Crossing the Bridge

Rating:
Summary: Good movie...
Review: A great coming of age movie set in 1975 detroit. 3 high school friends are now graduated with uncertain futures. None went to college and none have decent jobs so they are emotionally caught between adulthood and the high school mentality of living at home. Symbolic of this are the high school letter jackets that two of the friends still wear. Stephen baldwin plays a guy who is losing his identity. He was cool in high school but now as an adult he is just another guy. Mort is the most intellectual and introspective of the three but he knows that he needs to go to college to realize his dream of being a writer. A dream that doesn't recieve much support from his friends. In fact he never shares a scholarship notice from central michigan university with them.

Early in the movie they encounter a drug dealer who offers them $9,000 to run some hashish from canada to the usa. Hence the name of the movie because of the bridge that runs between detroit and windsor ontario. The guys can't help but seriously consider that move. They need the money of course but they need a sense of identity even more. Thankfully the movie doesn't dwell too much on this one event but i'm surprised that these guys never once consider the morality of the action just the potential consequences to them. Other mini sub plots take form in the film of course. Their relationship with uncaring parents and romance. There are the cliche stuck up high school class mates who are now in college. One laughable character is a guy who smugly proclaims that he is majoring in pre law. Any one can major in that and most never go to law school.

Things heat up when the fellas decide finally to do the drug run. They deliver this atache filled with money to some really bad dudes in a farm house and realize they have bit off more than they can chew. Instead of hash they are expected to carry heroin across the border and they are lucky to be alive. One of them got beat up really bad. The scenes on the bridge are a bit drawn out but they all eventually decide to leave the car and the heroin and just cross to detroit on foot. This responsible move indicates a crossing over into adulthood and they end up tossing those high school letter jackets into the detroit river.

You will be involved enough in the movie to wonder what happens to these guys in the next ten years. Will mort get that degree and become a writer after all? It works. There is one major problem with the plot. These guys took a lot of money to get drugs in canada and bring them back to the us. What is a drug dealer going to do when he doesn't get the drugs or his money back? we will never know.

The acting is solid and i actually found myself liking stephen balwin's performance. A very good movie but the hole in the plot keeps it from being a 5* film.

.................socks

Rating:
Summary: Great Coming-of-Age movie set in Detroit
Review: Anyone who grew up in Detroit in the 70's will recognize most of the characters in this movie. This is the story of recent high school graduates who didn't pursue college who are in that void where they are too old to be kids but haven't become responsible adults yet. Their parents still support them. Their time is their own. They fumble around applying their high school values but essentially doing nothing until they happen upon a way to make some big, quick cash, smuggling hashish into the USA. When they get to the pick-up though they find out that the job is actually heroin. (Nicholas Cage is the heroin dealer.) In the process of deciding what to do, and what happens to them when they balk, they discover a lot about themselves and become real adults. Not to ruin the ending but watch the symbolism of the high school varsity jackets.

Shot on location in Detroit and Canada, if you're a suburban Detroiter this is wonderfully nostalgic too.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent way to reminisce
Review: Coming of age movie with emphasis on the results of the decisions we make. Applies to all of us who were indecisive about the future after high school. A good movie with which to reminisce on a cold night.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite "CTB" Character...
Review: I loved this movie, simply due to one certain character...
"High School Senior #3", portrayed by WWE Superstar Sean "XPac"
Waltman. This poor guy really took a pounding from Josh Charles'
& Stephan Baldwin's characters. I'd like to see a sequel to this film w/the main character being HSS#3. Give the dude some respect...he's been pushed around long enough!!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent way to reminisce
Review: I loved this movie, simply due to one certain character...
"High School Senior #3", portrayed by WWE Superstar Sean "XPac"
Waltman. This poor guy really took a pounding from Josh Charles'
& Stephan Baldwin's characters. I'd like to see a sequel to this film w/the main character being HSS#3. Give the dude some respect...he's been pushed around long enough!!

Rating:
Summary: My favorite "CTB" Character...
Review: I loved this movie, simply due to one certain character...
"High School Senior #3", portrayed by WWE Superstar Sean "XPac"
Waltman. This poor guy really took a pounding from Josh Charles'
& Stephan Baldwin's characters. I'd like to see a sequel to this film w/the main character being HSS#3. Give the dude some respect...he's been pushed around long enough!!

Rating:
Summary: A dramatic, charasmatic film, brilliantly directed!
Review: This is a magnificant story of three young men journeying to Windsor, Canada to attempt to smuggle hashish Back to Detroit. What is so powerful about this movie is the fact the it ignores the essence of Windsor, (fully nude strip clubs and all out gambling) and focuses directly on the situation at hand. It also prepares the viewer for a powerful sequel based on a true story of a young man, violently gay, trying to establish himself as a functional heterosexual by journeying to the strip clubs of Windsor in the hope he will be attracted to the opposite sex. The role is so convincingly played by Dave Painter, one must wonder if it is actually his life story. Look for the sequel, if JeffFey productions can budget it, to hit theaters in the year 2000. Special Mention must also be given to that of Jim Frazier, who plays Painter's oddly queer sidekick and partner. Frazier is extremely mellow in his role, yet wears clothes and glasses that gives the viewer the idea he made be a pedofile or serial killer.- JT 1/26/99