Crossworlds

I usually check reviews on Sci-Fi or Fantasy films I’ve never heard of because the bad ones are really a waste of time. With “Crossworlds” the IMDb reviews were mostly negative but the Amazon reviews were mostly positive, but not overly so, the way someone connected to the film might write one. For that reason I decided to see it and I’m glad I did. This is a fun film as long as you’re not expecting too much.It was made on a small budget so there’s not much in the way of special effects or elaborate sets. That may have been one of the things that disappointed some people. But after years of CGI overload I found that the lack of big effects kept everything on a pleasantly human level. The director, Krishna Rao, is also a cinematographer and has worked mostly in television and the film has a made for TV look and feel to it. Most of the actors also have done most of their work for television with the exception of Rutger Hauer, the one big name in the production. Jack Black appears briefly doing his loud and obnoxious friend schtick, but he was fairly unknown when this film was made.The film is fairly light in tone, almost a kind of interdimensional road trip comedy. It opens with a dead-serious prologue that briefly gives the back story and a short, deadly incident involving one of the quest objects, “The Staff of Ayrrachon”. This looks like it will be a very dark film until the next scene drops you into a college party on a Saturday night, which creates a much lighter tone for the rest of the film. At first it looks like it will be a Heroic Legend, but it soon becomes a fish out of water story where someone is dragged into a situation he knows nothing about but which is very deadly (like Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” but of course, not on that level).The someone is Joe Talbot, a college student who on the surface is fairly average. He’s played by Josh Charles who carries a lot of the film on his shoulders, as Rutger Hauer is really a secondary character. Charles is very good in this film and is one of the main reasons it succeeds. He plays Joe as a sort of jock type from a minor sport who is serious about school and studies and is a little socially awkward. Nineties Power Pop plays when he drives his car. In the course of the film he gradually takes charge of things and in the end is acting fairly heroic. He stays engaged with the character, constantly reacting to the situations in which he finds himself and is never phoning it in. He’s helped by being able to contort his face into many expressions of comic confusion, puzzlement, fear and anger. He’s especially funny when he’s angry, and gets the funniest line in the film when he says, “I DO believe in floors!”Rutger Hauer is the star name here and his character, “A.T.” is from a different dimension than earth and is closer in type to the typical hero of legend. Ordinarily he would be Joe’s mentor, but here, he’s retired and making big metal globes as an art project or something and doesn’t want to be bothered. Still, he’s a handy guy to have around when the bad guys appear. Andrea Roth is Laura, also from another dimension, who first recruits Joe into the operation to protect certain objects of power from the head villain. She’s not only very good looking but also very tough and another good person to have around in a bad situation.The head villain is Ferris, played by Stuart Wilson, an actor who regularly plays bad guys. His Ferris is a James Mason type villain, with a soft, educated voice, smooth and worldly, and just oozing with courtesy and menace (as Mason did in “ North By Northwest”).His henchmen appear as either Chicago-style gangsters with machine guns or Arabian desert warriors and briefly as walking suits of armor. In any case they aren’t very effective and can’t hit anyone with a scimitar, halberd or even a machine gun. This brings the film down to a younger, PG-13 level where nothing too bad is going to happen on screen. The result makes the film a bit too light and it would have helped if the budget would have allowed for a few extra secondary characters who could have been killed off.Overall this film is entertaining with lots of nice small touches and is worth a view. Just don’t expect “The Matrix”. The existence of “Crossworlds” has been somewhat preserved because people refer to it as a precursor of the Wachowski’s film. I think this is because of the layered, multi-dimensional universe, but nobody is imprisoned in a sleeping state or anything like that. People do complain about the lack of detail to the backstory and the way this universe works. They’re right that much is not clear but if you’re considering this film at all you already know the basics of this archetypal plot.I think this went directly to video. At least I see no evidence of it ever being released in theaters. It also seems like maybe it was a TV pilot made to pitch a series. At the end we are told that evil, even when defeated will always reconstitute itself. That, plus the location of a crystal and the presence of a raven at the end would suggest the possibility of an ongoing story with many episodes to follow.

