Okay – so I’ve never been a big fan of Angelina Jolie. Sure, she’s not hard to look at. Sure, she has some amazing… uh, assets. I finally saw the movie that took her personal quest and made it visual – Beyond Borders.

Okay, I admit it. I started writing this review about fifteen minutes into the movie. At that point, all I had seen was a solid scene by my man, Clive Owen and the setup for what looked to be a decent film. By the time I had gotten this far in my writing, I saw this flick turn into a heaping pile of poorly-written, over-acted, super-simplified, guilt-ridden garbage.

Now I see why she is joked about. The makeup on the African refugees was so over-the-top as to be insulting. Really, I commend her for adopting some children to rescue, but can’t help but think she could have done so much more by investing some time and money into a better script, better acting, better everything on this film. This is such a powerful medium for change and information that it could have done a lot to help the cause, but instead seems to preach to us about how uncaring we are while insulting our intelligence with every scene.

Okay, the film has its moments, and it certainly does make the point once you get past the poor film-making. Again, kudos to Jolie for trying to do something… just a weak effort.

RATING 5 out of 10