Genres

Visitors Review

bas rutten 2013-05-19 05:59:51

Excellent ensemble movie that really hits a couple of nerves

Once very while, a movie comes along that really makes you think about(Western) society, a society where things often look just fine on thesurface but once you look deeper, the opposite is sometimes the case.One of these fairly rare movies is "Crash", a movie that expertly showsthat things like racism, discrimination and prejudice are still aliveand kicking in a civilized society.The best part of "Crash" is probably that it does all of this in a waythat feels very realistic and believable. I felt that the majority ofthe situations that occur in the movie could (and do sometimes) happenin the real world.It's also noteworthy that "Crash" doesn't threat its subject matter ina black-and-white matter. This isn't a movie where there are good guysand bad guys, instead there are many shades of gray: the initiallyidealistic cop turns eventually turns out to be biased after all, whilethe racist pig turns out not to be so evil after all, and so on.All in all, I think "Crash" presents a number of very interesting moraldilemma's (would you jeopardize your career in order to stopdiscrimination?) and touches a couple of sensitive spots.What also helps a whole lot are the generally very strong performancesby a very diverse cast of talented actors. Not all of them are knownfor serious roles (Sandra Bullock, Ludicrous) but even they do aconvincing job here. Even though none of the characters get much screentime (this is a real ensemble movie) you do get to care about them,especially during some very intense and emotional scenes."Crash" is a great ensemble movie, with strong performances, and arealistic and thought-provoking plot ****1/2 out of *****

heidiwetzel 2013-05-18 15:37:34

Great movie

Created in 2004, Crash was written and directed by Paul Haggis. Crashstarts out with a simple wreck and ends up in bloodshed. All of this isdue to prejudice, and stereotypes. The movie follows seven interlacedstories. Crash showed how prejudice and stereotypes affects people, andhow these misconceptions are started. Throughout the movie, thecharacters crash into each other, some metaphorically, and othersliterally. The movie starts with Jennifer Esposito, who plays Ria,getting crashed into by an Asian lady. There happens to be a crimescene near which then sparks a flashback to the day before. SandraBullock plays the scared spoiled wife of a politician, Jean. Jean andher husband Rick where was held at gunpoint and carjacked by twoAfrican American men, Anthony, and Peter. Anthony and Peter run over anAsian man getting out of his white van while joyriding Jean and Rick'sblack SUV. One of the carjackers, Peter, was the brother of a detectivenamed Graham, who was played by Don Cheadle. Jean had her locks changedafter having her car stolen, and did not like how the locksmith namedDaniel looked. When Daniel, who is played by Michael Pena, triesunsuccessfully to fix a lock on a broken door for a shop owner, theshop owner gets angry. Farhad, the shop owner, decides to take mattersinto his own hands to make Daniel responsible for his shop gettingbroke into and robbed. He ends up shooting at Daniel's kid, but did notkill her, because his daughter Dorri, who is played by Bahar Soomekh,loaded the gun with blanks. Anthony later went back and stole theAsian's white van, and found out there was a bunch of people beingsmuggled in the back of the van. He ended up doing the right thing andletting them go. Noticing the same kind of car that was stolen fromRick and Jean, the cops pull over a director and his wife. Ryan, aracist cop, and his rookie partner Hansen pull them over. Ryan moleststhe wife while the husband cannot do anything. Hansen picked up Peterwhen he hitchhiked and he ended up shooting Peter when he thought Peterwas pulling out a gun. The story laces in many characters to the storyline. The only other movie I can think of that jumped around thissuccessfully was Premonition. In 2007, Sandra Bullock also plays inPremonition. Like Premonition, Crash jumps around, but it does so witha purpose. One of the techniques that were very well carried out in this film wasthe transitions. The film had seamless transitions between scenes.Since the movie had so many stories going at once, good transitionswere very important when switching between stories.Another technique that was well implemented was lighting. Even thoughsome scenes were dark, you could still see the characters perfectly.The light hit even the rain drops and accented them perfectly. Crash was a very moving movie that really makes one think about thereown prejudices. It has a very large and great cast. It is a very wellwritten and edited movie. Crash is a very moving and insightful movie. References Haggis, P. (2004). Crash Motion picture. United States:Lions Gate Films.

