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Crossover
R1 - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Stevie McCleary (17th April 2007). |
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The Film
 "Crossover?" Cross it off your list of movies to see. Bad editing, bad direction, and a horribly contrived story that offers nothing new to the world of poorly made 'underground sports gotta-prove-to-everyone-I'm-the-best-no-matter-what" films. In this case it's 'underground basketball'. Man, every film like this now has to have an 'underground' deal to it in order to make it feel like it isn't some cheap marketing ploy that seems hip to the kids... nobody wants to be winning college football games anymore. They just wanna have some street cred by winning some pointless game that 6 and a half people think is cool. Way to reach high. This is the story of two friends, Tech (Anthony Mackie) and Cruise (Wesley Jonathan), who both have the 'mad streetballing skills' yet want different things out of life. Tech wants the full package of NBA stardom and to take down his main 'streetballing' rival (played by Philip "Hot Sauce" Champion. What a fantastic name). Noah Cruise, the guy that could easily go pro, just wants to use his scholarship to become a doctor. Wayne Brady shows up, as it's always a pleasure to see that generic actor turn up, and uses his evil goatee to try and lure Cruise into following the life of a pro-ball player. Apparently, this is a story of friendship and getting crossed. The whole movie comes across a cheap straight-to-DVD feature. Some of the 'streetballing' sequences stand out as being adequately filmed, but you'd hope so considering that would be the main hook for renting or purchasing the film. The simple fact that some properly trained actors are in this film with nothing much to do, alongside a former "America's Next Top Model" (2003-Present) winner...who is exactly like you'd imagine...well, that just speaks wonders for the overall production. The dialogue in the pool scene, for one example, feels like you walked into a room that was holding auditions and you just see someone's first ever wooden read through of the lines. It's nice that the filmmakers appear to want to examine the problem of inner-city youths in America, that are forced to choose between academic or athletic success. That's commendable. However, everything from that point on pretty much failed. More people should be examining these issues...just different people. In different movies. Some people would enjoy this film. Some people won't. There'll be more people that won't. It's stagnant and contrived, lackluster to the point of absolute boredom. If you stay awake through the whole movie, you're my hero. Unfortunately, you will have just wasted ninety-five minutes of your life. And you'll never be able to get that time back. So you lose either way. Skip it.
Video
Presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen this film was shot in digital and the transfer was ported over from the original master. The result is a clean and sharp image that presents color well, skin tones are spot on and detail is nicely balanced. The only problem I had with this transfer was that it was too flat with no depth which is the trade off when shooting on digital as apposed to film.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track is included, there's nothing special about this track, it does its job and does it well. Dialogue is clean and distortion free; surrounds kick in for the crowd scenes and ambient noise is mixed in to add some more depth. The music kicks in loudly and abrasively at times but for the most part it's presented well. Optional subtitles are also included in English and French.
Extras
First up we have a feature-length audio commentary by writer/director Preston A. Whitmore II and actor Wesley Jonathan. Whitmore talks about being inspired by Michael Mann to shot in digital (how pretentious is this? Especially when we are talking about a straight-to-DVD movie about underground street basketball! The reality is probably that the production's budget dictated what format they would have to shoot on in this case) and also talks about his directorial decisions such as the color palette (which he seems to be fixated on) and mainly comments on the various actors that appear onscreen and point out specific aspects regarding the production without going into too much detail. Actor Jonathan doesn't add a whole lot other than agreeing with what Whitmore has to say. Whitmore finds unconventional things to talks about at times for example in one scene he comments on trying to find something to do in a scene, so he shot the characters on opposite sides of a fence. What bothers me is that he seems too preoccupied with how to shoot something different instead of focusing on more pressing and important matters such as a decent performance. Whitmore comes across as the kind of director that is 'influenced' by many filmmakers (better filmmakers) but doesn't seem to be able to pull off anything that would make those filmmakers proud that they are influencing his work. Other than that the two chat about working on the film and informing us when and where certain scenes were shot. Rounding out the extras are some bonus trailers for: - "Premonition" which runs for 2 minutes 30 seconds. - "Gridiron Gang" which runs for 31 seconds. - "Casino Royale" which runs for 2 minutes 33 seconds. - "Spider-man 3" which runs for 2 minutes 31 seconds. - "Ghost Rider" which runs for 2 minutes 32 seconds. - "Stomp The Yard" which runs for 2 minutes 31 seconds. - "Stranger Than Fiction" which runs for 2 minutes 35 seconds. - "Grudge 2" which runs for 2 minutes 28 seconds. - "Classic Urban TV Series" which runs for 1 minute 24 seconds. - "You Got Served" which runs for 31 seconds.
Overall
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