Created in a comic book style and featuring talent who were popular in the ’80s and ’90s, “Cross” is an indie popcorn action film that is hampered by its writing and acting. But for those who are into mindless action and gunfights, then “Cross” is a film that you may want to check out!
© 2011 Cross Entertainment, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Cross
DURATION: 105 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 1:85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital
COMPANY: Sony Home Entertainment
RATED: R (For Violence and Some Language)
RELEASE DATE: May 31, 2011
Directed by Patrick Durham
Written by Patrick Durham, Jonathan Sachar, Tanner Wiley
Produced by Jonathan Sachar, Judy Durham, Patrick Durham
Executive Produced: Rocky Scapellati, Tanner Wiley, Stuart Cameron, Stu higton, Constantin Brancov, Robert Lamey, Anne O’Shea, Robbin Wood
Music by Peter Carl Ganderup, Sean Schafer Hennessy
Cinematography by Massimo Zeri
Edited by Justin Zev Rose, Paul G. Volk
Production Design by Jeffrey Givens
Art Direction by Nicholas Leitling
Costume Design by Kerri Kordowski
Starring:
Michael Clarke Duncan as Erlik
Vinnie Jones as Gunnar
C. Thomas Howell as Jake
Brian Austin Green as Callan
Tom Sizemore as Detective
Jake Busey as Backfire
Robert Carradine as Greek
William Zabka as Saw
Susie Abromeit as Sunshine
Lori Heuring as Lucia
Bart Johnson as LAndon
Samantha Mumba as Ishka
Lew Temple as Detective
Patrick Durham as War
Gianni Capaldi as English
Camille as Langfield as Pain
Michael Masini as Rook
Tim Abell as Riot
Stephanie Drapeau as Juliane
James Logan as Trench
Fernando Lara as Mario
Kari Nissena as Glare
Jessica Chobot as Abbey
David Mattey as Kong
Jonathan Sachar as Shark
Andre Gordon as Ranger
Aurelia Scheppers as Brianna
When beautiful, young women start disappearing from the streets of L.A., it’s time for good guy Callan (a.k.a. Cross) and his crew of weapons experts to kick into high gear and take out the trash. Granted incredible power by his ancient Celtic cross, Callan must fight to stop an immortal Viking from destroying mankind with his doomsday device. Also starring: Tom Sizemore, Jake Busey and Lori Heuring.
Known for his independent low-budget horror films such as “HOBOKEN HOLLOW”, “TOOTH AND NAIL” and “THE KILLING JAR” and the comedy “THE PENTHOUSE”, writer and filmmaker Patrick Durham returns with his new film “CROSS”, an action film which is created to look like a live action comic book.
The film stars Brian Austin Green as the main character Callan, who has been given the Celtic Power to protect the innocent.
Born from warrior families chosen by gods to protect mankind from the darkest of enemies, when Callan was younger, he was given an ancient Celtic Cross which gives him the power of invulnerability, important when he and his team which include weapons expert Riot (played by Tim Abell), Backfire (played by Jake Busey), War (played by Patrick Durham), Lucia (played by Lori Heuring) and Shark (played by Jonathan Sachar) as they take on the evil empire led by Erlik (played by Michael Clarke Duncan) in Los Angeles.
When an ancient Viking named Gunnar (played by Vinnie Jones) comes to Los Angeles to join forces with Erlik, an evil doctor (played by Robert Carradine) are kidnapping women for their blood, blood that Gunnar wants to use to destroy the world.
Meanwhile, detective Nitti (played by Tom Sizemore) is doing all he can to stop Calland and his team as he sick of them doing his job for him.
But as odds still look about even between both Callan and Erlik, things change drastically when Gunnar steals Callan’s Celtic Cross and now making both him and his team vulnerable to attacks from Erlik and his gang.
Can Callan and crew stop Erlik but most of all, stop Gallan before he destroys the world?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Cross” is presented in 1:85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is presented in English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. Picture quality is very good for DVD but perhaps the best part of the film is its use of audio. Awesome use of the surround channels for the gun shots and LFE for explosions. The film does feature a good amount of action and use of audio, so that’s definitely a positive for the film!
Subtitles are in English SDH, French and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Cross” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary – Featuring audio commentary by director Patrick Durham. Patrick talks about how they came up with the ideas from the film and working with the cast and challenges they had when making the film and also reshooting certain scenes.
