rlange-3

(2013-05-20 09:32:52)

A Major Disappointment

This movie had a great deal to be excited about, including the settingin TJ, some fine actors who actually turned in excellent performances,a few memorable vignettes that built expectations, and a plot flip latein the movie that was well executed.Unfortunately these component parts were hashed together into anagonizingly slow moving hodgepodge world where nothing made much sense.It was difficult to build tension, or even interest as a multiplicityof characters were tossed into the mix without clear purpose or clearconnection to the main storyline, and the storyline itself includedmajor elements that made no sense at all. I don't claim to be the mostobservant person in the world but I spent most of the movie wonderingwhat the heck was happening. What was the relationship between Liottaand Cruz? Why did she take care of him? Why bring a hired gun into yourhome with your little girl and get involved in some kind of fightbetween cartels? Cruz was cast as a big hearted street-wise prostitute,so why would she act so stupidly? And there was no chemistry at allthere, so what's the point? Then we have supposedly highly skilledassassins trying to 'get' one kingpin and they take on about 20 guns ina parking lot -- two of them. Really slick. And Liotta, theprofessional's professional suddenly goes rogue and single handedlytakes on a building full of thugs like something out of a Rambo movie.Give me a break. Don't lure us into believing this is some kind of athinker's gang movie, then toss in some silly one man against the mobaction scene.It's worth watching for the scenery, the vignettes that work, and someof the acting. But don't get your expectations up too high. There isn'tenough action to make this really exciting, and the ploddingsentimentality of much of the plot is sundered by the absurdity of someof its elements.

domonkos49

(2013-05-19 13:52:51)

The ticket line is the one you don't want to be in.

This big steaming pile is the most stilted, ham-fisted, clichГѓВ©d dreckI've tortured myself with in months. Where's Leonard Pince Garnell whenyou need him--he'd relish this one. Oh, to have one tenth of the cashthey wasted on this, not to mention dragging Liotta and Garcia downinto the gutter along with the crew. Una grande pegacito de excreto ifever I endured one. Somebody tell the director that plausible dialogueand believability still have a place in storytelling. The big questionis why? Why spend a year and untold money and energy on the beaten todeath horse that another damn dope kingpin saga is? Bastante Already.When you drag the audience's noses through the sewers of TJ, there'sgot to be some kind of payoff. "Barfly"'s subject matter was seedy andseamy, but it had a certain redeeming lyrical quality. This thing is sobad it might stand up better as a comedy as you watch poor old agingRay as an improbable hit man, eye shadow and lash extendersnon-withstanding.

Leofwine_draca

(2013-05-16 09:28:53)

Effective sun-drenched crime snapshot

Although you'd be forgiven for mistaking THE LINE for an action flick,it turns out to be anything but: this is in actual fact a characterstudy of various interacting and rival personalities in a violentMexican city. Ray Liotta bags the central and most interesting role asa hit-man traumatised by an event in his past and given the opportunityto make amends in the present.Against him is gang leader Pelon, played to the hilt by the chillingEsai Morales. This is a guy who thinks nothing of torturing rivals todeath and who fully deserves his comeuppance – should it ever comeabout. The supporting cast is made up of an excellent ensemble ofactors, including those better known for B-movies (Danny Trejo and GaryDaniels both have brief henchman roles) as well as more familiar faces.Andy Garcia, who's been off our screens for quite some time, isparticularly interesting as the former gangster wasting away from aterminal illness. Also look out for Bruce Davison, an unrecognisableArmand Assante and the ever-underrated Joe Morton.This may not be an action movie, but there is at least one splendidshoot-out to enjoy. In any case, the entire film is well shot and thescript holds your attention in the snappy, heartfelt dialogue scenes aswell as the thriller elements. Comparing it to other recent gangstermovies, it comes in under CITY OF GOD but above GOMORRAH.

ledandreas

(2013-05-16 08:29:09)

