20 for 2009 - Crossing Over

Delays in release dates are so tricky to figure out. For every Assasination of Jesse James you get a Southland Tales. So it is with some trepidation that Crossing Over makes it to number 15 on my films to look forward to in 2009.

Originally slated to come out last summer it shifted back to the Oscar season and then was moved all the way into August 2009. August also doesn't bode well - the late summer dumping ground is often devoid of trips to the cinema. Mind you Distribution is being handled by the Weinstein company so quite frankly anything goes.

There are some great actors involved with Crossing Over. Ray Liotta being sleazy, Jim Sturgess being cuckolded, Alice Braga being deported and Sean Penn cameoing. Although topping all of these is Harrison Ford.



Ford doesn't do nearly as many good films as his early career indicated. In the late seventies/early eighties he worked with Spielberg (famously), Peter Weir and Francis Ford Coppola. Over the last 10 years though he's been content to coast in mediocre thrillers and the fourth best Indiana Jones film. I can see Crossing Over as a real opportunity for him to remind all how good an actor he is.

Crossing Over is directed by Wayne Kramer. His biggest success was The Cooler back in 2003, although I'm also a big fan of Running Scared - an undercover cop in over his head flick that was both stylish and tense, and also made me relaise that Paul Walker isn't just a sexy coathanger.

The intercutting stories of Crossing Over may feel like a immigration based rehash of Traffic or Syriana, but it's actually based on Kramers own short film from 1999.

Enough of me though. Here's the trailer. What do you think?