John Richards 2013-05-15 10:33:12

A tale told by an idiot.

The film's tagline is "You think you know who you are. You have noidea." I reject both the suggested idea that I have no idea who I amand the inferred suggestion that this film tells me who people trulyare. If people in real life are really like this, then man, we'rescrewed.A bilious film that I walked into late and left prematurely. A filmwhich is so wrapped up in its goal of becoming The Race Film of AllTime that it loses sight of the very tools a film must use.The rules of Hollywood are such: if you show something in the firsthalf, it must be used in the second half. Thus the gun that thedaughter worries about her father buying will somehow find its way intothe story in the second half. The rules of Hollywood are to make dialog'real' - a concept which changes with every decade. Is this 'realdialog' somehow less ludicrous than the 'real dialog' of Kevin Smithten years ago? The rules of Hollywood state that we set the scene, andas action rises, the camera moves in closer to the faces - in this filmprimarily so we can see the supposed shame, humiliation andtranscendental realism of the characters. The strings increase, theframe-rate slows down, and our heart is meant to break.This film is as crassly manipulative as it is vapid. I have my ownprejudices against L.A., which I freely admit, so to combat thisprejudice I will not say that this is a natural situation stemming fromthe location, but rather probably from the author and director. Thewriter, Paul Haggis, already showed a taste for polemics over humanityin his Million Dollar Baby, which at least had a director whounderstood how to make the vision of the film bring out the best of ascript's ideas. Now that Paul Haggis has his own hands on the camera itbecomes obvious that not only does he not know how to write true,natural human drama, he does not know how to photograph or direct it aswell. Paul Haggis comes from the land of TV, let us not forget: theland of diminished expectations.Everything is as obvious as a TV-movie, simply presented for simpleminds - Haggis drills into us, over and over again, that while on thesurface people may seem to be awful, they have secret pains hidden.This is a nice idea, but so hamfistedly presented that the wholejuxtaposition of bad/good has an amateurish feel. Structurally the filmis broken up, in the tradition of Magnolia and other earlier films. Theediting is as typical and conventionally "cinematic" as could be - ifthere is a dramatic movement, such as a door opening or a car drivingpast between the subject and camera, the editors use that extrememovement to give the cut that occurs there a more kinetic quality. Theproblem is that other than the drive to keep things moving, there isvery little intelligence and thought behind the cuts - everything iskept by the books. Not only are the puppets of this hideous racialpunch and judy show ineptly handled, but even the curtains are loweredand raised with incompetence.The film tries desperately to present reality, but there's just notalent whatsoever. Some of the actors are good, some of the actors arebad, and all of the performance get muddied together, brought down bythe low, low aesthetics of the film. We have cinematography which istechnically clear: we can see the scene, we have a clear understandingof what is happening. However, not only is the cinematographyunremarkable, but it is thoughtless camera-work and framing whichbelieves that it actually is inspired. The result is little stylisticflourishes which one recognizes but do not actually add anything to thedrama or pathos. For example - and this is a spoiler - as a fatherholds his dying child (the father might be shot too, I didn't stickaround to find out) the camera sees his face and gives us the famousVertigo track/zoom. The Vertigo shot!!! It was at this point that thefilm became hysterical and I just had to leave. I had to leave becauseit was so bad. I left because I was in the middle of a crowded theater,and I wanted to express to the audience that I was sick of emptyheadedHollywood 'art' which is full of sound and fury, yet signifying nothing(in the Bard's own words). I hate to waste such good Shakespearianreferences on something this remarkably bad.

2013-05-14 17:20:20

A different film to the norm. Fantastic.

