Southern Cross

Southern Cross, written and directed by James Becket is a waste of good celluloid and actor's efforts. A formula film is not necessarily bad if it pays off on it's promise, which this film does not. It is a tiresome concoction of movie cliches that can be traced to a thousand different films from the past. It is full of random and empty plot twists that add nothing but aimless action, such as a trip by the protagonists to a ghost town where the villains (unexplainedly) follow them. This was obviously concocted as an excuse for a shoot out and escape scene bordering on the preposterous, with people popping in and out of doorways and running past windows while firing pistols at each other. It makes one believe that somebody told Becket there was a ghost town in the Chilean foothills and he said, "Oh great, lets do a shoot out scene there."

Don't even waste your rental money on this. It is a bunch of random bits and pieces from a hundred different films thrown together to call an action drama.

This movie was very well done. I loved the way Esai Morales portrayed his character. The best scean is the love scean. hah! No really, the emotions the actors put out is amazing. Great movie! I give this movie an A+

Formula movie about the illegitimate son of a rich Chilenian who stands to inherit a fortune and gets mixed up in the affairs of bad guys and falls in love with a beautiful female lawyer (Vargas). It looks very much like a TV movie, not really exciting. The only reason I bothered to see it was because Valentina Vargas was in it. No real surprises here, though it is nice to see Vargas. Great looking Chilenian landscapes on display but Malcolm McDowell's part is very small and doesn't add much to the movie. Michael Ironside plays as usual a bad guy but this is not one of his most memorable parts. The chase scenes are standard fare.

It's always good to see my man, the underappreciated Esai Morales, starring in films. But this film is a true waste of his talents. Mr. Morales seems at home in thrillers, and what may have looked promising on paper doesn't always translate very well onto film. The inheritance storyline is nothing new. But any fresh idea would have been a welcome addition to the plot here. Michael Ironside and a miscast Malcolm McDowell are also wasted in roles they could have phoned in. The action in the film is very tired and the plot absolutely predictable. I guessed the entire storyline nearly halfway through the film. Hopefully this film will be just a stepping stone to better films. Peace.

SOUTHERN CROSS isn't exactly a movie that could have had Academy Award nominations. After all when I saw it last August it had a score of 3,9 (now 4,0) and the highest rated review for it has 5 but when I saw it last August I felt in the minority on this one and isn't certainly the first time it happened... I liked it very much and I wonder if the other users saw a different movie.

Philip Solano (Esai Morales) is a mining businessman and the illegitimate son of rich Felipe Solano (Malcolm McDowell) that has to inherit a fortune but one day Felipe is kidnapped by Garrison Carver (Michael Ironside)'s men that plan on dump nuclear waste illegally in the abandoned coal mines in Southern Chile. Up until Philip frees his dad he'll end up with Mariana Flores in a ghost town where Garrison's men reach them resulting in various chase scenes up until the big showdown with Garrison in the church.

I liked this movie more than the other eight reviewers not just because I like action movies but also because I loved the shooting in the cilean city of Santiago with the background of nice South American music reminiscent of the Inti-Illimani songs. Also the chase scenes and the confrontation part were great in their own right.

Overall, another of those movies for which you shouldn't read the reviews before watching it because it's best to see a movie for yourselves and then say an honest opinion about it. Great for action fans or if you are in the right mood for this sort of movie.