Em Campo Minado

With no other reviews of this film at present, I guess I'm working without a net but I'll give it a try. I'll let the pre-provided summary above handle the plot description and move directly into the film itself, which I could best describe as a somewhat "artsy" crime drama, (and I mean that in a good way.)

Filmed mostly in Tijuana, it takes wonderful advantage of the various atmospheres and the smaller sets were also extremely well chosen for realism and visual interest. There are some action sequences but the film is not particularly violent nor "action" oriented, there are numerous personality conflicts and those are what mainly propels the story through the urban Mexican landscape, providing tensions which are occasionally punctuated by violent confrontations.

The players put forth a fine effort in delivering a multi-layered plot which is interesting enough to hold our attention but only barely, it's that type of movie that if you wander away from it for a few minutes, you may not care if you return to finish it. The story-line is littered with implausibilities which in themselves are not deal-breakers, for instance: the quandary of how to arm a foreign hit-squad traveling over the border is beautifully handled by the artifice of having the weapons cached in a pit in a field for them before they arrive but when recovering them, the squad parks about eighty feet away and unnecessarily carries the weapons back to their van in plain view of the surrounding buildings instead of parking right next to the pit and blocking the view of the transfer with the van.

But if it's not going to be uber-realistic like Traffic or testosterone driven like Die Hard or mentally intense like The Usual Suspects or absolutely drip atmosphere like The Godfather or Once Upon a Time in New York or be over-the-top like Kill Bill, it does need something to hook us into it and really hold us there. For me, ultimately that turned out to be the scenery but I don't think that they were actually trying to make a travelogue.

As a kiosk/netflix rental there is enough to recommend here, some great scenery and vignettes, very solid acting, some very good twists and a great score and while the whole may not quite be the sum of the parts it is still a decent enough crime flick.

Looking over reviews of the writer/director's few earlier works it appears he is quickly maturing and there is a lot of potential here, to be certain. His eye is excellent but the story is just a little too clichéd, I'd really like to see his considerable talents utilized in a better story. I would like to see what he, the cast and crew could do with a story that has more impetus, like Man on Fire. I may seem a little harsh because there are no other reviews and I'm trying to cover everything alone; so do your duty - go out and rent it and write an accompanying review.

I liked this movie right until the end and then it became ridiculous. Great cast with some excellent actors. The story was slow moving and at times hard to follow who was who. The usual plot with the FBI acting in a foreign country without authorization--no power of arrests or gun carry or they would have been thrown in a Mexican jail. The ending was very ridiculous with everyone in the public market carrying or displaying guns at the standoff. The supposed Russian professional assassin struts around wearing an open shoulder holster and with his men displaying guns and automatic rifles. He opens fire in a busy public market. Very unprofessional and as if you can get away with anything like this in Mexico. The standoff in the public market defied stupidity. Andy Garcia as an established gangster would never have gone with the "Mexico City" group where he knew he would be killed. How Aiden Quinn managed to get around and end up on a secluded beach is interesting as he had no money with him and would have easily been arrested by the police in Tijuana and extradited. He made no effort to disguise his appearance while on the run. ??? Overall a good movie but the ending on all fronts was very poorly done.

It is the biggest story of the last five years, yet H-wood will not touch Bernie Madoff because he sold them out and he sold out his own people.

Instead we get films like Across The Line, a shaky shot that takes Bernie's story and dumps it on an anglo guy seekng redemption.

Shaky camera equals tension in this one - to the director that is...to the audience it plays like an episode of 24.

Low budget...original dramaesque.

The real story of a billion dollar ponzi is right there: The criminal Madoff, the son who pays the sins of the father. Is Hollywood brave enough to tell it...only if they change the name of the man.

Perhaps the symbolism was heavy handed, but I thought this was a really good low budget movie. What I walked away with was three men, at the end of their prospective careers, each having a decision to make about their next step. And the casting was superb, all men who have had good careers in their own right, but have, for whatever reason, dropped out of the limelight of blockbusters. Andy Garcia never disappoints, but his acting is incredible in this movie (compare his delivery in this movie as a beaten man vs. Oceans Eleven). But I was really surprised at Aidan Quinn, whom I have acknowledged as a good actor, but he really did a great job in this movie. Cinematography was OK, the acting had some gems, there was no good use of sound or music, but the layered story of three men facing their end was compelling. Like I said, given the budget, I thought they did a good job.

Nice screenplay writer who did the nice directing. The casting was great, the acting of all the actors on both sides of the border were also top-notched. There was a very strong nostalgic feeling and melancholy touch throughout the whole movie. Rarely a movie would portray from so many angles from so many different parties: The FBI agent in charge with a big heart, the loyal FBI young agent with a dubious gender mix-up, the two past prime Russian mafia, the hired hit-man and hit team from U.S., the desperate Don of the Mexican Northern Cartel(Andy Garcia was so great in this movie), his younger brother(a very cool Mexican actor), his wife, then, there's the lonely Mexican whore, the scamming con artist(Quinn also did a great and very reserved job) who's so desperately trying to locate his estranged Mexican lover and their love's product, a daughter the guy never met before. All these ingredients were put together so smooth, and sometimes, very poetically beautiful.

The gun fight scenes were carried out pretty good, the sound track, the camera, the editing, the colors...they are all very classy. An obvious low budget movie, but definitely not a B movie, the production money was well spent. Absolutely worth watching.