Sad sad sad

Normally I wouldn't’t write anything about this movie. The time I’vealready spent on watching it was way too much. But come on…9.3rating??? It’s kind of intriguing… A some-kind-of-USA-secret-agencyjust spotted some Afghans that they try to deal with the last big drugcartel in Mexico, Tijuana. Are they going to let the deal take placebetween the Mexicans with the “Afghan-terrorists”? Of course not. Forthat they recruited a retired undercover agent to stop them, who inturn recruited two supposedly unstoppable and unmistakable head-huntersto kill the head of the Mexican cartel, who took leadership notactually being part of the Family and is in rivalry with the stepson ofthe Godfather for taking the leadership of the cartel, who Godfather isin his last days dying and a very good friend with the local priest,who take cares of the soul of the not-from-the-Family leader of thecartel. Where was I? Oh, the two head-hunters are messing up the jobbecause a sniper shoots them, who sniper also tries to kill thenot-from-the-family-leader of the cartel but a vision of a woman thathe killed in a previous job haunts him just at the moment he wassupposed to pull the trigger, which woman was killed by him and filledthe sniper with guilt because no one cared about her death. Doesanything of the above make any sense? If not add one whore that takescare of the sniper, one good friend of the sniper who gets killed bythe cartel, also add that the stepson of the godfather is actuallycrying with every line he says, add that the Mexicans speak Spanishlike a Chinese should speak in Greek, also add that the priest turnsout to be the personal Godfather’s killer boy, who Godfather is notactually sick at all but pretends to be, add that both thenot-family-leader and the stepson get killed, also the sniper getskilled and that the Godfather is cooperating with thesome-kind-of-USA-secret-agency mentioned at the beginning. Confusing?Yes. Unanswered questions? Yes. Idiotic plot? Also. Action movie withno action? You guessed right. Good actors acting worse than me? Sad buttrue. The bottom line is that I will give 1.000$ if anyone watches thefilm and makes more sense than these that I have already written.

Changin

(2013-05-14 21:48:42)

La Linea (The Line)

I enjoyed the movie. Its a movie I need to watch at least 2-3 times to understand the full plot. I LOVE Andy and Ray in this movie. The ending was quite surprising.

martin-ortiz

(2013-05-14 17:36:54)

Average ...

It is very difficult to give something new to the audience. Speciallywhen talking about such a controversial topics as Drug dealing, mafia,terrorism, cartels Etc.Being Mexican myself I looked forward to see how a new director wouldportray this "not to take lightly" topic. The first impression I got asI began to watch the movie was the serious influence of StevenSoderbergh's "Traffic", a fabulous movie which provides an unusualvision of the drug underworld. As the movie continued it was notdifficult to identify some the similarity with some other movies, notonly character wise, but also concerning plot, conflict and evencinematography.Shields' character is a weird mix of Denzel's Creasy in Man on fire andPierce Brosnan's hit-man in Matador. Both very well structuredcharacters, but when combined do not have the same effect.It is difficult to be bring something new to Drug dealing movies,particularly because everything has pretty much been said about dealingdrugs; so when a director tries to give some extra dramatic flavor, ithas a contradictory effect, It is appealing but not very coherent.Check out this movie it is not completely dismissible, specially if youtake into account its independent nature. But do not expect to seeanything worth referring to in the future.

Michael O'Keefe

(2013-05-11 13:22:36)

There are some lines you shouldn't cross.

An all-star ensemble in this crime thriller set in one of the mostdangerous cities in Mexico, Tijuana. Veteran hit man Mark Shields(RayLiotta)is assigned to track down Mexican drug lord Pelon(Esai Morales),who is the head of the Salazar Crime Cartel. Pelon has been the targetof the American government for quite some time; now they expect Shieldsand his 20 years of killing experience to bring him down. Pelon putshimself in the cross-hairs with his decision to switch from Colombiancocaine to heroin from Afghanistan. The film lumbers a bit; the actingtries to make up for the lack of action. Others of note in the cast:Andy Garcia, Armand Assante, Bruce Davidson, Danny Trejo and ValerieCruz.

Klover70

(2013-05-11 02:03:07)

A surprisingly great film!

I was invited to a private screening of "La Linea" here in Los Angeles,but really didn't know what to expect. I have to say though that Ireally thought the film was something special, it reminded why I loveindependent film so much. From the intelligent, refreshing plot,layered and interesting characters,to the beautiful cinematography(reminiscent of Traffic, Man on Fire, etc). I also thought the musicwas really cool in the film (will have to check out who did it). I justthink La Linea delivered on all fronts, and truly deserves all theaccolades and attention I feel it will receive. Im looking forward to seeing it again when it comes out.

jimmyiowa

(2013-05-02 21:24:12)

