Crash=Overrated

[Epic Reine 0]

I first saw Crash back in December before it was announced that it was up for best picture at this year's Oscars. After viewing it for the first time I thought it was pretty good, not the best but worth a watch.

 

Then it won best picture.

 

Now that the movie has been on Showtime a lot latley, I was able to catch it a few more times and I realized that this is probably won of the most overrated movies of 2005.

 

First off, this movie has terrible replay value. It really gets worse everytime you watch it and I realized this after watching this the second and third time.

 

The whole movie is annoyingly contrived. For about two hours, the whole movie pretty much beats the whole message of "YES RACISM IS WRONG" into you and it gets very irritating after the first time you watch it.

 

Also, the whole movie is horribly miscasted. Sandra Bullock and Brandon Fraser just suck to begin with and it was no different in this film. Ryan Phillipe as a cop is laughable and LUDACRIS? c'mon now.

 

Overall, I don't think it's a bad movie despite it's obvious flaws but it certainly didn't deserve the oscar for best film (But then again, none of the movies in the past 4 years deserved them either).

 

Discuss.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

If you think the movie is about "RACISM IS WRONG" then you completely missed the point. Try making threads about things you can somewhat understand before calling something overrated.

[2GOLD 0]

I thought it was pretty good but not one of the greatest films of all time. Then again, the Academy hasn't really been picking great films for the last few years. But of the movies nominated this year? Yeah, I'd say it was the best of them but that wasn't saying a great deal.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

First, I really liked Crash, but felt Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck. were better (and as far as non-Academy nominated films go, The Squid and the Whale and A History of Violence).

 

Second, I was waiting for this topic to come up.

 

The message isn't simply that "racism is bad." That's skimming the surface, really. The real message comes from the Matt Dillon line, no matter how cliche it is: "You think you know who you are...you have no idea."

 

People may have a sense of who they are, but their true personalities aren't revealed until certain circumstances come up. Graham Waters puts his job before everything, but even he has to compromise his morals and frame a potentially innocent man to protect his brother. Ryan Phillipe tries so hard to exude a color-friendly personality, but at the right moment his racist instincts kick in and he pays for it.

 

On Brendan Fraser: I never liked him until Scrubs.

[bob_barron 0]

Yea, the movie is so much more then RACISM IS BAD. And just because you don't like Ludacris, doesn't mean he didn't give a very good performance.

 

I thought Crash was the best of the 5 movies, even though I sometimes flip-flop between it and Munich

[Guest Vitamin X]

I thought Crash was the best of the 5 movies, even though I sometimes flip-flop between it and Munich

 

I actually agree with you here wholeheartedly. Weren't you lovin Brokeback Mountain for a while, though?

[bob_barron 0]

No, not really. I liked Brokeback, but didn't have it as one of my top movies.

 

I was a huge Cinderella Man fan though.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Well, if I had a vote for best picture it would have gone to Serenity, Sin City, or the 40 Year Old Virgin...but the academy's idea is much different. Usually between some well known movies and some artsy-fartsy stuff that people don't go out and see untill they hear "oh, this is up for oscars." The best movies are usually the most fun.

 

With that being said I really liked Crash. It wasn't all about racism. Just pointing out that EVERYONE has a good side and bad. I liked it, but it's probably at the bottom of my top 8.

[Ravenbomb 0]

I thought Good Night, and Good Luck was better, but only slightly, so I'm happy it won

[Annabelle 0]

in the beginning i thought the message was a little too heavy handed. but the ending successfully pushed a seperate agenda. which i thought was terrific. hardly the greatest movie ever. anything that has 15 minutes of music in the end certainly loses some of its cinematic appeal. a bit longish. a bit overhyped. but good.

[SuperJerk 0]

If you think the movie is about "RACISM IS WRONG" then you completely missed the point. Try making threads about things you can somewhat understand before calling something overrated.

Then why don't you explain what it was really about (such as was done in The Superstar's post)? The dude was just giving his opinion of what he thought of the movie and was asking for people to voice their own opnions. Since you disagree, how about taking the time to explain WHY you disagree before resorting to insults?

[Hawk 34 0]

I'll echo the sentiments that CRASH is way more then just "RACISM IS BAD", because it wasn't just that. It was more. It wasn't the greatest movie ever but it was a movie completely worth the time and effort to see. It's a movie loaded with great performences, most surprisingly from Dillon and Ludacris (who has become a very good actor, with this and Hustle and Flow to his credit), good characters and a good story that tied alot of stuff into one.

 

If you really thought Crash was about "racism", you did miss the point. It's hard to knock Brandon Fraser when he had a handful of time during the movie, and Fraser has some decent dramatic chops but this movie wasn't going to display that.

 

Howard, in what was only his second best performence of 2005 really shined here as well. I do wish some characters were explored more, however. If anyone has seen the director's cut, can you tell me if it elaborates more.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

The director's cut is really no different.

 

There's one completely new scene which builds more on Phillipe's attempt to not be racist. He's in the police locker room, sits on a bench next to a black guy and (in a forced manner) asks "How's it going?" The black guy stares at him and walks away.

 

Besides that there's some extended dialogue (the only one that comes to mind is between the Asian guy and his wife in the hospital, the wife mentions her accident) and as Haggis calls it, some time for the scenes to "breathe," but not much else. I think there's a grand total of four extra minutes on the DC. I just bought it because I held off buying the original, figuring an awards edition would be out.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I just bought it because I held off buying the original, figuring an awards edition would be out.

