Linewatch (2008)

Director:

Kevin Bray

Writer (WGA):

David W. Warfield (written by)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

On the border between the US and Mexico, the law is what you make it.

Plot:

Michael Dixon is a seasoned agent working linewatch on the US/Mexico Border. Well respected by his peers at US Border Patrol...

Plot Keywords:

New Mexico | Drug Trafficking | Border Patrol | U.S. Mexico Border | One Word Title

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Michael Dixon
Omari Hardwick	...	Drake
Sharon Leal	...	Angela Dixon
Evan Ross	...	Little Boy
Dean Norris	...	Warren
Chris Browning	...	Ron Spencer
AMG	...	Stokes
Dan Burkarth	...	Jim Barnett
Omar Paz Trujillo	...	Luis DeSanto
Josh Coffman	...	Bill Kroft
Bryan Lane	...	Sam King
Luce Rains	...	Harris
William Sterchi	...	Simon
Dave Colon	...	Border Patrol Agent
Genia Michaela	...	Karate Instructor

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Argentina:16 | South Korea:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Netherlands:16 | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Linewatch Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: When Cuba Gooding Jr goes to Simon's church/puppet show, his sergeant rank is now corporal, but immediately changes back to sergeant in the next shot.

Somewhat familiar storyline given mostly lacklustre treatment

For some reason recently, I have become interested in Cuba Gooding Jr.'s present career, seeing how he has become box office poison and is now mostly stuck in doing straight-to-video movies. I was wondering if he had learned his lesson after doing those awful theatrical movies and was now picking better scripts (like Jean Claude Van Damme). After seeing several of his recent movies - including this one - I've concluded that either he hasn't learned his lesson or simply doesn't care.

In fairness, there are a few good things about LINEWATCH. Though this had a low budget ($5 million), it at least looks decent. The cinematography is above average, and the production team chose existing locations that they didn't have to change yet look believable. Also, Gooding fits in this role better than a lot of his other movie roles (theatrical or otherwise.)

But the rest of the movie is pretty much a bust, thanks to its screenplay and its direction. The screenplay clearly needed some more rewrites - its flaws start at the beginning, with the movie seemingly starting at chapter two instead of the beginning. Things do clear up eventually, but then the movie slows down almost to a halt - it takes more than 30 minutes into the movie before the conflict starts for the protagonist. The movie then continues its very slow crawl right up to the climatic scene - there's only about enough story in this movie for a short film, not a feature-length movie.

Curiously, though, despite this slow pace, there are several instances where it seems that footage is missing, and it resulted that I was confused several times for several seconds each time as to what exactly happened. Though even if this seemingly missing footage was restored, it might not have helped the movie - it would have made the movie longer and possibly even more of an ordeal to sit through.