A martial arts practitioner for nearly two decades, actor Braden D. White has since taken the last several years of that period to apply the craft to his efforts in film. Director David H. Ferguson’s Double Cross marks White’s latest effort out of TKO Productions following his 2021 short, Skin Circuit, and is now available on DVD and streaming via ThrillFlix.
Clocking in at just over an hour and made for a budget of a grand, Double Cross pairs White with co-star Blake Longshore for the story of two brothers brought up in the field of the mercenary-for-hire business following the death of their father twenty years earlier at the hands of his employer, Rodriguez. Intolerant of the competition, Rodriguez (Craig Blacklock) decides to concoct a scheme to wipe both brothers out after learning of their existence in the field.
Double Cross is about as “indie action” as it gets for a project of its kind. White doesn’t have the screen appeal, but he’s got the moves, and the assembly here for some of the action shows that he and Ferguson understand some of the essential ingredients needed to make action sequences work. Of course, therein lies questions pertaining to just how they work, and will they work for everyone.
For that matter, there’s definitely no escaping the structural, mechanical and creative flaws here, from the acting, choreography beats and pacing, to some of cinematography, lighting and set pieces. Invariably, while a market does exist for films like this, it definitely won’t extinguish the unforgiving crop of trolls eager to flood IMDb or any film forum with negative comments, to which I say the following: ignore those people, and draw your own conclusions.
Indeed, Double Cross isn’t the standard setter its makers set out for it to be. Still, it is exemplary of any effort to make a movie. Films like these are hard to make, and nine times out of ten, they’re just plain unwatchable. Point in fact, I’ve reviewed a lot of films like this with a curve for those filmmakers, including a few of which who definitely did not deserve the leniency. Lots of lessons learned there.
Nonetheless, that’s kind of what it takes to be an informed viewer or critic at this stage, with plenty of artists and creatives like White and Co. looking to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors (i.e. Eric Jacobus, Larry Leong, Dennis Ruel, Joey Min, etc). Thus, while Double Cross serves as the latest landmark of White’s and Ferguson’s careers in their nascency, it’s worth hoping that they show growth in future projects.
CAST: Braden D. White, Blake Longshore, Temre K. Morgan. Ethic DeJaun, Amielynn Woodall, Craig Blacklock
DIRECTOR: David H. Ferguson
WRITTEN BY: Braden D. White
PRODUCED BY: Braden D. White, Robb Antequera
ACTION/STUNTS: Carl Rhonin, Louie “DragonFly” Cruz