- Alternate Ending – (:34) The alternate ending for “Cross”.
- Deleted Scenes – (8:32) Featuring seven deleted scenes.
- Alternate Opening Animatic – (1:01) Featuring music and sketches of the alternate opening animatic.
I remember when I first watched the old “Captain America” low-budget film, remember watching “The Flash” on TV and just remember the major comic book companies attempt making movies.
This is before the blockbuster movies that we see today, which cost millions to make. Back then, they were low-budget and didn’t star any major talent. And for many of us who were comic book fans, we would try to stay optimistic when these films were released, despite knowing they were low-budget independent films based on major comic book.
And there have been good independent films based on comic book properties, one of my favorites when I was younger was “Firearm” based on a character from the Ultraverse (which many people probably never watched before) and I even supported live comic book drama CD’s from Image and Malibu back in the ’90s.
In some sort of geeked out way, to see these character receive a movie or a audio drama CD was quite unique at the time.
And although I have stopped comic book collecting since the late ’90s, I would assume that these are still going on today. And for this direct-to-video release for “Cross”, this kind of reminds me of those times back then of watching those indie comic films.
“Cross” is developed with the comic book style of presentation especially the way it was written. It’s important to note, while this film does star many talent who were very popular in the ’80s and ’90s, one should not look at “Cross” as a blockbuster film, nor should it be seen as a film that will attract the masses because it won’t.
In some way, you can call the film a popcorn action film with cheesy lines and bad acting. In fact, I often wondered if writer/director Patrick Durham is a video game fan because seriously, I can picture his storyline being used in a video game. In fact, the way the film was created, there is so much gunfighting that many first-person shooters and action-based video games were coming into my head. In fact, while watching the film, I just felt like pausing and wanting to play some “Call of Duty” or partake in a paintball competition with friends.
But there are just some moronic situations that you see in this film that was reminiscent of ’70s drive-in movies. Those scenes where people know there is danger but they don’t run, escape…they just stay and get killed. Well, “Cross” has a few of those instances. In one scene, two thugs are arguing and warn the security guard meter man who has written a ticket to get away. Of course, the security guard keeps writing the ticket and plans to give the ticket to the thugs who repeatedly warned him that if he doesn’t leave, he will get killed.   And guess what happens, he gets shot and killed by the thugs.
I will say that when I first read that Brian Austin Green was the main protagonist, I was a bit surprised but once I was able to let go of any memories of his character from “90210”, he actually did a pretty good job playing the part of Callan, Jake Busy did a good job at playing the mouthy Backfire and Michael Clarke Duncan, well….he does a good job playing the bad guy period.
But I just felt that Tom Sizemore’s role as Detective Nitti was rarely used, underdeveloped and you would have hoped his character had more of a purpose in the film. And aside from Sizemore, heck, I was hoping to see more of Lori Heuring in action!
The film also stars C. Thomas Howell, Robert Carradine and William Zabka, if anything, for ’80s movie fans who loved “Soul Man”, “Revenge of the Nerds” and “Karate Kid” will definitely have a blast seeing these guys again.
And of course, what film with violence would not be complete without a cameo by Danny Trejo! But I wish there was more Danny Trejo!
But in the end, while that geek side of me wants to say I enjoyed the film, while understanding what Durham was trying to accomplish, it didn’t succeed. Bad writing, bad character development, bad acting hurts this film.  But at the same time, I know there are people who appreciate these kind of films.
As for the DVD, you do get an insightful audio commentary by director Patrick Durham and deleted scenes, an alternate ending and alternate opening animatic. I will say the best part of the film for me was seeing how the audio was utilized. The sound editor did a good job of utilizing the surround channels and LFE for the action-sequences and the biggest surprise for me about the whole film was its use of audio.
Overall, “Cross” is a popcorn action film that was created in a comic-book style. Unfortunately, the writing, the acting may not be the best but the fact is, there are a good number of people who appreciate Patrick Durham’s writing and filmmaking style.
So, if you are a fan of Durham’s work or if you are wanting, craving mindless action and a lot of gun fights, cute girls and seeing a few stars who were popular in the ’80s and ’90s, then definitely give “Cross” a chance!
