From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 17:48:01 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!xinit!adm.icenet.no!wuff.mayn.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Tim Voon Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Crossworlds (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 20 Oct 1997 18:12:15 GMT Organization: Mariah Lines: 46 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <62g6tv$gj3$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer10.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877371135 16995 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09433 Keywords: author=voon X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer10.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8894 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1582 CROSSWORLDS 1996 A film review by Timothy Voon Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon 2 :-( :-( for going nowhere Directed by Krishna Rao Cast: Rutger Hauer, Josh Charles, Stuart Wilson (II), Andrea Roth On occasion I have a strange urge to watch a B-Grade science fiction thriller which makes a quicker entrance onto a video rental shelf, than one can exit the cinema. Crossworlds is no exception to the rest of the dime a dozen killer robot, mad alien, time travelling flicks that already swamp the Sci-Fi section at your local video store. If you look at what's available, one begins to realise that Sci-Fi movies are either exceptionally good like Star Wars, Star Trek, or exceptionally bad like Crossworlds. There doesn't appear to be any middle ground. What begins as an interesting, though not original concept for a movie plummets to the ordinary and mundane within minutes. The movie is based on the theory that there are several dimensions to our universe, and if one has the key, one can travel through space and time. This idea will not be too unfamiliar for anyone who watches the weekly episodes of "Sliders". So the villains who threaten earth on this occasion are known as "Warlords". They have already conquered several other dimensions, and have their greedy eyes on puny earth. The catch is that they need the key, which comes in the form of a gem and a staff. We are thus introduced to the guardians of the key. Rutger Hauer of "Blade Runner", and Josh Charles of "Threesome" and Andrea Roth of "Robocop" the series. Unfortunately, this threesome don't quite hit the right notes in bed with their perpetual arguments, bickering and indecision. However, the real disappointment comes at the hands of the director himself. His lack of imagination suggests that the way to cross to another dimension is to stamp your feet on the ground, wait for some wind to blow across your face, and when it stops, turn around and you have just crossed worlds. Somehow, I think I would have better luck if I sprinkled a bag full of Pixie dust over myself, before following the second star to my right, then going straight ahead. "I can fly, I can fly, I can fly." Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Dec 1 18:00:56 2003 Path: news.island.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!uninett.no!ntnu.no!uio.no!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Dragan Antulov Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Crossworlds (1996) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2003 20:33:41 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 36248 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1216583 X-RT-TitleID: 1074573 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 2/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #36248 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 56 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8034 rec.arts.sf.reviews:686 CROSSWORLDS (1996) A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003 Parallel universes motive is one of the more intriguing in the world of literary science fiction. In the world of science fiction cinema this motive is usually ignored for whole variety of reasons, most of them having much to do with filmmakers' budgetary or creative deficiencies. All those deficiencies become apparent when some brave filmmaker decides to use parallel universes in their work. One of such examples is CROSSWORLDS, 1996 science fiction film written and directed by Krishna Rao. The protagonist of the film is Joe Talbot (played by Josh Charles), Californian college student in possession of crystal inherited from his late father. This crystal turns out to be the key over the control of various universes, and Joe becomes target of evil Warlords led by Ferris (played by Stuart Wilson). On the other hand, Joe receives help from beautiful Laura (played by Andrea Roth) and retired adventurer A.T. (played by Rutger Hauer). CROSSWORLDS has intriguing opening title and mystical prologue promises that the rest of the film would be something quite extraordinary. Unfortunately, as soon as plot gets set in our world's California, even the less experienced consumers of B-movies are going to sense that the things are starting to go downhill. The plot and the whole mechanics of the fictional worlds are never properly explained through the audience, and the lame attempts to pass locations few hours of drive away from Los Angeles as alien worlds only make this film look cheaper than usual. Production design is even less impressive and costumes are laughable. The only nice thing in CROSSWORLDS is look of Andrea Roth, which only underlines some sad facts about her much better known colleagues like Rutger Hauer and Stuart Wilson - people who deserved much better fate than having to earn their living in uninspired pieces of genre cinema like this one. RATING: 2/10 (-) Review written on November 7th 2003 Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.ofcs.org - Online Films Critics Society ========== X-RAMR-ID: 36248 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1216583 X-RT-TitleID: 1074573 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 2/10