat cribbed by the Wachowski Brothers in the three Matrix films. I know that the more pre-1999 genre films I watch, the more I find material that the Wachowskis unofficially "adapted" for their work.

On the other hand, similarities between Crossworlds and the first Matrix film underscore a point that I like to make about film criticism--I do not agree that originality is a criterion that should be factored into one's rating of a film. That's not to say that I'm advocating plagiarism--far from it. But being strongly influenced by other material, or even "riffing" off of it is not a problem in my opinion. For one, the works we claim are original may turn out to be not so original after all. It's an epistemic problem. Critics are not omniscient, so any work deemed original may turn out, upon future knowledge, to be just as strongly influenced from material we just didn't happen to know about. So what we're really doing if we award points for originality is saying, "I'm not familiar with any material that this film is influenced from, therefore it is better than a film where I am familiar with precursor material". I believe The Matrix is a much better film than Crossworlds. The similar material is handled much better by the Wachowskis.

That's not to say that Crossworlds is bad. It's just average. It has an equal amount of good points and bad points. The principle problem I had with the film was the same problem I had with Constantine (2005)--there is obviously a dense mythology in the writers' minds that forms the basis of the plot, but the audience isn't told enough of the mythology for the film to achieve greatness. You are never quite sure of the "rules" of the Crossworlds universe. As soon as you begin to get your bearings and figure it all out, some new character appears, some new kind of unusual device, action or ability occurs, and we're in the dark again, trying to update our scorecards so that the new material is coherent with the previous material. It saps any potential suspense out of the film. It's a difficult problem for any author who wishes to create alternate worlds, with alternate operational rules. One has to find a balance between too much exposition/explication and not enough. Scripters Raman and Krishna Rao (who also directed) err on the side of not enough.

There are other problems, many of which seem to be related to editing and specifically the fact that Rao probably had to cut a much longer film down to 90 minutes. That may also be part of the reason that needed exposition/explication is missing. Rao might have figured that if he has to lose material, it's best not to lose more action-heavy scenes. Changes in setting, plot and/or character attitude are occasionally too abrupt. For example, Joseph expresses frustration at the dimension-hopping predicament (right after they leave the beach) when it seems that he's barely experienced any of it. This should have been saved for a later scene, and perhaps in the original cut, it did come much further into the film.

But the film also has many assets, not the least of which is Rutger Hauer as A.T. Hauer is like a slightly older version of Lou Diamond Phillips, which means that he's something of a grade B and C genre film king. You know that if Hauer or Phillips is in a film, there's a good chance that it's going to be at least a bit cheesy. For those of us who have a special place in our hearts for cheesy B and C genre films, we also tend to love Hauer and Phillips.

The rest of the cast is a treat, too. Charles is terrific at playing a lost nerd, Jack Black gets to do the schtick that made him famous, Roth is appropriately sly, sexy and a bit mischievous and Stuart Wilson as the villain should have most viewers hating him by the end of the film, which is what he's supposed to do.

And of course the underlying idea is an intriguing one. Visually, Rao does a fantastic job of creating an attractive sci-fi film dealing with multiple worlds on a relatively low budget. Many directors would be afraid even to attempt such a feat, as the budget did not allow for much in the way of special effects. Most locations are our mundane Earth, yet Rao is able to convey an epic adventure through multiple worlds with devices as simple as a red filter and locations as simple as a warehouse or black sound stage.

Crossworlds is definitely worth a view if you're a big fan of this genre. Just be prepared to cut the film some slack in terms of exposition, and keep a scorecard if you have to.

I'm not sure if this was a straight to VHS effort or even a TV movie. But I can say that regardless of intent Crossworlds misses the target and I won't be spending much time talking about it.

Basically a misguided attempt at a sci-fi niche market, Crossworlds suggests that there are many dimensions running simultaneously, some are more dangerous than our own, and in these nefarious dimensions persons exist that would do the world harm.

Joe (Josh Charles) is unwittingly the key to preventing said guys from achieving their dastardly goal, though as a gormless college student he has no idea that this is the case.

Rutger plays AT, a kind of 'other dimensional' swami who is called upon to help Joe and his kinda cute but in a D movie way female helper (put another way: you still want her to get naked but don't care too much when she doesn't), who is there to guide him through like Morpheus would Neo – only in a 657% better movie.

Crossworlds is an hour and a half of poorly choreographed fights, sh*tty cut price effects and clumsy and confusing plot developments. They really never explained the dimension jumping thing right, but in fairness I got so bored I let the movie run while I walked around the house cleaning up.

Let's just say that it involves some sort of sceptre and Joe's necklace? The only notable other things worth mentioning is the presence of Jack Black (who it seems was playing Jack Black even from the really early days) and a dimension hopping bad guy who could not have been more than five foot two.

Rutger Hauer looks like he is sleepwalking even in his good films so it is hard to bag his lacklustre efforts too much when this sad joke is concerned, I just hope he got paid upfront.

Final Rating – 3.5 / 10. Crossworlds could only be justified as a lamentable attempt to make Josh Charles famous, or to help kill off the career of Rutger Hauer. Thankfully while it is an atrocious piece of trash it obviously wasn't seen by enough people to do either.

Other than the obviously older Rutger Hauer as a clue, I was astounded to find that this film was from 1996, it has such an 80s feel. And the uniformly egregious songs had a bad-80s feel as well.

The genesis of this film seems evident: someone wanted to make a film of Heinlein's "Glory Road", discovered the rights to that work were too expensive, and had a lackey write a screenplay with many similarities but which could be filmed in LA and environs.

Rutger Hauer plays it straight and generally classes things up, but the film tends to bog down when he is not around. Andrea Roth is decorative and tries hard, but she is no Empress of the Twenty Universes.

Even for a fantasy work, there are too many inconsistencies and plot conveniences for the film to be enjoyable for me. I am willing to suspend disbelief in order to be entertained, but not to have sloppy plot devices hang disbelief by the neck until dead.

If you want a good cross-dimensional story, go read "Glory Road". Then hope, as I do, that someone who understands the appeal of that story can get their hands on a budget sufficient to do a worthy film version of it.

Very much a low budget 80's film, but perhaps the film itself time-traveled 10 years into the future, because it was released 1996.

You would be hard pressed to create more 80's legitimacy than this one. I still find it hard to believe. I even checked with wikipedia to make sure it wasn't released opposite War Games or something like that.

Anyway, it didn't age well regardless of when it was released. I'm giving it 5 because Rutger. Otherwise I would give it a 4 max.

Serious talk: Excellent choice for a remake. Given the right cast & director and *budget*, it could be an excellent movie. It's a Heinlein story, so everything you need for an epic is already there.

Sam, Michael, you guys doing anything right now? How about you John? When are you gonna be available?

From the first time i watched this film i thought it was brilliant, quite good effects and a very good storyline. If you havn't seen this film before buy it now on DVD, this film is one to keep you very well entertained.

Rating: Five Stars