Canadian screenwriter Paul Haggis has proven his superior writing abilities with the Oscar-winning "Million Dollar Baby," and now those wares extend at directing after helming the exceptional "Crash," his feature directorial debut. A multi-layered tale about simmering racism in Los Angeles, the picture features exceptional performances and an involving script.One night two black men, Anthony (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate) carjack the SUV of District Attorney Rick (Brendan Fraser) and his uptight wife Jean (Sandra Bullock). At home, Jean voices her suspicions regarding the honesty of the Hispanic locksmith, Daniel (Michael Pena) who returns home to his young daughter upset and frustrated. Meanwhile white cops Ryan (Matt Dillon) and Hanson (Ryan Phillippe) stop what they believe is the stolen SUV and harass black couple, Cameron (Terrence Howard), a troubled TV director, and spoiled wife Christine (Thandie Newton). The narrative thread then leads to detective Walters (Don Cheadle) who's trying to find his brother, Peter, who gets into trouble again after car-jacking a suicidal Cameron. Meanwhile Daniel has fresh problems when confronted by suspicious Iranian storeowner Farhad (Shaun Toub) that leads to one of the tensest sequences in the movie.Though the "race" card is played almost ad nauseam, "Crash" is thrilling and convincing. Of course, with a cast that boosts Cheadle, Howard, Tate, Dillon and Newton and my fave rapper of the 'mo, Ludacris - all of who deliver powerful performances - it's hard not to be impressed.Brilliant.

moviemuskie 2013-05-12 20:06:35

Took me completely by surprise.

When I saw Sandra bullock was in a movie I figured it would besomething pretty light weight like Hope Floats. But Sandra Bullock hasa relatively small part in this interwoven and complex character study,Crash. The movie, which has a number of very big stars and familiarcharacter actors come together brilliantly to give us a showcase of theAmerican identity, in race, and in our acceptance of others. So manystories come together to create a brilliantly subtle and awesome movieabout who we are.The plot is too complicated to go into in a forum like this, but thereare a number of different small stories, such as the cop who is abigot, and who is trying to get decent health care for his ailing pops.then there is the black TV producer who sees bigotry in more ways thanone even in his wealthy lifestyle. So many other small stories butthose are some of the plot lines of note.The characters are quite incredible, and are generally much more realand substantive than a lot of characters in Hollywood films, but herethe characters seem so real, they seem so multi-dimensional, the goodguys turn out sometimes to be bad guys, and the bad guys turn out to begood guys. A lot of times in this movies characters no matter if theyare good or bad turn out to be completely unexpected.There have been so many movies that have examined their perspectivetimes and mores many years ago, some movies were so good at showing whowe were as a society, and examining ourselves. there really hasn't beena movie in recent years that has examined our generation in such a way.As we speak society is becoming more isolated and distant, even fromour own neighbor. In this culture of distance and isolation Crash comesup and examines the culture, and is set in a city that might be theepitome of modern day isolation, distance, and decadence: Los Angeles.The movie also examines the increasing multi-cultural society that isbecoming America and how everybody, rich, poor, powerful,working-class, fits into it. Kudos to all of these actors who make thisreally good script come to life in such a way. I am sad that there areso few movies like this. There was a time movies like this could nothave been made, with this kind of intensity, with this kind of socialcommentary, there should be a lot more movies like this. A lot ofmovies, even independent movies do talk about social situations likethis, but the characters sometimes seem fake, and the story linescontrived. But this movie has rich people, poor people, every kind ofperson from every kind of background you can think of, nobody in vogue,not too many people that are extremely popular, the movie is just real,one of the most real I have seen in recent memory, this movie is a mustsee, and hopefully an Oscar Contender.

bnjmn99 2013-05-12 09:08:07

if you don't like this movie, you're racist!

this is the first time i've been motivated to comment here. crash ispretty f'n trite, overdone, and entirely made for white suburbanites sothey can feel 'gritty' and 'real' like they understand something aboutpeople. i would give it 1 star but there was some good acting, but whydid all these good actors fall for the script, seriously. (although ihad never seen ludicrous act, and he's good, and i am sure is going tobe a big star!). watch it if you are curious about the hype, but don'tget trapped by this movie that tries it's hardest to make you feel likeyou HAVE to like it or you are supporting racism. there may be some truths in this movie, and some thoughts provoked etc,but through most of the movie i felt a palpable sense of manipulationthat removed any serious meaning it could have had for me.

dynamohums 2013-04-15 20:33:07

Disappointing

One thing's for sure - this is not of the calibre of an Anderson orAltman, despite the director's obvious frames of reference. The plot development was telegraphed for all to see, and the rathercynical attempts at wringing the emotions while tying up the loose endsof the various strands made it feel like a daytime soap (written bysomeone who feels he should be doing something more 'worthy'). Every character seems to have reached an epiphany by the final reel,despite the wildly variant moralities on display. Maybe this is themost interesting aspect of the film, but sometimes it is better to makea stance and take a view rather than let it blow in the wind as thisdirector seems to prefer. Although one may read the premise of 'Crash' as being relating toracism (in all it's forms), in the end the ambiguity on offer lets itdown badly and 'soft-soaps' the issues - when a more confrontationalview may be more useful and relevant in highlighting the world we alllive in.

