By Geno McGahee
I will admit that I was never a big fan of Liam Neeson, but after seeing TAKEN, things changed. I guess it is sort of like meeting somebody and you hate their guts initially but, over time, you begin to like them, and it has taken quite some time, but Neeson has earned my love. TAKEN was such a great film and it erased my bad memories from THE HAUNTING, which is where much of my hate must have came from. I am man enough to admit I was wrong and I was wrong about Neeson.
Recently, I have given other Neeson titles from the past a shot, and I have been pleasantly surprised. DARKMAN was fantastic and the bare-knuckle brawling flick “THE BIG MAN: CROSSING THE LINE” delivers as well, bringing a nice mix of action and drama.
Danny (Neeson) is unemployed and has a criminal record. His wife supports him and it is eating away at him. His troubled friend, Frankie (Billy Connolly), sets up a deal where Danny can use his fighting skills to make some serious money. Mason (Ian Bannen), has a lot of cash and needs Danny to take on a tough guy in a wager he has with another big criminal money man. Danny takes the fight and begins training but his wife leaves him in the process, not accepting the deal.
The needs to be a man and provide for his family are part of Danny’s motivation, but not solely. He wants the limelight, the community’s adoration, and he gets it as they come out in droves to support him. He goes into the big fight with a full head of steam and comes away with the hard-fought win, but that’s when things begin to really fall apart. His opponent is left with life-long injuries and Mason turns out to be quite the villain, which puts Danny’s family in serious danger and makes him realize that he has lost sight of what is really valuable in this world.
THE BIG MAN: CROSSING THE LINE is a pretty good film. I especially liked Billy Connolly in this. At one point, he is told to kill Danny’s dog by the mobsters, and he struggles with the idea. He tells the dog that he would understand if the “roles were reversed.” Connolly is all heart but he’s got a boatload of personal issues. He’s the fucked up friend that we all have. If you don’t have any fucked up friends, then that means you are the fucked up friend.
Neeson brings it in this, doing very well in the dramatic scenes as well as the action ones. The film is more of a drama in the end but it’s got its fair share of excitement. It is absolutely worth a watch. I recommend it.
Rating: 7/10
