Stealing ten billion dollars is kind of a big deal. Across the Line quickly starts off with Mr. Charlie Wright (Aiden Quinn) undergoing interrogation by the FBI in order to get things straight about missing money. Knowing he has been caught committing his Ponzi scheme, Charlie makes a run for it down south to Mexico. It is now up to agents Hobbs (Mario van Peebles) and his partner to catch the tricky banker.
Charlie Wright’s exile in Tijuana has created a stir of attention between the FBI, Mexican gangsters, and even the Russian mob. Jorge Garza (Andy Garcia) head of the Garza family empire in Mexico is trying to get his hands on Charlie so that he can pay off some deep debt that he has with some Mexican gangsters. This is a life and death situation for Jorge. His younger brother Gabriel (Danny Pino) is next line to head the family business. Gabriel is hired by his older brother to retrieve Charlie. Meanwhile, Russian mobsters are trying to get even with Charlie by getting the money back that he so elegantly stole from them. They hire highly trained bounty hunters to go and fetch Mr. Wright. While everyone is searching for Charlie, he is the process of finding his long lost daughter which he had with a Mexican prostitute and had abandoned some twenty years ago. In doing so, he befriends Mary (Claudia Ferri), an aging prostitute fighting the battle of wrinkles. Intertwining plots and obnoxious amounts of money make up Across the Line: Exodus of Charlie Wright.
Throughout the movie you can’t help but notice how ridiculous the entire thing is. A banker who gets away with stealing ten billion dollars and escaping the country without a problem. It is hard to determine who is the good guy in this movie, considering that just about all the characters are extremely greedy and difficult to like. This immediately loses the interest in whether Charlie gets caught or if he just goes on living a quiet life under the radar. Action sequences are scarce to come by and not very entertaining when they do occur. The occasional suspense between how close all of the different people get trying to catch Charlie is repetitive and doesn’t work after three or four times. Aiden Quinn gives a decent performance as a hotshot banker who has to now deal with his name being on the wanted list. Most of the scenes involve Charlie realizing that his life will never be the same and that ten billion dollars will solve his problems and include some strong emotional scenes with it. But other than that, there is no guarantee of strong performances besides the few scenes with Andy Garcia having to accept his fate with the Mexican gangsters. Mario van Peebles is the typical FBI agent who does whatever he has to in order to catch Charlie. It’s nothing more than a mediocre performance. There isn’t much to made this movie unique in any way possible. A predictable script sprinkled with sloppy acting makes Across the Line a straight to DVD movie.
The visuals of the movie do look quite nice since most of the movie is shot in Tijuana Mexico. Bright colors and a vivid nightlife really lights up the movie. You follow all of the different characters on their search for Charlie through some on locations venues that spark up the scenes. Having shot the on location was a smart idea to really capture the true environment that Charlie has blend into.
Blu-ray Bonus Features The Blu-ray edition of this movie includes deleted scenes and a behind the scenes check-in with the cast and some crew. Both of which are not very interesting due to the fact that all of the interviews are almost identical to one another. It also includes a short film called “Baine” by the film's director R. Ellis Frazier. Baine plays a small role in the movie itself and the character had originally come from this short movie.
"Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright " is on sale December 7, 2010 and is not rated. Action, Drama. Directed by R Ellis Frazier . Written by R. Ellis Frazier . Starring Aidan Quinn, Andy Garcia, Mario Van Peebles.
