duskovic I stumbled across this movie on TV, a few minutes after it started. After awhile I realized that the movie had been made by the people who made Crash, but I was wrong. It had the same kind of pattern and similar dramatics, etc., so I was surprised that whereas Crash was a hit with the critics, Crossing over was a flop. Who know why, probably something to do with packaging and selling.It was on again tonight and I had it on while doing housework. I still found the drama punchy, but the idea of people absolutely craving to be in the US a bit silly. What, do they wanna be mugged or go obese? But apparently, there are opportunities in the US; you can open a burger joint, a pizza place, a coffee shop, etc., that mostly fail (80% in the first year). And yes, as somebody commented, the idea of being deported to Australia (a better country than the US) is amusing, but the girl deportee wanted to become an actress in the US, where good films like this one fail but junk like Transformers hits the stars.

mattkratz This was a decent movie in the vein of Crash. It was all about the happenings in immigration offices, and followed several story lines, such as a girl who was the daughter of Bangladesh immigrants who presented a report in class on how you should look at the 9/11 terrorists as "human" and their motivations, and she wound up in trouble with the FBI;a social worker working with kids of prisoners;a crooked immigration worker who agrees to have sex with an Australian actress for two months so she can get her green card;an officer investigating crimes in Mexico;and a guy studying to be a rabbi.Overall, this wasn't too bad. It might have worked a little better if all the story lines had "collided" at the end. They were all effective though. It shows you can have a good movie with several concurrent story lines. I liked it. It had good performances, especially by Harrison Ford & Ray Liotta (in typical roles), and a great cast.** 1/2 out of ****

kenjha A motley group of immigrants tries to get green cards in Los Angeles. This variation on "Crash" is letdown by a melodramatic and contrived script, courtesy of director Kramer. It's meant to be poignant and dramatic in conveying the plight of the immigrant, but it amounts to little more than clichés. The characters are one-dimensional stereotypes: the defiant Muslim, the babe willing to sleep her way to a green card, the Korean kid tempted by gangs, the sleazy immigration official. None of the characters seeking legal status is portrayed as likable or sympathetic. Ford and Judd are unbelievably saintly as bleeding heart liberals. Despite all its shortcomings, however, the film does manage to be entertaining.

Neil Welch Crossing over is a multi-strand drama telling a mixture of stories involving the US Immigration Service. All the stories are interesting, with some being more powerful than others.The film is strongly cast - Harrison Ford, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta head things up - and well performed, with the acting accolades going to some of the performers lower down the cast list: Summer Bishil as teenager Taslima is a knockout, and Alice Eve as Aussie Claire is also very good.There are good points made, and made well, and the film benefits from the fact that many of the characters are morally ambiguous. There are no glib, easy answers.This is film is entertaining, interesting, occasionally very heavy duty, and worthwhile.