That was an excellent one.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Linewatch had to be one of the most boring action movies I have seen. It certainly didn't look like it was going to be the greatest movie, but it had the potential to be a decent action movie.Cuba Gooding Jr. is Agent Michael Dixon of the US Border Patrol working on the US/Mexican border. Michael Dixon had a mysterious past he always wanted to leave behind which is under threat of being exposed by High Noon Gang member Cook (Malieek Straughter) following a shootout which leaves a fellow US Border Patrol agent dead. The High Noon Gang leader Kimo (Omari Hardwick) blackmails Dixon to help smuggle in a drug shipment following threats made to Dixon's family. Dixon must also stay ahead of fellow US Border patrol colleagues, including Warren Kane (Dean Norris).It's hard to believe Cuba Gooding Jr. was a quality actor once upon a time. Cuba Gooding Jr. also won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the arrogant yet charismatic football player Rod Tidwell in the Tom Cruise feel good movie Jerry Maguire (1996). Cuba Gooding Jr.'s career has been stuck in the doldrums for several years now and this movie has done his career no favours.It would be great to see Cuba Gooding Jr. make a comeback someday and drag his career out of the wilderness. If he stopped appearing in poor quality movies like this, then we may see him back in the limelight again.1/10.

There's nothing sadder than watching an actor's career collapse especially when this person has given us the pleasure and the excitement that Cuba Gooding Jr brought to his role in Jerry Maguire. Actually, he was the only reason to see that whole contraption of a movie, the only actor that kept it (half) alive. But since then, he (and the audience, too) came from disappointment to disappointment, without ever taking a part or a movie worthy of his talent. And worst of all, when he starred in Radio and seemed to take the road of Tom Hanks toward virtuousness, honestly it was time to run out of the theater. But this new movie, Linewatch, could have been an interesting turn for him because it promised to be a muckraking drama in the wake of Tony Richardson's The Border. But none of the themes that are set in the first fifteen minutes of the movie are developed; we are waiting for the story to get new dimensions but this is helpless because the director, Kevin Bray, refuses to deliver if not great movie-making - at least the zinger we need to keep us awake. And we are waiting for Cuba to do something but even he must have realized that this was leading nowhere so by the end (which is ridiculous) he seems to have given up on this one like the audience.

It's a shame that some movies never get to the theaters. Lately, Cuba Gooding Jr. has been doing a lot of those movies, and though I haven't seen them all, I rent one from time to time: I think the man's a great actor. In Kevin Bray's "Linewatch", he gives a stand-out performance as Mike Dixon, a police officer who works for the border patrol and is suddenly haunted by the past. The actor is so subtle here, so committed to the role that we can't help desiring something better for him.Movies like this one are not sold properly for the audience. "On the border between the US and Mexico, the law is what you make it", reads the tagline of "Linewatch". It's logical that you would expect a bad film with something like that on its cover. Sadly, sometimes the truth is different, like in this case. The border is just scenery in this movie, a nice place to shoot and develop some plot lines of David W. Wardfield's screenplay.The script is about absolutely everything else, and though it doesn't develop its characters fully, it leaves a good taste in your mouth, and you feel you've watched something worthy of your time. The key however is in the casting, because when you have a slow film like this one with just a few action scenes, you need good actors to spend the rest of the time with. Sharon Leal is warm and caring as Dixon's wife and the girl who plays their daughter is especially good. The gangsters that come to bother Dixon and bring the past back with them all achieve good performances. Each of them is allowed to stand out from time to time, but they are at their best, natural and relaxed, when doing small talk as they guard Dixon's family.Two of them are probably the most important in terms of the story though: Kimo (Omari Hardwick) and Little Boy (Evan Ross). I haven't told you the hold story yet, partly because I want you to go and rent this picture (the only way to see it), and partly because the movie doesn't tell it either…I'll leave that for you to discover, saying only that it's a well developed plot for the genre that even leaves room for some small surprises.Kevin Bray does everything right and never poses for something that his movie isn't. He knows how to create true tension and achieves it in two crucial moments that don't include fast-paced action, helped by Jeff Mcllwain's exciting score (which, by the way, also works perfectly in the action sequences).The action is not the main attraction in "Linewatch" as it would be in, for example, "Taken". However, the fact that the leader of a gang bang doesn't completely look and act like we would assume a gangster would and some phrases that could be suppressed make this look like a B-movie. But then, "Taken" was also a B-movie (in the best sense and with the best production); and a good one. Maybe "Linewatch" is even better; a bit more humane…Realer.

The star quality of Cuba Gooding, Jr. is not really enough to carry this crime drama to the finish line. Director Kevin Bay tries his best I'm sure, because there is some redeemable action in LINEWATCH. The former Academy Award winner plays Mike Dixon, a Border Patrol Officer in New Mexico who seriously needs a promotion or transfer. The well loved family man suddenly has his world threatened by secrets from his past...he was once a member of a savage Los Angeles gang that has tracked him down to force him into a drug smuggling trip across the border. The law is what you make it. Who draws the line? Who dares to step over it? Cast also features: Sharon Leal, Omari Hardwick, Dean Morris and Evan Ross.