Periodically a film will come along that makes you want to go back in time. Why, you ask? So that instead of walking into the theater you can make a wiser decision and skip the film altogether, at least that way you can have those wasted two hours back. That was the feeling I got when I left Crossover. I was actually quite astonished by the nature of the film. It was the total opposite of what I had expected. That is not to say that I had expected the film to be good, but I had expected it to be severely more focused on one genre than what it ended up being.

The typical person walking into Crossover would expect a movie with a lot of flashy streetball (for those who don?t know, streetball is a term used for basketball games played with less rules and just about no fouls, this is the type of basketball typically played in street/park pickup games). It is not so wrong to expect that from this movie as it was marketed as the film?s main appeal. Let?s just say that the audience is in for a surprise; there are only two streetball games in the entire movie. You heard right, there are just TWO games.

So what is Crossover if not a movie full of flashy streetball? It is a wannabe sports drama. As aforementioned there are only two streetball games in the movie, one of which is at the beginning. From this scene we see find out that the main character Tech, played by Anthony Mackie is part of a streetball team who plays in underground games where some heavy bets are placed. We see his team, Enemy of the State play against Platinum. As the game progresses we see that one of Tech?s friends, Noah Cruise, is a really skilled basketball player. If you decide to watch this movie mark my words and enjoy this first game because you won?t see another one until the end of the movie.

The game ends and we see Noah talking to Tech about going to college and playing basketball there. Time progresses and we see Tech working at a shoe store in a mall. Once there he meets a girl he likes and who coincidentally she has a friend who happens to be single too! The two girls, Tech and Noah go to Noah?s place and swim, then in one magical night both couples get together and start dating. Noah?s girl is very into him and he is very into her and they plan on moving to California together so Noah can play college basketball there.

Things suddenly go bad however when Noah?s scholarship is revoked because of eligibility problems due to his participation in the underground streetball games. When this happens his girlfriend and he have a tough breakup. To let out his anger Noah goes riding in his motorcycle and he is involved in a bad accident. He doesn?t have enough money to pay his medical bills so Tech and his friends play one last streetball game to try to win money to help Noah.

As you can see the story does not make for a particularly great sports drama. The story is not the sole problem in the movie however. Crossover suffers from a variety of other calamities. One of these huge problems is the acting. Mackie does a relatively good job playing Tech, as does Wesley Jonathan playing Noah Cruise, but apart from these two young actors the rest of the cast is horrendous. The two actresses who play the boys? girlfriends are especially bad; I had never seen such bland acting until I watched Crossover.



The movie?s directing is another big problem. The director tries to be too flashy for the movie?s own good. I can understand that he was trying to capture the ?flashiness? of streetball, but he should known when he had gone too far. Looking good is one thing, looking tacky is a completely different one and sadly for the filmmakers involved, Crossover comes off as extremely tacky.

Crossover is severely lacking any kind of appeal. The streetballer is a total waste of time. There is absolutely no reason why you should watch this movie unless you are willing to sit through 90 minutes of crap to see 15 minutes of staged streetball.