Crossworlds was recommended to me by a co-worker Sci-Fi fan at my very first job out of College back in 2005. Since then, every person I show it to usually makes the following two comments: 1. This movie is REALLY good! 2. Why haven't I heard of this movie? Since the general opinion on the Internet is that this movie isn't very good, I'm here to set the record straight. People are welcome to disagree, but I have a feeling that in 20 years or so, this film is going to be viewed as a classic.All StarsOkay, the protagonist Joe is played by Josh Charles, who has been kicking around Hollywood for a while. He plays the main character straight and boring, as he should. Personally I'm a fan of his blank boring character's development from a wuss to a hero through the course of the film because it's very similar to Neo's transformation in the first Matrix film. Likewise, Andrea Roth plays the girl-on-a-mission Laura straight and understated, but I'm a fan because 1. She's pretty. 2. She isn't vamping it up or constantly pushing "the love interest" or "the sexy babe" stereotype in our face. Rather, she has an actual character because just being "the girl". There might not be much character depth there, but she's a cool 90's dream girl without shoving it down your throat (no low-cut tops, skimpy bathing suits or gratuitous sex scenes). What a breath of fresh air!The REAL stars of the film are the supporting roles of THE GREAT Rutger Hauer as A.T., and Stuart Wilson as Ferris. I think it's no understatement to say that without these two actors this film WOULD deserve three stars. But they knock up up to five effortlessly.SpoilersFirst of all, Rutger Hauer almost steals every scene he's in not by grandstanding, but merely by BEING. Yes, like our young plucky protagonists, he too plays it straight, but the fact that he's got a Tardis workshop (bigger on the inside), Jedi Powers (telekinesis), wizardly abilities (he can control the staff) and says almost nothing about it, or anything else, makes it so much cooler it's hard to describe. Instead of some statement about "the dark one's servants can be anyone, a bird, that gardener, the homeless person walking by" he just says "There's too many eyes here." and LOOKS. You get more out of that than a paragraph of world-building dialog. And when the big bad springs a magical dimensional trap on an elevator after A.T.'s expressed concern that their escape is too easy (my favorite scene in the entire film), as reality falls away and the trio find themselves trapped in an illusion he merely quips "This is more like it."Stuart Wilson's Ferris is a generic villain made unbelievably awesome. When he first enters the movie he seems like a nerdy museum curator in a nice suit. For a lesser actor this would make Ferris impossible to take seriously. Due to Stuart Wilson's amazing acting ability (anyone else amazed by his performance in Mask of Zorro?) the villain treads confidently and elegantly from playful and crafty to chillingly sharp without missing a beat.The CinemaWhile this film comes across as barely above the budget of a made-for-TV movie, there is some actual great cinematography to be found. Excellent framing and outstanding wide-angle shots combine with some snappy editing to make everything much more watchable than you would expect. While the in-between-worlds scenes may seem a bit sloppy by today's standards, and the special effects may seem a bit simple, I find the overall effect to be incredibly refreshing. Instead of CGI everywhere, there are lots of quick edits and practical effects that make everything seem a lot more real. Combine that with a great score from Cristophe Beck (yes, the composer of the Disney animated "Frozen"), and you have one heck of an enjoyable film.This Film Deserves BetterYeah, the 80's was filled with films like this, everything from "Bounty Hunter" to "Cherry 2000". Plenty of them have terrible dialog, terrible acting, nonsensical plots, and cheap special effects. This one is a cut above, and it breaks my heart that no one else except a few hardcore Sci-Fi fans seem to have noticed. It features not one, but TWO great actors, a fun plot, great music, great cinematography, snappy editing, excellent dialog, and some fun, exiting, hilarous scenes (oh yeah, and Jack Black with a very role that might make you smile). Do I wish it had a big enough budget to show the "army", "slaves" and "world" that everyone is fighting over? Sure I do. But instead we get a fun adventure that's so much fun friends of mine keep asking to see it again and enjoy it every time.This film deserves a high-definition transfer. It deserves a Blu Ray. The sound is great on the DVD (except that dialog is too long and sound effects are too high, resulting in having to turn up and down sound every time we switch between machine gun fire and dialog), but the picture is muted and washed out. This is a great film, a true hidden gem, and it deserves a restored Blu Ray with some Special Features.If you have seen this film and think it's garbage, please watch it again with your eyes and ears open and try to appreciate it for what it is (a film with some great ideas, awesome performances by the secondary characters, and a massive amount of fun on a low budget, with better-than-average dialog and cinematography). If you haven't seen this film, I am asking you as a personal favor to me to check it out and give it a chance. You just might be pleasantly surprised (especially if you love 80's adventure films). As for me, I'll be singing this film's praises till I die or it becomes popular as it rightly deserves.