DVLefferts 2013-04-15 05:44:16

A Menagerie of Raw Human Emotion

In the first scene of this film, Don Cheadle says, among other profoundthings, "I think we just crash into each other, just to feelsomething." This short quote, in actuality, sums up the entire pointthat the filmmakers were trying present. In the sleepy city of LosAngeles, the viewers are taken on a wild ride - perhaps a corny simile,noting the title - in the lives of numerous, nameless souls, all lostand confused. We see the lives of racial minorities living in the backalley slums of the city, and in the next scene, the lives of rich bigotwhites. By the end of the film, we realize that whether black or whiteor rich or poor, we are all looking for answers, and that, although wedo not realize it, those answers lie in the most unlikely people aroundus. A menagerie of raw human emotion - fear, anger, sadness, joy, andabove all, dysphoria. Although it seems like quite a list to take on inone film, perhaps too long, Crash tackles them all with bothopen-mindedness and subtle restraint, in only 113 minutes. It tookMagnolia three hours, and believe me, Crash leaves Magnolia in thedust. This wild ride of a film - by the end of it, the viewer will havecrashed into the truth of their own lives, going home to their beds,popcorn stuck in their back molars, stunned - and emotionally drained.

2013-03-28 10:48:49

Perspective. That's what we need more of and this movie's got it.

I hate predictable movies with canned characters, which is why I loved this movie. The stereotypical bad guy is thoroughly bad while the stereotypical hero is always good (or always does the right thing). Here, in this movie, is the complexity of life - we all have a hero and a villian in us. People just aren't that simple as typically cast in movies. The plot of Crash you can get from most of these 200+ reviews, so I won't rehash too much of it except to say that it is a drama about several different lives that all wind up "crashing" together. I love how they managed to keep the movie interesting at every step, each character believable and well-played, yet at the same time you never knew what was going to happen next. The message at the end is that life is complex and so are people. The good guy doesn't always win, which is not as horrible a thing if there is no clear good guy or bad guy. Watch it - it's great.

tclark-5 2013-03-27 16:41:30

Was I watching a different movie?

I get the impression that I was watching a different movie to themajority of other people I know who have seen this film. It's notreally that I found the film offensive or anything - just that thescript was unbelievably amateurish for a film that had obviously had abit of money thrown at it. I really respected Paul Haggis' work on theMillion Dollar Baby script and was bitterly disappointed to see how badthis script was. It was clear to me that it was desperate to be the'racism' version of Traffic, but I don't think Traffic was really afilm worth ripping off in the first place. The worst feature of thisfilm is the way it shamelessly spoon-feeds itsaudience. Does Haggisreally think we are so dumb as to require a shotof the blanks? Do wereally need to see the phone book sitting onFarhad's dashboard, withthe address circled in black texta? Can we notbe left to make someleaps in logic for ourselves? I also had a major problem with the dialogue which was so 'on thenose'. I have heard one critic say that the quality of dialogue isdeceptively high, because even though people may not speak this way,they certainly do think this way. That is irrelevant. It is the job ofa script like this to utilise dialogue in a way that helps add to thecharacterisations and believability of the (in this case highlyimplausible) situations that are set up. These characters all speakusing the same voice and all they ever talk about is racism. Surely the purpose of a film like this should be to promote the factthat race should not really be an issue in these situations, but bymaking it the sole focus of every scene, doesn't it become innatelyracist itself? Characters walk around spouting their philosophies andconveniently memorised statistics on race relations as though they'reregurgitating extracts from the research essay they've just written.It's utterly unconvincing and obvious. A film should reveal its meaning gradually, not slap us in the facewith it in the opening scenes and then never let up. I can see thatHaggis' intentions with this film were honorable, but dare I suggestthat by directing his own script he has not been able to identify and,therefore, overcome its flaws. I really hope that writer/directors willbe really careful in future when approaching this 'mosaic' style ofnarrative. It has been done well a number of times, but getting thebalance between the personal and the political right is very difficult.And Robert Altman will not be outdone in that department.

