Opening

87% Star Trek Into Darkness May 16
24% Erased May 17
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44% The English Teacher May 17
42% Black Rock May 17
77% Pieta May 17
—— Populaire May 17
21% 33 Postcards May 17

Top Box Office

78% Iron Man 3 $72.5M
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56% Oblivion $4.1M
69% The Croods $3.6M
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8% The Big Wedding $2.5M
60% Oz the Great and Powerful $1.1M

Coming Soon

—— The Hangover Part III May 23
78% Fast & Furious 6 May 24
—— Epic May 24
94% Before Midnight May 24

Crossing Over (2009)

tomatometer

16

Average Rating: 4.1/10
Reviews Counted: 106
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 89

Crossing Over is flagrant and heavy-handed about a situation that deserves more deliberate treatment, and joins its characters with coincidences that strain believability.

16

Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 37
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 31

Crossing Over is flagrant and heavy-handed about a situation that deserves more deliberate treatment, and joins its characters with coincidences that strain believability.

audience

53

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 50,000

My Rating

Movie Info

Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, and Ashley Judd star in Running Scared writer/director Wayne Kramer's harrowing look at life amongst illegal immigrants and the immigration enforcement agents whose job it is to ensure that the U.S. borders remain secure. Every day, a new batch of immigrants comes flooding into Los Angeles in search of the American dream -- and every day the price of that dream rises exponentially. As the desperation of these newcomers continually tests the humanity of Los Angeles

R,

Drama

Wayne Kramer

Jun 9, 2009

$0.4M

The Weinstein Co. - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (106) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (89)

Any one of these stories, if properly fleshed out and shorn of contrivance, would have made for a perfectly serviceable film. Instead, we have lots of hysterical little bits of nothing much.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There are good performances here, but the sheer number dilutes their power, leaving the movie a bit of a mess.

March 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You see, it's all a bit too interlocking, a cable series jammed into a couple of hours.

March 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Denver Post
Denver Post
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[Crossing Over] has a paint-by-numbers quality.

March 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Part of the reason why Crossing Over doesn't work is that too many of the hurdles [director] Kramer places in front of his protagonists often feel like the product of a writer's imagination instead of real-life experiences.

March 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Miami Herald
Miami Herald
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film is so choppy, especially in the final going, it appears that entire reels have been cut.

March 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Multicultural hot pot boils over into farce.

December 31, 2010 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au
sbs.com.au

The film manages to sustain a general air of dull preachiness without ever having much to say for itself.

August 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK)
Sunday Times (UK)

It's compassionate, decent-minded and highly watchable, but as angry, heavy-handed and overemphatic as a rubber stamp crashing down on an immigration form.

August 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Observer [UK]
Observer [UK]

Being over-stuffed and heavy-handed are not even Crossing Over's biggest problems. That dubious honour goes to an absolute failure to address its nominal subject-matter in any meaningful way.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

While the film certainly has some viable, provocative points to make about the US's attitudes to migrants and the labyrinthine horrors of getting citizenship, it lacks the subtlety and eloquence it really needs to succeed.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Film4

For anyone who felt that Crash was too subtle and self-effacing, I recommend Crossing Over, a multi-stranded, heavy handed exploration of the issues surrounding immigration and US citizenship.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Times [UK]
Times [UK]

Crass, contrived, tackily salacious and politically loaded in the most insidious way, this dodgy piece of nonsense purports to be an ensemble, multi-stranded drama in the style of Traffic or Crash.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

The whole exercise feels exploitative.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph
Daily Telegraph

Well-acted but increasingly either melodramatic or just plain dull.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: This is London
This is London

Crossing Over builds purposefully before derailing completely in its finale.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Digital Spy
Digital Spy

Although it has moments of poignancy, his sledgehammer approach is sometimes off-putting and risible.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Sky Movies
Sky Movies

Hampered by wayward direction and a skin-deep script, this won't be following Crash to the Academy podium. If you loved Haggis' Oscar victor, you might squeeze an iota of enlightenment out of Kramer's copycat melodrama.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Total Film
Total Film

Writer-director Wayne Kramer insists on trying to tell us all the way through what we should feel. Yet, by the end, it's not clear what he's trying to say: are U.S. immigration laws unfair, unnecessary or badly enforced?

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | Comment (1)
Daily Mail [UK]

The whole thing's about as enjoyable as a holiday to Guantanamo Bay. Less a movie and more a two-hour finger wag.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK]
Daily Mirror [UK]

You can be too right-on. And that's the problem with this smug Hollywood multi-strand drama about immigration that sweats self-righteousness from every pore.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Sun Online
Sun Online

As with many multi-character pieces, it's somewhat unbalanced by its competing storylines, and its lapses into sentimentality seem inevitable, but Kramer deserves credit for taking on a touchy subject.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Independent

Audience Reviews for Crossing Over

A really good movie with Harrison Ford. It's been a long time since I could utter those words.
September 5, 2010
itsjustme2004

Super Reviewer

Harrison Ford the whip cracking hero of old can hardly pick a good film to save himself these days but Crossing Over is decent effort. He plays an immigration officer controlling the border of Mexico but his job is only a small part of the bigger picture of immigrants entering America. The film is similiar to "Crash" and "Traffic" in that, there are many characters who intertwine in each others lives and the impact the decisions they make have on others.
It's not as good as the previous films mentioned but a decent effort and some good performances by Ford and a real sleazy Ray Liotta.
June 12, 2010
MrMarakai

Super Reviewer

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Latest News on Crossing Over

June 8, 2009:
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November 13, 2008:
Trailer Bulletin: Crossing Over
What is the price for crossing over? You can find out by watching the just-released trailer for the...

Foreign Titles

  • Droit de passage (FR)
  • Territorio prohibido (ES)
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