The Line – DVD Review

The Film:

For all with a “y” chromosome: The Line will remind you why you are a man. The action is set in Tijuana, Mexico, a spot of such abject poverty and filth my banker brother in-law promises never to return. The plot here concerns Afghanis trying to break into the illegal drug trade, in order to cross the line into the United States. See, after these lungee-headed bastards begin running opium, they can switch quickly to suitcase nukes. The cast is awash in an “A” list of alpha males. And here, I’m not including those artificial testosterone-riddled brutes in The Expendables. No, real men, like Ray Liotta, Esai Morales, and Danny Trejo. Plenty of fighting where one guy is annihilated, beaten to a blood pulp. Morales hits a guy so hard he has to wave his hand. A nice touch. And firearms. Reflect on your second amendment rights as you see everything from a .45 to an Uzi. Some memorable lines, too. Bruce Davison warns a couple of flunkies, “Watch out for the food. It’s like the girls. It looks good, but you don’t know where it’s been.” Except Davison doesn’t say, “girls.”

As an assassin, Mark Shields (Liotta) thinks too much. He broods like Hamlet. Several times, for seemingly no good reason, he cannot pull the trigger. His flashbacks–just enough frames for the viewer to catch–haunt him. He meets a smoking-hot Olivia (Valerie Cruz) who aids his resurrection. And Pelon (Morales), head of the Salzar cartel, practices an unusual sort of Catholicism. The kingpin attends daily mass and receives the sacraments before murdering. Oh, and like the Sun King in eighteenth century France, he has his own private confessor Padre Antonio (Armand Assante). This DVD works on both the brutal and subtle levels.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: Some of the opening scenes at night are a bit too dark. After that, everything looked and sounded fine. The film is sure to appeal to the Latino population. The original title of the film was “La Linea,” and the DVD has Spanish subtitles. In addition to a superabundance of machismo.

Extra features:

Sadly not much. 1) A lukewarm preview, which you should skip. 2) An 18-minute, hit-and-miss “Behind the Scenes” section. The section on the characters is a circle jerk as Bad Boy Esai talks about how great it is to work with “Ray, Andy, and Joe.” Then another character spouts the same drivel about the other characters. On the other hand, the section about “Production” sparkles. The crew discusses their growing expertise on two disparate type of purification: Catholic saints and cocaine production. The dvd-makers save the best for last: stunts and weapons. Learn what it is like to film in Tijuana. Maybe my brother in-law will be interested.

The Film: Rating:

The DVD: Rating: