Cross (2011) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

USA 2011
Director: Patrick Durham
Cast: Brian Austin Green, Michael Clarke Duncan, Susie Abromeit, Jake Busey, Lori Heuring, Vinnie Jones
Rating: R
Release Date: 31 May 2011
Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

The Movie Review

Cross film still 1


CROSS
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When mentioning superheroes, especially the eye-catching green ones, pretty much all memory would go to Green Hornet (2011) or Green Lantern (2011) or the good ol' The Incredible Hulk (2008). Those green heroes are widely known throughout the globe, especially the widely anticipated Green Lantern. But do you know that Cross is also a superhero movie concerning Green hero? You don't? Well, maybe that's a good thing for you.

Anyway, the world is ridden by evil, throughout the centuries many warriors, soldiers and innocents fell victims to wars. But there is actually this long line of warrior families who gain their immunity by wearing the magical thing called Amulet! And the strongest and most powerful of all Amulets is the one called Cross of the Isles. Callan has been inherited the Cross from his father as well as his father from his father and so on. Callan (Brian Austin Green) resides in Los Angeles, and in this present day, Callan has assembled a team of weapons experts of all kinds with one mission in mind... To get rid of evil from L.A.

But that's not going to be easy... Callan's archenemy, Erlik (Michael Clarke Duncan), has come up with new solution to make evil stronger! And that is by resurrecting the staff of Sekhmet from Ancient Egypt by filling with the blood of the descendants of the Greek gods! Apparently there's a powerful guy that hires Erlik to do what he does, an immortal man named Gunnar (Vinnie Jones). Will Callan be able to stop them? Will Callan's men have anything better to do than dressing nicely?

I'm always suspicious when it comes to a movie featuring ensemble cast, you know a movie with so many well-known faces put together in a single storyline. Cross, unfortunately, also falls to this trap of "fame". You see, the biggest driving concept of Cross is "We know, we're making a superhero movie, but f*ck we care, nya nya nya" The acting is made to be intentionally bad like it's some kind of a spoof or even worst like making bloopers for additional extras for DVD!!! These actors no-doubt are capable to do much better but they don't, or maybe they're forbidden to do so... Besides, the characters are too many, too crowded and too similar for a single feature film run 1 and a half hour that their famous faces serve only to clutter the scene! The comedy misses at all time! The content is like being targeted for 3rd-grader or 5th-grader audience at most!

Stupidity is something I always willing to tolerate, heck mate! If you fond of b-movies how can you not be accustomed to accept some foolishness?! But, Cross is different as it is not a grindhouse or exploitation film but it delivers many stupid things. You see, Callan is bullet-proof and his left hand can burst green energy to knock down his enemies, but still he needs lotsa and lotsa tough eccentric guys to do the job? Oh you think that is it? No, there's a scene when Erlik is taking control of hostage and situation which leaves Callan helpless, but still Erlik is willing to negotiate by playing... Pool! Aw for crying out loud!

I'm all over the concept of making a superhero movie with the attitude of a drunken bums, but you've gotta make it funny man! Even the main lead actor is a miscast! A fatigue-looking hero with no gusto? Nevertheless, thank you for casting Susie Abromeit (of Beatdown (2011)) as Sunshine, Callan's love interest. At least we got her to spice things up and spice him up! And what's with Vinnie Jones and Michael Clark Duncan or Danny Trejo's super short appearance? None of them is able to elevate any tension or awesomeness level! Cliché-ridden storyline doubled with mundane dialogue and lackluster camerawork... I don't have the heart to recommend this to anyone older than 11 year olds. If Cross is based on comic book or will be made as comic book, then I'd have spent better quality time thumbing through the comic pages than trudging my way through Cross.