Crash (dir. Paul Haggis)

[heyalice]

I saw this last night and loved it.

[rattlerbrat]

Saw it again last night and enjoyed it just as much as I did the last time, despite the assholes in the crowd (see the "Movie Manners" thread). Just a lesson for my fellow black brethen: Racism against non-blacks is just as bad as racism against us. No, really. It is. Ludacris annoyed me even more this go-round (honestly, I do NOT get all the praise), I loved Larenz even more, and Thandie Newton is going to get an Oscar nod for this film...which is damned sad.

P.S. You did see the >>Persian man at the end, and his reactions. He spoke with his daughter, and called the little girl his angel.<<

P.P.S: Rick and Karen were sooooo doing it!

[mrpancake]

I really thought this was one of the best films I've seen in a while, if in my lifetime. It was very well tied together, I thought, and I loved the acting and how the "big" actors didn't have the biggest parts. I feel as though it may suffer during Oscar season because of the number of characters, and the votes getting split/ignored because the parts were too small. At any rate though, I know people were discussing how it made them feel at the end. I'd say the whole damn movie made me depressed, but in a good way. It definitely makes you think and evaluate, but still, it just seemed so bleak to me, even if people did sort of change. It did a great job of touching on racism in many, many forms which I thought was "nice." It seemed long to me, but never dragged and always maintained my interest. I'm wondering if a character or two couldn't have been dispensed of, but other than that I had no problems. I don't so much like Brendan Fraser or Ryan Phillippe (I know it's really superficial, but Brendan's voice sounds phony, and Ryan's sounds like he is chewing on something/has something in his mouth to me), but they did a good job, as did the whole cast. It's a movie that I think will stay with me for a very long time, and I thought it was an important film to make and that they did it well. The whole thing sort of made me want to cry throughout, but the fast stories made it hard to really release at one point, and made it emotionally trying, which I thought was a good result. I'd like to see it again, and I thought it was just an excellent film overall. I was a bit disappointed at the times some of the audience laughed. It seemed to them like some racial jokes were funny while others weren't, and I thought it was odd. That was another great thing about the movie, that the audience you watched it with in some way aided the perception of the film itself. I thought very few parts were funny, although it definitely had its moments. But I thought my audience laughed at some very inappropriate times, and I think a lot of people, not just in my audience, see the issue of racism as a white/black line (it may not be OK to insult/make fun of a black person, but Asians, Lations, Persians, etc. are still fair game). At any rate, I'm going to recommend it and hope it gets lots of praise come Oscar time.

[rattlerbrat]

Brendan's voice sounds phony

You know what? My buddy said the same thing. She says that Brendan's voice always sounds like it was dubbed in. I think it's sexy, myself.

[Deleted]

I just saw it and was underwhelmed. The acting was uniformly excellent but I felt that there was just too much going on and really agree with the poster upthread in that I didn't really care too much (with some exceptions) about any of the characters. I sort of wish that Haggis had built an entire film around Cheadle and Esposito. They were both riveting and I was very intrigued by both of their characters and their relationship.

Part of what bugged me about the movie and made it less than satisfying was that I felt like I was ten steps ahead of the screenplay at times. Especially when it came to the act of violence committed at the end. Of course Larenz Tate was Cheadle's brother, and the highlighted guns - the Persian guys and Luda's - wouldn't end up killing anyone and that the "racist" cop would end up saving the black woman he had previously assulted (the scene between Thandie and Matt in the burning car was amazing, though), and that the "good" cop would end up making the worst kind of assumption about black people etc.... Towards the end, I felt like I was waiting for the screenplay to catch up with me.

[livingstereo]

I thought it was terrific. I hated some of the characters, loved some of the others, and got really tense in scene after scene as I found myself really caring how things were going to turn out. In short, it did what movies are supposed to do but seldom do.

As for Ludacris--I'm of a generation that's young enough to have heard his name, but old enough to have never laid eyes or ears on him before. Once the movie began, I completely forgot that one of the actors was a novice from the world of hip-hop, and if I had remembered, I would have had no idea which actor he was. I only know that while I was watching the movie, I totally bought the character of Anthony and thought the actor playing him was terrific, and assumed he was an actor of considerable experience and credentials. So Ludacris isn't just a good actor "for a rapper"--he's a good actor, period.

[clementine74]

Finally got around to seeing this.
I thought this was a very strong film, with a clear perspective and excellent direction. An exceptional character study in that no one is painted as either just "good" or just "evil". That reflects humanity.
I felt the weakest aspect of this film was the acting-- well, you have the no brainers like Don Cheadle (phenomenal) and then, pleasant suprises like Lorenz Tate (no idea who he is, but he was excellent in my opinion), Ryan Phillipe and Ludacris.
However, I felt that Thandie was hideous (isn't she supposed to be a good actor?? ...anyone?), Sandra Bullock was a snooze, and the walking zombie, Brandon Fraser was, well...just that.
I felt that with stronger actors, this movie would have been Oscar-calibre.
All in all though, I really, really liked it. I agree with the other posters who said that it stays on your mind long after it's over. For that reason alone, I think it is a very important film.

[rattlerbrat]

clementine74 said:

Thandie was hideous (isn't she supposed to be a good actor?? ...anyone?)

She's a good actor like Halle Berry is a good actor.

[livingstereo]

She was wonderful in that 1991 Australian film "Flirting," with Noah Taylor, writer/director John Duigan's followup to "The Year My Voice Broke."

Since then, not so much.

[lpatrice]

I know the country is Iran, but they called themselves Persian

This confused me, am I missing something. Iranians are Persian, they also speak Persian.