What a beautiful movie!

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

-May contain spoiler-I had one massive problem with this movie....This is as follows..He was paid $500 for the first people smuggle he did, then he told his wife he had to do the third run because he hadn't been paid yet.... Dude.. take that $500 and get out... And he didn't tell his wife they were pointing a gun at him telling him he had to do it, she wouldn't have thought of leaving then...Quite entertaining but very predictable.All in all not a bad mid day movie.6/10

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS - CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION I was completely stopped cold in my suspension of disbelief when Luke failed to tell Nickie that he was only making one last run because Dean had him at gunpoint. He goes through the entire scene where she's packing to leave him (because he broke his promise not to drive for Dean anymore) and he should have told her the two guys had guns on him. If he's desperate to keep her from leaving and he knows she thinks he's breaking his promise, then the OBVIOUS thing for him to have said was that he was being forced to at gunpoint. It was the elephant in the room. When he actually left the motel room without telling her this overwhelmingly obvious and important piece of information I lost interest.

There are some things I like about this film. The baby of the young couple gives the best performance. On a side note, Elizabeth Pena (La Bamba) and R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket) come in second. When you watch them you can tell that they are fighting the mediocre dialogue written for their characters but hey they earning their money. Two, the look of the film is GREAT. Props to the cinematographer. Three, the best part of this film starts after the shootout at the end of the film. It is a scene with Elias (Ermey), Nikki, Luke and Tyler (the baby). This scene is the best of the whole movie but you will have to watch the whole film to appreciate each characters circumstances in the end.The story is pretty good with a few plot holes here and there. Nikki and Luke come from Detroit hoping to find a new life in California but they find themselves in trouble in a small texan border town. The direction is sub standard. I have never seen a night scene have intercuts of sunset to a night shot of the moon with clouds. It just looks off. Also the car crash scene was too much for me to handle and swallow. It was OK but it lowered my expectations a lot and that crash happened within the first ten minutes of the film. The right side of my brain told my left side, "I don't think this film is going to get any better." Also the slow motion in this film is too, I don't know, not needed.If there is one thing that is wrong with this film it was the casting. It had nothing to do with the acting but the "LOOK" and "BELIVABILITY" of each character was way off. First, Nikki and Luke do not look like they are from Detroit, if they are than they are from the suburbs. The story alludes to Nikki and Luke coming from the city but I am probably wrong. Either way Nikki looks like she is from Longbeach while Luke looks like he is from Cypress, California. The only thing that works with these two is there innocence but that wouldn't be enough to have me cast them. The character of Dean was off as well but he does have merit. I can see the director liking him cause he is better looking than Luke and it would solve the motivation problem for Nikki to do the two step with him at the diner. Regardless he has california written all over him. His character made me believe more in Owen Wilson's country boy character in Michael Bay's "Armageddon". Overall he just doesn't work but I don't blame him, the writing of character is conflicted. Elias is played by Ermey and he does work as a border patrol officer. Elizabeth Pena plays Connie who owns the local diner in town. First of all, Pena looks beautiful, but her character should be older. There are lines in the screenplay that give a clue to Connie's age which doesn't match Pena's youthful self. The main thing that caught my attention was Pena's hairdo. The character of Connie needed to be older like Rita Moreno (HBO's OZ) or Rosanna De Soto (La Bamba). She wasn't believable but in the movie industry nothing really has to be real I guess. What does work is the film's town folk and Dean's sidekick. The town itself works as well.Overall the only reason to see this movie is to see it for a production quality lesson for homework. Here's the assignment. Rent "Borderwarz", then rent "On The Borderline" and last but not least rent "Breakdown" with Kurt Russell. The assignment, write a five page paper discussing the quality of each production and how the films budgets reflected the choices made by the filmmakers of each films. Also comment on restrictions that each film probably had in correlation with funding. I want it on my desk by Friday, no later than 6pm.

i was surprised... not as bad as i thought it was going to be... marley shelton is THE most under rated young actress in film today... but maybe i'm prejudice...my girlfriend went to school with her... not a bad rent...