I finally sat down Saturday night, and watched this so-called "masterpiece", Crash.The film has an impressive cast, with excellent performances by all, and a gorgeous very haunting musical score. Who did the score by the way? Whoever it was, it was excellent. There were compelling tense and riveting scenes in the film, and I found myself being very involved in many of them.
That being said however, Crash is a deeply flawed picture, a movie trying to preach the ugliness of prejudices and racism, by focusing on several main characters over the course of one day in the city of Los Angeles, with stupid dialogue and way too many exaggerated moments. Yeah, this is my hometown mind you, a city I know well enough to know that many of the storylines in Crash are ridiculous and contrived. How these characters keep running into each other and how they all connect is really quite preposterous, and kind of insulting to this city. I mean really!
Ludacris, is mouthing off to his buddy about the injustices of being black, yet then has the nerve to go and carjack someone? PULEAZE! And he hits a Chinese immigrant smuggler? Absolutely ludicrous, if you pardon the pun. Sandra Bullock’s character screaming at the top of her lungs about her Latino locksmith being a thug and gang member, with the guy within clear earshot able to hear her go off like this? I think not man! I know of no one in L.A. who is brave enough to mouth off their prejudices this way! Matt Dillon runs into the very same black woman he fondled the night before during a search only to save her life in her overturned SUV the next day? U KIDDING ME??!! The Persian vandalized store owner plotting revenge on his Latino locksmith, that ends with a most laughable supposed shooting of a little girl and a very cheesy slow motion sequence complete with over the top acting? HOW REHEARSED! HOW CONTRIVED! HOW TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE AND UNNECESSARY! All this within the span of 36 f**kin’ hours?! Uh huh. Yeah, right. L.A. is not that exciting lemme tell you.
Crash asks us to suspend disbelief way too many times, and I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. It is a film that had potential, that needed to really focus on one or two crucial storylines, instead of trying to bring in this messy hodgepodge all at once. It is a movie that tries to say something, but in the end does not say a thing. It only makes racism and prejudices worse, by continuing to glorify and encourage this insidious type of behavior in its characters. How it could be nominated for so many Academy Awards is beyond my comprehension.
You want better superior films based in Los Angeles that are truly believable and gritty? Try Internal Affairs, Heat, or Training Day.
I hope writer/director Paul Haggis can perfect his craft in his next film and learn from the crucial mistakes made in his latest hyperbolic disaster of a film.
And the Oscar goes to...Brokeback Mountain.
If there’s any justice.
12 comments:
I haven't seen Brokeback yet, and am not from L.A...So at the moment, my vote still goes to Crash.
Mark Isham did the score. Beautifully done.
I wish you would lhave liked the movie better...I was deeply moved by it. For me, yeah, some of the stuff was contrived, but it seemed like that was intentional to get the point accross. This seems like a movie that ppl either love or hate. My sister and her husband saw it over the weekend and started telling me about this "piece of crap" they rented...Then I said "CRASH? That was the best movie of the year!"
I guess we all have to agree to disagree.
Great post though dude!
Mark Isham huh? Yeah, he's great.
Contrived is the word...you hit it right on the head. Not one scene, not one moment, in this film resembles genuine human interaction, in LA or anywhere else.
Wow! How'd u find me? I used your review Lons too as a link! Thanks for the comment and I will check your page regularly. I think we may agree on movies from what I have been reading.
Thanks for the review. I haven't seen CRASH just because it looks so "typical Hollywood" and they used the title of one of my favorite movies...the thieves. Check out Cronenberg's CRASH if you haven't.
RUMBLE FISH
Thanks. I'll still see it just to see the actors chew up some L.A. locations but...its not a film I'd see for any other reason.
I’m not that crazy about crash, but I did like it. At the beginning I thought I would hate it, but as the film progressed, I got hooked. I think, if the effect is used right, creating completely unbelievable situations are okay, because you are allowed to be symbolic in art. I've never been to LA but there you have all these peoples and I guess it’s a good setting for the story. I think the point of the movie is that many people suffering from racism can be racist themselves. And I thought the scene where the daughter saves her dad was cute. But, you know, art is totally subjective… One of my favorite movies last year, also set in LA, was “Happy Endings,” which wasn’t well received by the critics.
I do agree that cronenberg's crash is an excellent film (I will never forget Holly Hunter's breast as she tries to unbuckle the seatbelt when she just had a car accident and lost her husband in it; one of the most disturbingly erotic sights I've experienced in film). And talking about him, if I was the oscar giver, “a history of violence” would get the best movie award. I did love bb mountain, but a history of violence is far superior (in my opinion). It wasn’t even nominated in that category, though.
I thought it was pretty astoundingly blah. The kind of movie that two days later I forgot I saw it. The car explosion rescue sequence was great, though.
My ranked best picture nominees: 1. Good Night, and Good Luck (far and away number one) 2. Brokeback Mountain 3. Munich 4. Capote 5. Crash. "Walk the Line" should have been nominated over "Crash". And "A History of Violence" instead of "Capote". Hoffman still rules, though.
I don't know if you've heard about it but there's this Russian movie just coming out in the States called "Night Watch". I "obtained" it without seeing it in the theaters and it's pretty balls-out awesome. Like "Blade" but, you know, good.
Later!
Having never been to L.A., in my inexpert opinion "Collateral" is one awesome Los Angeles movie.
Hey Wat, just checked out your bolg, its very cool!
Thanx for stoppin by mine!
my life is a car crash
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