User reviews

In this sturdy "stranded couple" film, everyone is suspected of smuggling immigrants across the Mexican border. Practically everyone. Early in the film, a polite couple stops for fuel at a small Texas town, en-route to a job offer in California. The shady gas-station owner/operator, Dean, seizes an opportunity to take the couple's last few hundred dollars. It being that this is a border-town, and the couple are out of money, you might guess where the film goes from this point. Well, sort of. While not advertised as a period piece, the film seems to have a certain 70's mood. Not to complain, as it adds a certain flavor and zest, per se. I'm not familiar at all with Bill Sage as Dean, but he did his part, as did the rest of the cast. Eric Mabius apparently filmed this one concurrently with "The Crow: Salvation" and stars as Luke. His wife in the film, Marley Shelton, is in fine form as an actress (especially in a waitress uniform). There are a few head-scratching scenes, such as a scene where Web can't make up his mind whether he wants to use a .38 caliber or an automatic pistol, at a crucial point. But for the most part, the film is serious (almost too serious, as Dean is overtly slimy as the villain, to the point where he has no respect for infants whatsoever). As I mentioned, the performances are a strength, including R. Lee Ermey (star of Full Metal Jacket) as the long arm of the border-law. All in all, a worthwhile film, deserving of repeat views.

The best performances are turned in by Ermey's Border Patrol officer and Elizabeth Pena's waitress, Connie. Cumulatively they have about ten minutes of screen time. This factoid can tell you a lot.

The three leads do not radiate charisma. Luke is barely competent as an actor and he looks ordinary, but not in the appealing sense of the word. Nick, his wife, is an admittedly toothsome young blonde with a wide forehead and huge innocent blue eyes and a nice figure. A little gratuitous nudity might have helped. Dean, the chief villain, has a bit of Texas-type charm, teaching Nickie how to do the two-step, given to engaging chuckles, playing it relatively straight. He becomes violent only when provoked, or when, from his primitive point of view, some form of payback is called for.

The script is the best part of the movie. Some of the lines are kind of interesting. Luke is stranded with Nickie and their baby in a small border town and, desperately broke, is invited to join Dean and his somewhat homoerotic partner in their sideline, which is smuggling mestizos into the states to work on farms. When Luke points out that Dean owns a garage (what a dump) and doesn't really need the money, and asks why he's doing it, Luke grins and replies, "Because I can." When Luke's cooperative impulses fail him at one point, Dean's sadistic buddy turns to him and says menacingly, "Luke, you better get your mind right." Dean chuckles but nobody explains the joke.

It's mainly at the end that the script gets all loopy. The three gringos, Dean, the sidekick, and Luke are at the border prepared to meet the Mexican contingent. (Luke only at gunpoint.) They are interrupted by Ermey and his unit, who have been suspicious of Dean and his buddy all along. There is one of those tedious slow-motion shoot-outs, after which Dean and his fellow thug decide that Luke has turned them in to the law, and they decide to take revenge by visiting Nickie in her shabby motel room. It's not clear what they intend except that, whatever it turns out to be, it won't be to her benefit.

Pursued at high speed by both Ermey and by Luke, the two no-goodniks race to the motel, and Dean very sensibly starts demanding of Nickie's infant, "Where the Goddam remote control for the TV? It's ALREADY on channel three?" He throws the TV through the room's plate glass window, an act I think we can all understand and whose motives we can sympathize with. Nickie grabs Dean's gun and her baby and exits the room. Thug number two fires at her (and misses) and she fires back (hitting him both times). She then runs away from the motel, rather than to the office, and -- are you following this? -- she runs into the desert and Dean, cackling as only a movie lunatic can do, follows her, and Ermy follows him and Luke follows Ermy and -- well, never mind.

Aside from the other irritations, there is the photography. There is more use of color filters in this movie than in any movie since 1915. Scenes at night are ultra-violet. Daytime shots of the motel are siena. The interior of the crummy motel is chartreuse. Open day shots in the desert are a sulfurous yellow. I'll quit there because I can't remember any other of the tints in my box of Crayolos except "vermilion" and I didn't recognize any vermilion scenes. Oh, there's "burnt umber" too, but that doesn't fit either. It's clear that the cinematographer had a much better Crayola memory than I do. I wish they wouldn't do that, use color filters. Not as a matter of principle, because I thought their use was perfectly apt in a movie like "Traffic," where they help us distinguish Mexico from the United States. Here, the technique is just pointless.

This could be worse. As I say, until the end, the story is rather engaging and is sprinkled with neat lines. But more could have been done if more talent and thought had been involved.

When you get low quality genre based film collections, you have to be aware that there are a few films in a collection that hardly qualify as anything related to the overall theme of the collection. On the Borderline is one such film. On the Borderline is a 2001 direct to video film. The film was directed by Michael Oblowitz (This World, Then the Fireworks). The film stars Eric Mabius (Resident Evil), Marley Shelton (Death Proof), and R. Lee Ermy (Full Metal Jacket).

A couple (played by Eric Mabius and Marley Shelton) are moving across the country (with a baby) due to a job opportunity. They are passing through a Texas town when they lose their money needed to make it to where they need to go. So, the couple decides to stay awhile and try to make money. Luke (Eric Mabius) finds work from a man named Dean and becomes apart of an operation involving smuggling of immigrants across the border. But a cop (R. Lee Ermy) senses something wrong....