Dgabgblo123 2013-03-25 22:24:49

Powerful ensemble piece

Paul Haggis(the writer of "Million Dollar Baby")makes his directorialdebut with this powerful drama about an ensemble of characters who areconnected through a car crash. The characters include a seedy cop (MattDillon), who has racial sentiments due to his father's company goingbankrupt do to affirmative action programs; the attorney general of LosAngeles (Brendan Fraser) and his wife (Sandra Bullock) who get muggedby two black teens (Ludacris and), both of whom have differentpositions on the race issue; a detective (Don Cheadle) looking for hislong-lost brother; a TV director (Larenz Tate),who represses his angerat the racism he sees; and a foreign businessman who must deal with aparanoid American society. Main flaw in the film are there are too manystories with too many characters, not all which fully develop, butHaggis makes each character memorable and interesting and providessituations that always ring true. People wanting to see this movie forBullock or Fraser should stay away: Both appear in almost cameo-likeroles.

schapers1455 2013-03-25 18:10:24

Good but not great

Crash was a good movie that struck a nerve not only with people thatlive in Los Angeles, but with people I know from the military as well.The movie was a lot like "Traffic" in how it took a controversialsubject, car jacking and violence, and spread it along 4 or 5 differentstories that directly and indirectly intertwine with each other. Eachis done well and then the movie abruptly ends after 1 hour and 50minutes. This left me feeling a little shortchanged because none of thestories lead anywhere. One hour and fifty minutes just isn't longenough to properly develop 5 different stories. Heck it sometimes isn'tenough for one. "Traffic" is a similar movie (about drugs and violenceinstead of carjacking) but is superior because its 2 1/2 hours long andproperly develops the stories. I'd normally give "Crash" about a 7 butI'm giving it a 1 while giving "Traffic" a 10 because I feel theratings should be reversed (Crash has a 8.2 while Traffic has a 7.8). Agood movie but one of worst best picture winners in recent memory.

fox43 2013-03-25 03:19:26

What comes around goes around

The film "Crash" was a film that I did not expect. I really learned alot from this film. I learned that even if you do not know someone thatsomeday you will definitely run into them or within this movie "Crash"into them. This film was definitely one that was different in thecontext that you would not think that it would have made it to the bigtimes but it really did. It keeps you on the edge of your seatthroughout the entire movie.The main plot of this film is about how we crash into each other atsome point in our life. We don't see it but at some point we run intosomeone that we never thought that we would. Our lives areinterconnected in some way and we may never know until somethinghappens that brings us together. Like when Matt Dillon (Officer Ryan)pulls over Terrence Howard (Cameron) and Thandie Newton (Christine) andthen later on Officer Ryan ends up being one of the people that savesChristine. Then when Marina Sirtis (Shereen) is the coroner and meetsDon Cheadle (Graham Walters) and his mother Beverly Todd. They meet inmysteries ways and when you get to the end of the movie you can reallysee where they meet and how great that the movie really is.There is one other plot that I really saw in this film. I saw that inthis film that things that one person does can come back and willaffect someone else that is around them but not directly involved inthe situation. I was really amazed by this film and I believe that itreally is a great film.

krice 2013-03-24 05:40:30

HATE MONGERING, HURTFUL Depressing Movie...

