Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Across The Line: The Exodus Of Charlie Wright is the very definition of overlooked. It was probably underfunded and squeaked forth through meager marketing a few years ago, neither of which has prevented it from triumphing as a sharp little sleeper flick that of course nobody saw. The central theme is age and regret, each character finding themselves at some sad crossroads, placed there by the decisions they've made in the past and the ways in which they have conducted themselves up to the final act of their lives. To observe people at such a stage haunts you as much as it does them, and made for a film that took a while to get out of my head. Aiden Quinn plays Charlie Wright, a billionaire financial genius whose empire has been exposed as nothing more than a pitiful ponzi scheme, right under his unwitting nose. He is in self imposed exile in Mexico, and soon the consequences rain down on him in the form of several different pursuers. A Mexican gangster (Andy Garcia) wants him, as well as a Russian (Elya Baskin) and his dodgy American representitive (Raymond J. Barry). The FBI has their sights on him as well, in the form of a weary looking Mario Van Peebles, sanctioned by the Director (Corbin Bernson). There's also a trio of merceneries headed up by a dogged Luke Goss, Bokeem Woodbine and Gary Daniels who have been deployed south of the border to hunt him. It sounds like a bunch of commotion, but I found it to be a very reserved meditation on just how far people are willing to stand by their life choices when they see what's become of the goals they had in mind when they made said choices in the first place. Quinn is the most understated, yet speaks the loudest as a man on the run from the world. Gina Gershon makes an emotional impact as a woman involved with Garcia, who is also great. South of the border intrigue. Ponderous introspect. A winning recipe.

Aidan Quinn has run off with a couple of billion dollars of ill-gotten money and is living in some shabby dump in Tijuana, of all places. Three agencies are out to get him and/or recover the loot.One is a gang of bald-headed thugs, the leader with Lee Van Cleef eyes, all of whom are professional mercenaries. They simply want to get some of their client's money back, preferably with Quinn left underground. The second is a lone agent of the FBI. The third is a Mexican gangster who owes to some illegal organization as much money as Quinn stole, plus some. Everyone seems desperate to get their hands on Quinn and his pelf.Quinn, on the other hand, is in search of a woman he loved years ago in Tijuana. She's now dead but she left their daughter behind. The daughter has emigrated to the states and is now in college.This kind of story has a good deal of potential. For one thing, there's the cast. Aidan Quinn, whose character is fifty-one years old, looks the right age. He's gotten thicker and more frightened with the years -- and he does "fright" very well. Andy Garcia as the Godfather figure who needs to pay off a debt is older as well, no longer the handsome slick youth. He's bearded and his voice has descended into a resigned growl. Luke Goss leads the gang of thugs from the states. He's got those Lee Van Cleef eyes and he acts as if he knows precisely what he's doing. The older man who hires him is excellent too, a little reminiscent of William Hickey.And in fact the writer/director has given the viewer a couple of refreshing surprises. Yes, there's a car chase, but it doesn't amount to much. And there's a wild shoot out between Goss's goons and the gang hired by Garcia, but there's little blood.But here's a treat. Near the end, all three agencies after Quinn and the loot find themselves in the mercado in a Mexican stand off, so to speak. Everybody has guns pointed at everybody else, except for the quivering Quinn. The guns are cocked and ready to go. Moments of jaw-clenching tension pass. Then everybody says to hell with it, holster their guns, and let the FBI agent walk away with Quinn. How could the writer/director have let this opportunity pass? There should have been fountains of blood and brains all over the market place. Quentin Tarentino certainly couldn't have let it go by, but Frazier has, and good on him.There are also moment of low-key but extremely human pathos. A Tijuana whore who befriends Quinn and puts him up, begs him to spend the night with her because she's horrified that she's now middle aged. Customers have grown few. She sobs at the "wrinkles." It's not the kind of thing you expect to find in a cheap thriller.But the story is almost undone by its own excess. It's a tale about making up for all the harm you've done to yourself and to others -- about guilt and absolution, which can be found even in death. It's all spelled out in the end, especially noticeably in the dying Quinn's flowery philosophy as he sits in a beach chair. The viewer who has made it this far -- without changing channels and looking for more gore -- already knows this.And the photography of Tijuana and environs is sublime, except that the camera wobbles all over the place far too often. Even a static high shot of the bullfighting ring -- vast and empty except for a tiny car in the center and a few fluttering birds -- wobbles. Note to Frazier: At least one viewer, chiefly me, is getting mighty tired of bald thugs and wobbling cameras. And unless Quinn has an MFA from Yale, he ought to be conducting an inner narrative in the demotic, the parlance of the common man. Ordinary language CAN be moving if it's handled properly. Look at Terry Malloy in "On The Waterfront."

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.

This movie is almost a bad "made for TV" video. It tries hard to be artsy but has nothing real in that department except some nice guitar music and scenery. Aidan Quinn is one of those actors that seems to have the chops but just comes off as flat all the time. There just isn't much about him to hold your interest in any film. Why is Andy Garcia playing his really cliché Cuban guy who is always wearing white and smoking a cigar- tinted glasses too? (the usual problem with movies - giving costume people license to go overboard)? He is supposed to be Mexican. Gina Gershon was also silly playing his Mexican wife. The only acting in this movie that doesn't come off as hokey is Mario Van Peebles and Claudia Ferri (who played the prostitute and did the best job here). By the way, why was the wrinkle cream so important??? This is just a list of 'B' actors.There were also some completely implausible things happening in this movie. How did the Russian mafia guys always seem to know where Charlie (and Garza) was? Why would all the bad guys just walk away at the end because one FBI agent had Charlie in custody (100's of millions of dollars were at stake)? *** Also to the the above reviewer: Garza was clearly not out for revenge. This makes no sense - he hadn't even had any dealings with Charlie. He just needed money to pay back the people from Mexico City - they made that pretty clear over and over in the movie.**** and a note to all you other reviewers for all IMDb movies: Where did all of you get the idea that a review has to contain a synopsis??? We don't need to read your long rambling re-telling of the story (with errors). It reminds me of people all learning that when you read, you have to talk in a special "reading" tone of voice. It just reeks of bad early teachers.