Louis Mandylor continues his awesome streak of films in 2023 with this action drama from Yadhu Krishnan.

After taking down a massive cartel responsible for a child trafficking ring in Mexico, FBI agent Mark Patson has decided to retire in hopes to make amends with his estranged daughter. Alisha has been avoiding Mark since the death of her mother, blaming her father for her death. When the duo reunites while Alisha is on vacation, he tries hard to reunite with her but it’s clear she isn’t interested. That is until a series of events begin to start a bond between the two.

With the help of Mark’s friend Miriam, Mark and Alisha slowly begin to rekindle their familial relationship as Mark trains Alisha to shoot a gun and teaches her martial arts for self-defense. A chain of events begins to occur where Alisha finds herself in danger and Mark shows up in time to help. However, a major threat comes in the form of the last surviving member of the cartel Mark took down. Will Mark and Alisha be ready for the fight for their lives?

The trailer of the film makes this a tense action thriller. However, the film actually relies more on its story and sporadically adds action sequences. However, the balance here between plot and action works here as we get to see the cast show a range of emotions, particularly the father and daughter duo of Mark and Alisha, played by Louis Mandylor and Samm Wiechec.

Mandylor once again shows why he is an underrated talented actor. Here, he plays a FBI agent who retires to reunite with his daughter and of course, things don’t go as planned at first, but soon enough, we see Mandylor acting as a mentor to her when it comes to defending herself. As for Wiechec, she plays the typical rebellious daughter who is mad at her dad but after being robbed and an attempt to fight him off, she starts to see Mark is legitimately trying to do his best as a dad and lets him train her. The two show really good chemistry together and add to the mix, Lori Pelenise as Miriam, a woman who is not trying to replace Mark’s wife, but becomes his biggest ally and the “glue” that helps bring dad and daughter together.

If there is a flaw in the film, it is the fact we don’t get to see our major adversary until the last ten minutes of the film. Known simply as “Stranger”, the last surviving member of the cartel Mark took down is played with a creepy effect by Strangeland’s Kevin Gage. He rarely talks and lets him vicious actions do the talking for him. There are two better standouts than the finale and they are in the form of Alisha’s fight against a thief at a market and a club fight where Alisha then Mark take on two business-dressed rapists who go after Alisha and her friend.

Crossfire suffers only from a lackluster finale, but the heart of the film is there in the relationship between the two lead characters, a father-daughter duo who eventually reunite. Louis Mandylor is great in the film and with The Flood and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 coming later this year, along with the earlier Breakout, this could be Mandylor’s year! Kudos to Samm Wiechec and Lori Pelenise for helping drive the film as well.

WFG RATING: B-

Vision Films presents a Badhouse Studios Mexico production. Director: Yadhu Krishnan. Producers: Harish Gopinathan, Yadhu Krishnan, and Sonika Harish. Writer: Yadhu Krishnan. Cinematography: Daniel Blanco. Editing: Lal Krishna, Yadhu Krishnan, Pacof Letechipia, and Nikesh Ramesh.

Cast: Louis Mandylor, Kevin Gage, Samm Wiechec, Lori Pelenise, Victor Chen, Lucia Vilmo, Michael A. Hannibal.