Linewatch
(2008/Sony DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: D
The Cuba
Gooding Jr. losing streak continues with Kevin Bray’s awful Linewatch (2008), a film about a cop
with a family who has to deal with illegal aliens among other things and you at
first think the David W. Warfield screenplay will be about his struggles for
justice against racism and hate.
Suddenly, the story does a 180 and becomes about his “gangsta” past as
old “friends” keep his wife and daughter “company” while he “helps” them.
A total
insult and far from realistic or believable, the film becomes another in a
series of unfortunate works that equates African Americans with senseless
violence and Gooding and Bray (a Music Video director) are as responsible as
anyone. There is a moment after the
couple has made love and he has told her how much he loves her, that when the “friends”
arrive, he calls he a bitch. After more
sudden changes ion personality, she says she is scared she does not know him
anymore. For those of us who have seen
his career tumble, she is just reflecting what we writers have been saying for
years.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is surprisingly weak and soft, looking
almost second generation and if Bray and his cinematographer Paul M. Sommers
were going for some kind of look, they blew it.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix has poor playback and soundfield, with
awkward editing to boot. An awful behind
the scenes featurette and trailers are the only extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