Underrated at 5.2

Wow, it's getting to where I really can't trust IMDb ratings to decidewhat to watch anymore. This movie is underrated. I suspect many peoplewho rated it low, wanted more explosions and car chases. This is not anaction film. It is a subtle yet intense look at how a person can beextremely tough yet so very vulnerable at the same time. There are nofeel good characters. No role model action heroes. No clear cut linesbetween good and bad.Other reviewers have noted that it was confusing. Admittedly the scriptwas confusing at first. It wasn't clear who was motivated by what, andwhat flashbacks meant what to whom. But about halfway through the filmit starts to come together beautifully and continues to do so to theinteresting and somewhat moving end. If you stop waiting for thegratuitous action scenes which never happen, and just watch the story,it works well. Yes, some plot points seem a little unrealistic, butthat's why I put the story at only a 7.While the story is good, the acting is all around superb. I have neverbeen the biggest Liotta fan. He's good, but like a lot of tough guycharacter actors, sometimes his tough guy persona crosses the line intobluffery in my opinion. Not here. He was near perfect. Almost everyonewas, including minor characters played by people I have never heard of.No fake looking bluffery, nothing overdone. I would give this a 7 forstory and direction, but the acting puts it up to 8.Also, the music was as wonderfully chosen as the actors. There was apoint in the middle of the movie where one character began to cry. Wearen't shown explicitly why, no details, but we are shown enough tounderstand and fill in her story for ourselves. I found that one scene,with the song from Melody Gardot, particularly beautiful.In a nutshell, I would describe this as a smoulderingly intense drama.If you are looking for an action thriller you will be disappointed.

julian-taylor

(2013-05-02 12:31:21)

WTF no actual plot, plus why is it called the line????

Right, this film is nicely shot, good characters has big names etc etcas everyone else has said, but.....It has no plot... The plot is that the boss gets ill (but he isn't), sohe hands his business to his 2nd in command and not his son. Queuepower struggle between son and 2nd in command ending with son dead.Boss now reveals he isn't dying and kills second in command and thefilm ends. In between this Ray Liotta kills people, gets mugged andother people die, plus a couple of Afghani's pop up.... So, if hewanted them dead why not kill them in the first place using Ray Liotta(contract killer who he hired any way) for anonymity. Why go to thetrouble of acting ill to go into all this farce, and I'm even guessingthis as this isn't explained in the film, you're left guessing.....Those who say this is a character arty film blah blah are right butit's still a really bad and unfulfilling film. Those who compare it to"man on fire" are just wrong, that film rocks and Denzel rocks it, plusit has a plot...So basically don't watch this, watch "man on fire" if you've alreadyseen "man on fire" watch it again, it will be a better use of 95minutes, in fact I may watch it again now :-)Plus it's called "The Line", which is apparently the drug route fromMexico to the USA, but this film mentions it twice and the name has nobearing on it. It should have been called "Nasty confusing people inTijuana"

richardwi2001

(2013-05-01 13:35:49)

Very disjointed film

La Linea, like so many "production line" films was so disjointed that Iwant to find a website that is entitled, "What was that movie about?" Iwatched it once and was very confused by all of the characters' names.Who was who? Who was working for/with whom? Who was the woman inShield's (Ray Liotti) dreams/flashbacks?...and on and on.I watched itagain and wrote down the characters' names and a description. When allwas said and done (the end), I still couldn't figure out therelationships between many of the characters. It is my opinion thatHollywood needs to go back to a time when twists and turns and "theplot thickens" is understandable. Why does understanding a film, like"La Linea", have to be so mind boggling? It's always fun to have tothink a bit, but not have to take notes. What was this film about?

psmith1658

(2013-05-01 06:46:21)

A classic character study

La Linea is a great film, but it is also a bit of a trick, which mayhurt the film eventually. No doubt that the distributors and theHollywood machine will try to market this film as a topical action filmsnatched right out of the headlines. In actuality, La Linea is aclassic character study of several complex people who converge and/orcollide in the very dangerous city of Tijuana, Mexico.Ray Liotta plays a hired assassin (whose paymaster we don't know untilthe end), who heads down in the underbelly of Tijuana to track down athe newly installed head of the Cartel (Esai Morales). The problem isthat Esai Morales' character is trying to move the Cartels businessfrom Cocaine (which, in this story, is approved by the US government),to Afghani Heroin. This decision sets into motion an internal strugglefor control of the crime syndicate, as well as triggers the USgovernment to send in assassins to get rid of the problem.Sounds like an action movie for Dolph Lundgren, right? No.Interestingly enough, La Linea is really a multiple character study: Anassassin haunted by guilt. An uber-violent Cartel leader that has to goto confession everyday. The assassins sidekick who is more interestedin local hookers than getting the hit done. A local prostitute andsingle mother who takes a stranger in and cares for him. These are allstory lines that thread through this very dark tail. I did enjoy thefilm, and I would definitely recommend it. My only hope is that thepowers that be market the film for what it is, so that people who arelooking to see a Dolph Lundgren film, don't pick it up and aredisappointed. This is a very well done film, with beautifulcinematography and from what I understand, completely independentlyfinanced. We need more like it.