Two years ago, we critiqued Mr. Williams debut horror short, The Final Hour. Now we get a chance to critique his evolution to feature length with The CrossOver.
The CrossOver is the tale of an edgy detective named Det. Duane Lewis (Ron A. Williams) who will stop at nothing to bring down Sid Vic (Ed Roan), a local record producer and drug kingpin. Thrown into the mix is local rap sensation Jeff “Smooth” Hughes (EJ Humphrey), who had been both a star on Vic’s labels and a soldier in Vic’s drug kingdom until he accepted Christ and chose to no longer be affiliated with Vic’s music or his drugs.
As Detective Lewis tries to pin Sid Vic on a variety of different charges, including the kidnapping and murder of a young girl, his witnesses and those closest to him start dying. Eventually, Lewis will have to decide how much he’s willing to uphold the law versus getting dirtier than he’s ever been before to see that “justice” is done.
The content of The CrossOver is all over the board. At it’s best, it’s like an effective mix between Training Day—with Detective Lewis spewing out evil-tinged diatribes about getting dirty so that you’ll be taken seriously in the streets—and Pulp Fiction—with the storytelling often being out of sync for artistic purposes. At these times, you’re really fascinated by the motivation of Lewis and how he intends to bring down Vic. The acting of director/lead actor Ron A. Williams is compelling at these times and pulls you into the story.
However, at other times, the movie is plagued by uneven acting and technical problems, so that it becomes a bit painful to watch. At these times, the fact that Mr. Williams is wearing so many hats on this film really sabotages many of his efforts, since a director that is doing lead acting doesn’t have the time to pay attention to as many details as really need to be addressed. (This becomes more apparent in the Visual and Audio areas, although its effects definitely are felt in the content area.)
The first issue deals with “Smooth” Hughes the rapper who had become a Christian and isn’t going to rap or deal drugs anymore. Even though nearly a third of the movie is devoted to him, his character feels very superfluous to the overall plot, as he doesn’t really fit well within the storyline of the Lewis vs. Vic war. Moreover, his constant commentary on Christianity and his beliefs seems to be there in an overtly preachy manner, as opposed to presenting a valid reason to motivate his character or the story. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with a moral premise or a religious message, it needs to be woven into the story, not simply tacked on. Additionally, EJ Humphrey seems to mumble many of his lines as he plays Hughes, which makes it very hard to follow what he’s saying. Perhaps this was intentional in order to present more of a swaggering character, but it definitely gets in the way of understandability.
The second issue deals with the way in which the film was edited. It was designed to jump in and out of timelines, much like Pulp Fiction or Go! However, it goes so far in this direction that I found myself lost by who was alive and who was dead at any given time. More clear transitions between timelines and additional titles will definitely help people keep track of when we jump out of the “present” to go to the “past” and vice versa.