Absolutely a bad idea to watch this movie; it will leave you depressed,emotionally and spiritually violated and hurt, Fearful of everyone, andhateful of anyone you don't already know.What time you spend watching this will be torn from you and you willregret having the images in your brain. This is one of the mostdepressing, sad-ass build-up to hate-throwing movies I've seen in along, long time. I can't think of another movie that has insulted me asmuch as this one did.Warning. There is a scene of a rape in this movie. Violent sexualassault does NOT make a good movie. I disagree with the premise of thisas 'enlightening' or Hollywood's idea of 'insightful' (what a load ofhooey). A white police officer violently sexually assaults a black ladyin front of her husband, and we all know that death follows anyresistance of the cop's act. This is NOT A SPOILER, it's the scene'ssetup. There's more.Anyone saying this movie is "good" has decided that any art thatproposes to depict subtle racism as common in some people's lives.That's fine for them. Not Me. I strongly believe that movies withracism like this should NOT promoted as artistic. They are the same asa slasher film, just put into a different wrapper. Hate mongering,fear-mongering trash.I feel dirty and angry having watched it. When the film's creators andactors decided to thrust these (depicted) profoundly evil injustices onmy psyche, I myself changed for the worse. I cannot go out and regard aperson of color in a more fair lite after seeing movies where evilinjustices are depicted - THEY PLAY ON MY PREJUDICES, and if I didn'thave any before the movie THEY GIVE ME SOME then CRITICIZE ME FORHAVING THEM. This is profoundly bad movie-making. It pushes prejudiceon everyone, puts us in corners, and makes us feel guilty for being thesame color as the actors who are portraying the evil it invents.THIS MOVIE MAKES PEOPLE FEEL MORE HATE NOT LESS. This movie sucks insuch a big way that I hope anyone who wants to see it will think twiceabout what the shape of their soul will be when they turn it off. Ihope for a better world. I reject racism where I see it, and I knowthat every time someone even sees racism, they are converted to itscause, one way or another. This is because racism is built on HATE.Hate is built on FEAR. FEAR MONGERING HATE-FILLED FILMS LIKE THISdeserve no attention from kind people. Continue being a kind person.Reject racism and hate. Reject this freaking movie.

mcclar02 2013-03-19 16:58:09

This movie displayed true concepts in every day life that not everyone is willing to accept

The movie Crash involves several stories that are interwoven andconnected within a thirty six hour period, without the characters inthe story line being unaware of how their actions and beliefs affectthe other person or other people. The theme of this movie show howpeople of all races and classes are interconnected by their attitudesand beliefs that affect each other in a profound and life changing way;from racists attitudes and beliefs from their own personnel experiencesin life to how they got where they are in life and why. The maincharacter Detective Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) is an African AmericanDetective with the Los Angeles Police Department, his girlfriend Ria isa Latino Police Detective (Jennifer Esposito). His mother (BeverlyTodd) is a drug addicted woman who's only concern is her youngest son,Peter. Peter is constantly in trouble with the law and DetectiveWalters is constantly trying to help his mother and brother Peter toclean up their lives. Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is the wife of a D.A.Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser) who is too busy trying to get re-electedthan to worry about the problems his wife is dealing with after gettingcar jack by two African American Males, Anthony and Peter. Jean dealswith her racist attitudes and thoughts. Her husband is trying to bribeDetective Waters in order for the election to go in his favor. Anthonyand Peter are always talking about racist's attitudes and the mindsetof society as they continue their crime spree throughout the movie.Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) an African American Director and hiswife Christine Thayer (Thandie Newton) are pulled over and harassed bya racist cop, Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillion) and his new partner,Officer Tom Hansen (Ryan Phillippe). Officer Ryan is dealing with hisown personal problems with his ill father and his lack of adequateinsurance coverage. Officer Tom Hansen is new to the police force anddoesn't like the way Officer Ryan deals with people of other races, hewants to do the right thing but not sure how to make a stand. OfficerRyan does not believe he is racist and tries to help others, butultimately proves his reactions to a situation that he is a product ofthe environment he is in; as we all are. Then the Persian immigrantstore owner Farhad (Shaun Taub) and his daughter Dari. He buys a gunfor protection of his store. He believes the Mexican lock smith did notfix his locks the way he should have. Farhad's daughter picks up a boxof shells that are blanks because she is trying to control her father'sirrational and racist behavior. The Mexican lock smith and his daughterwho is afraid of the crime and violence that goes on around her. Herfather tries to work hard and protect his daughter despite the racialprejudice he experiences We are all victims of our own beliefs, by whatwe have experienced in life or been taught. Crash combines manyprejudice and racist thoughts and beliefs by its characters reactionsto each other as they interact with life events. The climatic endingwhich starts at the beginning of the movie shows how we are all runningthrough life with the ability to crash into each other but are able toput are hateful thoughts and feelings aside in the face of tragedy andhuman need.

mrs1 2013-03-19 06:44:31

This movie makes you examine your prejudices and your fears.