Keep your intrest

This was a good movie with Rutger Hauer. Thanks!

Is it cheesewiz at times? Sure. But c'mon, it was the nineties when young men were respectful instead of entitled weenies. They were just respectful weenies. It makes sense it went straight to video.That said - multiple plot twists, it's kind of like Dr. Strange meets Dr. Who - but in the nineties. Let me stress that it's from the nineties.Overall, I expected this to be in the background and it ended up taking over my full attention to the point that I was shivering for half the movie without checking the thermostat. That engrossing. So any movie that can hold my attention and continue to change the action without being mundane. Until it gets mundane. And by then you and the cast are also kind of over it, but man they press on and somehow it turns out to surprise.One could say this is a...magical...movie?? (cheeeeeessseeee)

Arrived in quick prompt good service.bought to re watch after viewing before this 80s classic which recollected some notable films of that era. This adventure is modern day los angelos about a intergalactic battle where time and space have no purpose,dimensions control good,evil that collide,joe talbot a unlikely man is lured back by laura adamant forving him to stand up prove his worth in set in modern day los angelos trying to overcome the cause and believe he can show the potential in facing up the prime warlord owen wilson waiting for the moment as they are chased confronted by assasins accompied by rutger haur underated actor to aid the cause,some below par scenes,lacking cutting edge,dialogie tedious at times. May require a remastered update on blu ray version. Good special effects settings.normal performaces.disc sharp picture and clear Concept of story was adequate.

Ok

I regard "Crossworlds" as a pleasant surprise, when it comes to fantasy/action movies. This wasn't a big budget film, and it may have a look of a "Made for TV" movie, but, the movie is quite enjoyable. Afterall, it stars Ruger Hauer (one of my all-time favorite actors) the main reason I bought the movie. But all the performances are good and, more importantly, it is not a boring movie. I mean, even Jack Black is in it (just a few scenes, which is enough for me). Another "Hidden Gem" of a movie for me. Never heard of this movie, but, it sounded interesting (and Ruger was in it) so I decided to take a chance and purchase it. Good choice.

Warum es den Film nicht schon längst auf DVD gibt, erschließt sich mir nicht.Ganz besonders Rutger Hauer, der oft den Schurken spielt, zeigt sich hier von seiner heldenhaften, aber auch humorvollen Seite. Gemeinsam mit Josh Charles jagt er als (A.T.) kreuz und quer durch die Dimensionen und versucht, einen größenwahnsinnigen Diktator zu stoppen, der mit Hilfe eines magischen Zepters alle Dimensionen beherrschen will.Nicht sehr dialoglastig, hat der Film doch alles, was man von einem Mystery-SciFi-Kracher erwarten kann. Und ich war überrascht, in welch gutem Zustand sich eine VHS befinden kann, die immerhin schon fast zwanzig Jahre auf dem Buckel hat. Dafür gibt`s den fünften Stern!

All fine.