Crossover Dreams

Actor-musician Ruben Blades' music and appealing screen presence help buoy Crossover Dreams, a film that, while its heart is in the right place, is consistently hamstrung by poor storytelling and amateurish execution. Blades stars as Rudy Veloz, a New York salsa singer who's convinced he has the talent to lift him out of the barrio and into the mainstream. The manner in which that happens is laughable; in the space of a couple of minutes of screen time, some record company hotshot has offered him a deal, and Rudy is livin' large and headed for the toppermost of the poppermost, as John Lennon would say. His inevitable downfall is equally precipitous; drunk with success, Rudy turns his back on his lovely and loving girlfriend (Elizabeth Pena), abandons his old friends and supporters, stops having hits, and loses his record deal. Not only is this scenario utterly shopworn, but director Leon Ichaso delivers it with nary a shred of plausibility and way too little heart. Much of Crossover Dreams has an improvisational feel, and while there's nothing wrong with that (This Is Spinal Tap was largely ad libbed too), the “loosely-structured” approach here eventually becomes a euphemism for “lame.” Blades, a good musician and above-average actor, deserved much better than this undernourished movie (although as co-writer, he must share the blame). Presented with a so-so transfer on an extra-less disc, this is not a necessary purchase. (S. Graham)