Not for kids, this movie takes a hard look at our prejudices and howour experiences influence us in our next encounters. A bad experiencewith a person of a certain ethnic group tends to make us treat (or wantto treat) that ethnic group badly. But not always; sometimes ourtraining, our duty makes us reach out to help even someone who isdifficult to help.Based in Los Angeles this movie takes a look at a policeman, a lawyer,a locksmith and a storekeeper and how their preconceptions make themtreat others badly sometimes, and at other times rise to being a hero.This movie will keep you guessing - A Must See!

Sebastian-Alexandru Pasca 2013-03-18 06:31:01

Ladies and gentleman - the Oscar goes to "Crash"... well deserved!!!

"Crash" was for me definitely the movie highlight of this year. Itreveals a touching, thrilling story about inter cultural America, weresometimes everything seems hopeless, yet a glitter of hope always seemsto shine through. The action involves a variety of persons from themost different cultural, social and family background, linked togetherby the coincidental streets of Los Angeles. It is interesting to viewpeople interacting with each other without knowing what the otherexperiences in his daily life. A cop (Matt Dilon), whose father losthis business because of the black minority and is now very ill, hasracist outbursts. A rookie (Ryan Phillipe) cannot agree with prejudiceand racism, asks to change his partner, but societies public opinionabout "niggas" gets to him and he reacts impulsive, shooting a carthief without reason. Cameron (Terrence Howard), a black moviedirector, is being stopped and his wife is being molested by a cop. Hehesitates. He doesn't react. But his rage cumulates within, ready toburst at any moment... the list goes on. This movie describes a shaky society, dominated by prejudice, fear andconfusion. The "Land of the free" doesn't have free citizens. Theycannot free themselves from common belief without feeling guilty(Sandra Bullock) and continue living drenched in fear.An impressive movie, which makes me ask myself - why did the AmericanFilm Academy even consider giving the Oscar for best movie to"Brokeback Mountain", with a movie like "Crash" out there. A definite10!!! A well deserved Oscar!!! Great!

deacon_blues-1 2013-03-17 23:40:24

A great film, relatively small flaws

First of all, if this is an accurate depiction of life in LA, the moviecompellingly makes me glad I don't live there! Fantastic directing,acting, writing, film editing, and storytelling! Don Cheadle is reallybecoming an acting juggernaut! One of Bullock's better jobs of actingtoo. The tension in quite a few scenes is nearly unbearable. A fewflaws detracted from the over all experience for me, however. Theopening premise does not seem to ring true. Although LA is differentfrom some other big cities, in that direct contact between people ismuch more limited, the net effect in terms of hostility and crime isnot all that different than New York or Chicago. The problem is morewith big cities in general than with LA air conditioning and cars inparticular. The other problem was with the Persian storeowner'sirrational treatment of the Latino locksmith. He seems to speak Englishwell enough in all the other scenes to be able to understand what thelocksmith is telling him, but he acts as if he doesn't know thedifference between a broken lock and a broken door. He showed noappreciation for the work the locksmith did at no charge. I also don'tknow what he expected to get from holding up the locksmith later,unless he though he was responsible for the robbery of his store. Noneof this was made very clear, although this storyline's crucial sceneitself was an absolute corker, no doubt! A must see for 2005!

