Reviews

DVD

Crossing Over * 1/2 (1 1/2 stars)

Starring Harrison Ford, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta. Directed by Wayne Kramer. Released by the Weinstein Co. $19.98.

In what has become the preferred fall-back formula for message movies coming out of Hollywood these days, a group of disparate Los Angelenos, with vague connections to one another, grapple with U.S. immigration policy and its repercussions (think Crash, but focused on illegal immigrants). The result is a hodgepodge of ill-developed story lines that trip over one another in their attempt to tug at the audience's empathetic heartstrings.

You get Harrison Ford as a sympathetic border agent, wracked by guilt over the dilemma of a young mother (Alice Braga) struggling to support her young son back in Mexico. You get Cliff Curtis as his Iranian-born partner, whose family can't fully let go of the culture of their homeland. You get Ray Liotta as an immigration official using his position to curry sexual favor with a would-be actress from Australia (Alice Eve). You get Ashley Judd as his wife, an immigration lawyer in whose hands rest the fate of a young African orphan and a fiercely independent Iranian teen (Summer Bishil) whose efforts to understand the 9/11 attacks land her in hot water with Homeland Security.

You get the point.

Also out today: Clint Eastwood is a crotchety, embittered Korean War vet who proves an unlikely hero to his Asian-immigrant neighbors in Gran Torino (Warner Home Video, $28.98, blu-ray $35.98).

- Chris Kaltenbach

Music

The E.N.D. ** 1/2 (2 1/2 stars)

Black Eyed Peas

After some excellent but underappreciated hip-hop albums, the Black Eyed Peas were faced with a difficult choice: Do we want to be great or do we want to be popular?

With 2003's Elephunk and the addition of Fergie, they chose popular. Now with The E.N.D. (Interscope), their third album in this hit-filled, moneymaking odyssey, the Black Eyed Peas serve up empty-headed, escapist, enjoy-yourself excitement like no one else around.

On the inescapable "Boom Boom Pow," their first No. 1 single, and the island-tinged "Electric City" built around a sample of Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy," the Peas dare you not to have a good time. Same for the irresistible "Showdown," which features the best of will.i.am's new fascination with Euro-flavored dance music.