Beyond Borders

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Clive Owen Director: Martin Campbell Original UK Premiere: 2003 Dvd Release: 16th August, 2004 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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BEYOND BORDERS is the perfect example of a film made to satisfy someones agenda of political correctness, & the entertainment factor is a thin veneer slopped-on to sell tickets.

The film opens in London at a gala charity benefit to honor the founder of an international aid organization. During all the back slapping & ego massaging, the event is crashed by Dr. Nick Callahan , the physician-director of a camp for starving refugees in Ethiopia, with a young survivor in tow. Nick angrily berates the guest of honor for not providing more funds to keep his camp going, & the attendees, enjoying their caviar & champers, for hypocrisy in general. After being hustled from the hall by security goons & sent back to Africa, socialite Sarah Jordan , experiences a crisis of conscience, arranges for a shipment of food for Nicks cause, & personally accompanies the goodies to the desert. After an initial period of tension between Jordan & Callahan, the two naturally - because this is a Hollywood script - fall in love before Sarah must return to England & a failing marriage. Five years later, now a member of a UN commission for refugees, Sarah contrives another visit to one of Nicks lost causes, this time in Cambodia. And yet again another half-decade later, Jordan travels to war-torn Chechnya, where Nick has been kidnapped by one side or the other. And you can bet your last sack of donated rice that Sarah is fashionably attired for each expedition!

About mid point in BEYOND BORDERS in Cambodia, one of the minor characters, who had lost a leg to a land mine, explains to Sarah how the arming "click" one hears when stepping on the booby trap is the first indication that life is carefree no longer. That scenario, of course, will surface again before the films conclusion. That "click" was the only one. Neither the Jordan or Callahan characters, either alone or paired, clicked for me. The romance between the two seemed an artificial construct by scriptwriters desperate to engage the audience in their underlying three-part message concerning the plight of refugees worldwide, a desperation culminating in one of the more contrived endings to any film that Ive seen recently.

Of the two main roles, Callahans was perhaps the most obnoxious. Here we have a high-powered aid worker, presumably needing advanced schmoozing skills to coax money out of donors, not to mention the cool head to negotiate the treacherous shoals of dictatorships & warring factions, comporting himself like a loud-mouthed soccer hooligan.

If Im to be lectured on the obligation of Western society to care for its less fortunate brothers in the armpits of the world, please dont dress it up as entertainment & expect me to pay for it. This film rightfully belongs in the budget-buy bin at the local discount store.

Angelina Jolie, born Angelina Jolie Voight is an American actress who is as renowned for her exotic looks, sensual lips & tattoos, as well as for her acting ability. She is a respected artist & has received three Golden Globes, as well as an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Lisa Rowe in the film Girl, Interrupted. Additionally Jolie has starred in five student films, all of which were directed by her brother James Haven. Jolie, the daughter of actor Jon Voight & Marcheline Bertrand, was born in Los Angeles, California & as a child dreamt of becoming a funeral director. She attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute from the age of 11 & later completed a degree in film at New York University. On March 28, 1996 she married British actor Jonny Lee Miller, with whom she had co-starred in the movie Hackers. Jolie attended her wedding in black leather trousers & a white shirt, which had her husbands name painted in her blood on the back. Jolie & Miller divorced on February 3, 1999. Posters Of Angelina Jolie

Editors Choice: Alexander, Mr And Mrs Smith, Taking Lives, Beyond Borders, Life Or Something Like It, The Bone Collector, Directors Cut, Hackers, View DVDology

Clive Owen in Coventry, England is a British actor best known in the UK for his role in the television series Chancer & internationally for his recurring role as The Driver in the BMW films titled The Hire. Owen won critical acclaim for his performance in the 1997 Mike Hodges film Croupier, where he played the title role of a struggling writer who takes a job in a London casino as inspiration for his work, only to get caught up in a robbery scheme. The film was re-released in 2000 as part of the Shooting Gallery film series. He has also been rumored as being a possible successor to Pierce Brosnan in the role of James Bond. Rumors have intensified since a rumored falling-out between Brosnan & EON Productions, the production house responsible for the Bond films. As of September 2004, the role of James Bond in the next film, James Bond 21, has currently not been cast. Posters Of Clive Owen

Editors Choice: King Arthur, Derailed, Croupier, Beyond Borders, Ill Sleep When Im Dead, Greenfingers, Bent, Chancer, View DVDology

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