Elise S 2013-03-16 22:47:20

Manos: The Hands of Fate in Los Angeles

At long last, a picture has been made by and for people with profoundWhite Guilt. Surely 'Crash' is at least somewhat ironic; it couldn'tpossibly be that a movie this flimsy, unsubtle, simple, and flat-outinaccurate could have been praised for courage or honesty. The movie,which follows the conveniently and oftentimes hilariously interweavinglives of a set of naked stereotypes, purports to examine the nature ofracism. But, and I'll give the quite-possibly-ironic 'Crash' this andthis alone: it does do a fine job of examining how insular Hollywood is(please don't claim that this movie is independent in spirit) from therest of the working universe.Armed with a full jacket of simple, Only In The Movies characters,'Crash' stumbles along in its polemic, describing what onlyout-of-touch struggling artists think racial problems may be. Cleanlydestroying the good work of Spike Lee, 'Crash' examines the lives of 8or so characters, exonerating virtually every one of them through sillyplot contrivances and dialog that could only be described as a greatfraud. For that's what this movie is: a fraud. A movie made by peoplethat feel guilty for locking their doors at night and hurry up to tellanyone they can that some of their closest friends are minorities. Oh,it's a bad movie. And, mirroring dialog from 'Ghost World', the moviemanages to be so bad it doubles back, becomes good again, and then goesaround once more to become bad. There has been so much said about thismovie that to go in to why it's bad will be handled on a case-by-casescenario. Please write to chicagoelise@gmail.com for any questions;resist the urge to remark negatively on me or my opinion. Except RogerEbert: you've lost all of your credibility.A movie this soulless has, of course, gone on to win many awards andthe acclaim of the movie-going public. I forgive the public forappreciating this movie; their reasons are why dreck typically rises tothe box office top. But Hollywood is shameful; the people responsiblefor 'Crash' need to learn how to characterize racism accurately, takinginto account why people feel the way they do rather than painting themin two tones as people that either are or aren't racist. Real life, notthe fraud of reality that Hollywood both churns out and then awardsitself for, is actually complicated and exists in any number of shadesof gray. People, don't watch this movie. Please. To watch 'Crash' is totell the insular, smug, and righteous makers of this type of disastroustrash that they're on the right track, what they've done is capturedsomething real.Some have leveled the claim that 'Crash' is dangerous, that what itdescribes is so inaccurate as to possibly create more problems. I don'tbelieve this is true; 'Crash' is too flimsy, simple, and uninformed tobe anything even close to a threat. To attack this movie is to risk thelabel of "racist"; surely that's a greater problem than the lousy 112minutes of one of the worst movies to grace the screen in years.

2013-03-16 09:49:09

allegory etc

Great film, everyone in America should see this, it effectively and accurately portrays the simple misunderstandings, misjudgements and myopia that produce 90% of the racism we experience these days (the other 10% comes from the simpletons who still actually have such bais wired into their brains). One reviewer made numerous criticisms about the believability and subsequent relevance of various parts of the film. The fact is, this stuff does happen in every american city, it's tough to go a single day amidst the population without inadvertently being a victim and/or perpetrator of racism, however insignificant an incident it might be. For example, take the fact that bandaids are the color of white people. We are inundated with it, and this film simply magnifies the whole situation so that we might better understand it.The particular interrelatedness of the events and characters in this film is unlikely, but it is an artistic liberty that serves the purpose of the film: to present the situation as a whole, instead of telling one side against the others, or one isolated incident. This film presents our society with its haphazard mashup of disparate cultures, and displays the chaos that results from the fact that we simply do not all understand one another. The point that the film continually drives at, sometimes in a very heavy-handed manner (which once again contributes to the effectiveness of the film... if the filmmakers made wishy-washy hypotheses it wouldn't be half as powerful), is that people are generally good-natured (i have to mention the one reviewer who questioned the good intentions of Sandra Bullock's maid: that you would have left her lying on the stairs with a sprained ankle says much more about you than it does about the film), and the less explicit point is that it is simply misguided perceptions that cause suspicion and mistrust of other races. Its a simple and obvious fact that we really only understand the small personal sphere we each operate within, and we only understand things in the context of that small sphere. For example, as a well-off white kid, my only understanding of black people comes from the few african-american friends i have, the people i pass on the streets, and what the media and entertainment industries present me with. There is no way I can claim to understand what it's like to be a black person in america. I think that it is the ignorance of that lack of understanding that produces racism, and this film supports that theory. Acting as if one's own limited range of perception is the universal state of things results in stereotyping and racist behaviour, sometimes unintentionally. Crash makes the true statement that the primary cause of the widespread racism in mainstream society is as much a case of flawed perceptions on all our parts as it is straight-up antagonism towards a particular ethnicity. That is what I gleaned from this film anyway. Crash doesn't offer solutions, or lessons, or even hope for a better future, it's simply putting our society on display for us, like a social terrarium or something. I highly reccommend this film, it certainly gave me things to think about, and was simply an intense cinematic experience as well, even if it relied on somewhat cheap hollywood tricks to achieve its high level of drama.