note:  I watched this movie in the idea that it was a new DVD release.  Now rereading through the releases on Amazon.com I’ve realised that this movie came out last year.  I still stand behind the review and will just consider this a random review of the week.

In Los Angeles everyday there are numerous Illegal immigrants cross the US border to try and make a life for themselves.  Here’s a story about how America can embrace and refuse their company through a slew of characters.

Yes, I know that plot synopsis is weak.  The truth of the matter is that this film is weak.  It suffers not only from what I like to call Post-Crash-itis but also a slew of poorly created characters.  Just like in Crash the characters were created just for the purpose of showing how unfair it all is and racist everyone can be.  Now maybe it actually is like that in LA, or the general US population, but that doesn’t make it a good film at all.  I sometimes feel that with movies like this it would work better if the filmmakers would care less about trying their best to try and intertwine all these storylines and have fewer characters to make the message more specific.

With a cast of actors like: Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Jim Strugess, Cliff Curtis and Alice Eve I find it hilarious that the only one that I actually enjoyed on screen was Alice Eve, an almost unknown actress.  However, I didn’t like her for her brilliant acting or annoying Aussie accent, but because she looked good and got naked in the movie.  When that’s the only thing I can latch on to with a film I know that everything about filmmaking has been broken here.  Ray Liotta has been a part of my shit list for a very long time, but I expect people like Harrison Ford and Jim Strugess to be better than this.

If I had to pick a plot thread definitely not line, these stories are thinner than threads to pick as the strongest it would have to be that of Ashley Judd.  She is an immigration lawyer who tries her best to make sure that illegal immigrants aren’t mistreated and has a soft spot for this one child who’s spent the last year or so in a holding facility waiting for a parent to adopt her.  Eventually she decides that she wants to adopt the child and must then convince her husband, who ends up being Ray Liotta, that they should do this.  However, as with movies like this the story isn’t fully developed because the director has to be playing what I like to call narrative aerobics to juggle one plot and another throughout the runtime of the film while keeping it under two hours.

The film is really a waste of time and I don’t recommend anyone watch it.  I would like to call it as bad as 2004 film Crash but the truth of the matter is that it’s even worse.

VERDICT: SKIP IT

IMDB says 6.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 16%

I say 2.0/10