Crossfire (2016 TV Movie) User Reviews

weak

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 23 May 2023]

American soldier Samantha Harrison (Roxanne McKee) returns home from Iraq suffering PTSD and lost memories of a supposed friendly fire incident. Her friend Paige Briar (Stacey Farber) wants her to get treatment. There is an investigation. Fellow soldier Jimmy Cooper (Steve Lund) assures her while Graydon (Tim Rozon) accuses her.

None of the military stuff looks right. It's a low budget affair. It is slow. I'm not sure why the cops are involved at first. At least, they could try to do the psychological damage, but I can't get over McKee model looks. They try to make her hair messy, but it just looks like a model getting out of bed. They should have gone the opposite way. Her hair needs to be tightly bound and she should have no makeup. That would make her look more tightly wound. As for the mystery, I never started caring about it. It really needs better recreations of the incident for it to be compelling. Other than a scene here or there, this is rather tiresome watch.

This is what happens when you lack attention to detail

[juanviruet · 3/10 · 20 November 2016]

This movie is a slap to the face of military service members. First you have personnel wearing the uniform violating all dress code standards. Soldiers walking around with the uniforms' open, with no name or rank, etc. Then, a women from the National Guard as an Infantry Soldier who came back from the War on Iraq, when the Army just accepted females to combat jobs. Don't let me start on Soldiers wearing black boots while using Army Combat Uniform and the berets like they were cooks at a pizza place. At least the producers could have fix little details that are so annoying, would have make this movie passable. The plot is too simplistic and obvious, with little creativity on the development of characters.

Unbelievable!!!

Completely wrong uniforms

[reimanjohn · 1/10 · 7 December 2016]

The director of this movie should never make another military movie again. He made no attempt to get the military uniforms correct which is as easy to do as contacting the military or hiring a military vet to ensure the accuracy of the uniforms. The fact he gave no effort to any of the uniforms shows his lack of care, understanding, and respect for military vets. The movie is irrelevant when so many errors occur to give any credibility to the movie.

Enlisted with no rank insignia, officers with army insignia that is used for enlisted, wrong ribbons, lack of unit patches and insignia, and the worst possible one is an infantry cord for a female soldier. Infantry is currently male only therefore this is not only wrong it is an insult to those of us that earned the cord.

Don't Even Know What To Say

[GeorgiaBoy9009 · 1/10 · 17 December 2016]

I will start off by saying I only attempted to watch this because Incendo Productions has produced some films where first impressions didn't seem promising but ended up surprising me... That will be the only compliment in this review. The director is Claude Desrosiers, a French native who has directed for mainly French productions, who from what I can tell has zero knowledge of American lifestyle or military, coming in to direct a film based on American Military personnel suffering from PTSD. I simply just cannot understand how Incendo didn't see a possibility of this backfiring.

For those still not convinced:

-US Military Plot Subject + No One on Payroll With Experience or Education in US Military = Red Flag -A Director Inexperienced in USA War Genre + Little to No Research of Subject Matter = Downright Disrespectful

I do not recommend for anyone to watch this movie. For me, it felt a bad taste and made me lose any respect towards Incendo Productions for allowing this film to be released.

War Can Be Murder...

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 7/10 · 7 March 2018]

When National Guard soldier Samantha Harrison (McKee) returns to her hometown after a tour in Iraq, which has left her with a pending "Friendly Fire" charge, she finds "Normal" life is harder than serving in a war-zone. Graydon (Rozon) is the sole survivor of the team Samantha supposedly gunned down and he's looking for both justice and revenge. Unable to remember the night in question, Samantha has to rely on the testimonies of her squad; Billy (Koensgen), Bobby (Thebaud), and Jimmy (Lund)... However, after both Billy and Bobby take their own lives it becomes evident to Samantha there's something darker going on and she sets out to solve the mystery.

This is a very well thought out mystery with strong believable characters that are portrayed respectfully by the actors and actresses. McKee makes a good lead role and is so subtle in her portrayal, never going overboard on the emotional side, to make Samantha very believable. I could relate to her outburst of anxiety when she tries to seek law advice. She just cannot fill in the forms. You can see all the raw emotion on her face. Then after she takes flight, back in her car, you can see the relief flood over her along with the sadness and anger at not having been able to complete a simple task. This is pretty much spot on, as a sufferer of depression and anxiety, I can relate. Lund too is great in his portrayal. His character also has as many different flaws that he brings across to the audience in a believable way. The only thing I would have liked would have been a little more structure and drive to Rozon's character, Graydon. This could have been used to create a little more unease and suspense, especially revolving around the inevitable twist. This, however, could have been down to writing or direction, rather than acting. I must also pay respect too to Thebaud's character, Bobby, who injects the idea of a conspiracy theory into the storyline. He does this so well, you can see that he's worried about his and his families life. There are no small parts in this film.

The story, on the whole, is good and flows well. It does have a few slight flaws. If you're a fan of mysteries then you'll have solved this one pretty quickly as it's not a great twist. As I said before, it could have been made better. The other is the constant bombardment of "getting councilling". Don't get me wrong, I believe therapy can be a good thing but it's pushed too much within the run of the movie.

The direction is well above standard for a TV Movie and helps to keep the audience's attention, as well as creating atmosphere. Though I do believe there was a chance missed to make Graydon appear more ominous and driven. I particularly liked the use of colourisation. Muddy browns for a melancholy moment and greys for sad and depressing scenes. Even the flashbacks to the combat looked realistic, even though they weren't on a large scale, which I think actually helped their power.

If you like a war drama with an interweaving mystery to solve this is the film to watch. I really enjoyed the film and would be happy to watch it again at some time...

I'm not sure Burbon is the answer

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 18 December 2017]

Samantha (Roxanne McKee) is a returning National Guards-woman who has been accused of killing some regular army guys in a friendly fire incident, one she doesn't remember. She is jumpy, suffers from PTSD, and frequently pulls out her concealed weapon at the drop of a hat. Ten minutes into this made-for -TV film, any seasoned viewer will have the entire incident and film figured out, the "twist" was so awfully predictable, I hesitate to call it a twist. While PTSD is a serious condition, using poorly acted, badly scripted plots to bring attention to it, should be a crime. Not worth reviewing or watching.

Awful

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 10 February 2022]

Not sure where the positive reviews are coming from but this was absolutely awful. A story with GAME OF THRONES actress Roxanne McKee suffering PTSD after an incident in Iraq saw a number of her fellow soldiers killed. Even worse, she's culpable, which leads to ill feeling with others in her squad. I like McKee well enough but she doesn't feel strong enough here to be a protagonist and the whole thing feels like an endlessly dull indie drama. The only good bit is the twist ending.