Yes, this film is one of those films that are often misgenrefied. On the Borderline is NOT an action movie in the least. So when you are told that it is an action movie, you expect it to be an action movie. Sure, one look at the cover and you can probably figure out right away that it is not one of those action movies where there are big explosions and anything that accompanies big budget action films. But, if you are like me, you will know this and still proceed to expect some sort of action. Well, this film has none of that. Sure, in the last 15 minutes a gunfight happens but nothing to go on and make one call this film an action film. Funny enough, this whole shootout is not even that good. It seems confusing and edited rather poorly with slow motion shots. You know, the kind of things you typically do not want in a shootout scene. With that being said, this film is a drama film and to be honest it is nothing to ooh and aah about. I do find that the moral conflict between our main character. He wants to provide for his family but the cost is that he is doing something illegal. I think this sort of conflict is interesting enough to keep me interested and also feel for the character somewhat (in that he is blandly portrayed). The acting is not really great. R. Lee Ermy gives a good performance and Bill Sage (who plays Dean) gives a fun performance. He just seems to be having fun with his role. I could not help but make jokes about this film and comparing it to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (seeing that R. Lee Ermy starred in both films). The town that this film takes place in is oddly eerie. Like it is not even completely warranted but yet I am somewhat fascinated. The people in town clearly do not like having these "tourists" and it is just funny when I think "What if the town was like evil?" It does build up the feeling that no matter what, something bad probably will happen to this family and sure enough, it does as we see Luke becoming embroiled in illegal acts. The film has nice color to the cinematography. The nighttime scenes are filled with nice dark blues much like the color on the poster/cover for this film. There are a few logic issues I have with this film. If the reader here is curious I would recommend just watching the film itself (because quite honestly it is not a horrible film). Or if you are not quite convinced, read a spoiler review of this film though I do recommend the former as it is the best way to make your own opinion.

On the Borderline sucks as an "action" film but the drama is not too bad. I clearly was surprised that it was not as terrible as I would expect.

i was surprised... not as bad as i thought it was going to be... marley shelton is THE most under rated young actress in film today... but maybe i'm prejudice...my girlfriend went to school with her... not a bad rent...

There are some things I like about this film. The baby of the young couple gives the best performance. On a side note, Elizabeth Pena (La Bamba) and R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket) come in second. When you watch them you can tell that they are fighting the mediocre dialogue written for their characters but hey they earning their money. Two, the look of the film is GREAT. Props to the cinematographer. Three, the best part of this film starts after the shootout at the end of the film. It is a scene with Elias (Ermey), Nikki, Luke and Tyler (the baby). This scene is the best of the whole movie but you will have to watch the whole film to appreciate each characters circumstances in the end.

The story is pretty good with a few plot holes here and there. Nikki and Luke come from Detroit hoping to find a new life in California but they find themselves in trouble in a small texan border town. The direction is sub standard. I have never seen a night scene have intercuts of sunset to a night shot of the moon with clouds. It just looks off. Also the car crash scene was too much for me to handle and swallow. It was OK but it lowered my expectations a lot and that crash happened within the first ten minutes of the film. The right side of my brain told my left side, "I don't think this film is going to get any better." Also the slow motion in this film is too, I don't know, not needed.

If there is one thing that is wrong with this film it was the casting. It had nothing to do with the acting but the "LOOK" and "BELIVABILITY" of each character was way off. First, Nikki and Luke do not look like they are from Detroit, if they are than they are from the suburbs. The story alludes to Nikki and Luke coming from the city but I am probably wrong. Either way Nikki looks like she is from Longbeach while Luke looks like he is from Cypress, California. The only thing that works with these two is there innocence but that wouldn't be enough to have me cast them. The character of Dean was off as well but he does have merit. I can see the director liking him cause he is better looking than Luke and it would solve the motivation problem for Nikki to do the two step with him at the diner. Regardless he has california written all over him. His character made me believe more in Owen Wilson's country boy character in Michael Bay's "Armageddon". Overall he just doesn't work but I don't blame him, the writing of character is conflicted. Elias is played by Ermey and he does work as a border patrol officer. Elizabeth Pena plays Connie who owns the local diner in town. First of all, Pena looks beautiful, but her character should be older. There are lines in the screenplay that give a clue to Connie's age which doesn't match Pena's youthful self. The main thing that caught my attention was Pena's hairdo. The character of Connie needed to be older like Rita Moreno (HBO's OZ) or Rosanna De Soto (La Bamba). She wasn't believable but in the movie industry nothing really has to be real I guess. What does work is the film's town folk and Dean's sidekick. The town itself works as well.

Overall the only reason to see this movie is to see it for a production quality lesson for homework. Here's the assignment. Rent "Borderwarz", then rent "On The Borderline" and last but not least rent "Breakdown" with Kurt Russell. The assignment, write a five page paper discussing the quality of each production and how the films budgets reflected the choices made by the filmmakers of each films. Also comment on restrictions that each film probably had in correlation with funding. I want it on my desk by Friday, no later than 6pm.