 

Ditto, although I still haven't bought the new one.

[MDH257 0]

I saw the title to this thread and figured I'd see a bunch of "Yeah, Crash sucked and its win was the biggest crock of shit in Oscar history" type comments.

I'm glag to see people actually admitting to liking the movie again since it seems to have become trendy to bash it and complain about Brokeback being robbed. I was actually hoping it would lose Best Picture. Now that its won it'll suffer the same fate as American Beauty and become a movie that has nowhere to go but down as far as popular opinion and it's fans will have to act like winning the Oscar is something that needs to be apologized for.

 

I thought Sandra Bullock did a fine job, the whole point of casting her for the role was the shock value of her racist tirade versus her "romantic comedy good girl" image. As an actor, Brendan Fraser is no better or worse the average. he just stars in so much crap that it blinds people to the fact that he can actually be good in something.

Phillipe and Ludacris were okay as well.

[RepoMan 0]

I loved the movie but didn't think it's close to Best Picture. The only other nominated that I saw was Good Night and Good Luck which as way better. Sin City, Upside of Anger and the Hungarian thriller Kontrol were all better movies that I saw this year.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

If you think the movie is about "RACISM IS WRONG" then you completely missed the point. Try making threads about things you can somewhat understand before calling something overrated.

Then why don't you explain what it was really about (such as was done in The Superstar's post)? The dude was just giving his opinion of what he thought of the movie and was asking for people to voice their own opnions. Since you disagree, how about taking the time to explain WHY you disagree before resorting to insults?

 

Because everybody else has done such an amazing job that it would be an insult to the time and effort they put into their posts to try and do a half-assed version of what's already here.

[cabbageboy 0]

Good Night and Good Luck would have been better to me if I hadn't already seen most of the footage in various classes. Having seen most of the McCarthy stuff already, the film was solid but a bit dry and dull.

 

As far as Crash goes, eh. I wasn't elated that it won best picture, but was surprised. I'm not sure what I didn't 100% care for in it, maybe it was that I didn't feel like it had a real center to it. Pulp Fiction for instance has various stories going on, but there are a few key characters and everyone else is subordinate. Crash? It seemed like there were 20 main characters, with few that seemed vastly more important than the others (with the possible exception of Don Cheadle).

 

There were also some moments that seemed very forced and phony. One in particular was the scene with the Persian store owner, the Mexican locksmith, and the girl. It's like it was building to a big emotional moment, but since no one was established as being all THAT important I didn't react.

[The Mandarin 0]

The movie is about the duality of Jennifer Esposito's tits man.

[Vyce 0]

CBenoit is right in two regards.

 

The first is that, yes, this movie is terribly overrated. In fact, I'd label it as the biggest piece of overrated dog shit to win the best picture Oscar since.......fuck, I can't even remember when. You know how people bitch because Gladiator won Best Picture? Yeah, well that movie deserved its BP Oscar more than Crash by a factor of about 495.3555. The five is actually a repeating decimal, for you math geeks. As much as I've joked about Brokeback Mountain, I'm stunned that it lost BP now. I guess even Hollywood, for all George Clooney's speech about them being so revolutionary and important, just isn't that comfortable with the queers, to the point of snubbing them with the Oscar.

 

He's also right that it's just about Racism is Bad. "No, there was more to it!" Like fucking hell. Whatever other bullshit message was in there, it was - if I may use a Rosa Parks reference - THROWN to the fucking back of the bus, because all that was beat into the viewer from the first minute was "Racism is Bad!" Thanks, I kind of knew that.

 

Best part of the film was Thandie Newton getting molested by Matt Dillon. And Jennifer Esposito's tits. There, I said it. Do yourself a favor and just visit Mr. Skin to see that, it's the only worthy part of this film.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

I saw the movie on Showtime as well and while I enjoyed it, when it was over I honestly couldn't figure out the message of the movie which left me with an empty feeling.

[Star Ocean 3 0]

If you think the movie is about "RACISM IS WRONG" then you completely missed the point. Try making threads about things you can somewhat understand before calling something overrated.

Then why don't you explain what it was really about (such as was done in The Superstar's post)? The dude was just giving his opinion of what he thought of the movie and was asking for people to voice their own opnions. Since you disagree, how about taking the time to explain WHY you disagree before resorting to insults?

 

Because everybody else has done such an amazing job that it would be an insult to the time and effort they put into their posts to try and do a half-assed version of what's already here.

 

 

(you were the first to respond)

[Red Baron 0]

I was hoping Munich would win best picture over Crash, but at least Broke Back Mountain lost.

 

Thats about it for my contribution for the thread because I've never seen the movie itself.

[Guest Starks]

Crash was one of the worst movies I had the displeasure of seeing last year, and the more it went on the more pissed off I became. In another 3 months no one will remember it even won an oscar and it will simply be another year the academy got it wrong ("Munich" or "Syriana" should have taken best picture IMO).

 

Without a cast of so many name celebrities it wouldn't of even registered.

 

The whole movie follows the same simple formula, establish a characters with some sort of extreme trait/predujice/sterotype, then as the movie builds have two of them meet in an unexpected circumstance where at the climatic moment they respond in the complete oppisite way you would expect based on their previous actions, Ooh, edgy, this person is multi-dimensional... no they're not. All the while the film is oh-so-suitaly screaming at you RACISM IS BAD! Holy shit, rich people are racist, poor people are racist, white people are racist, coloured people are racist, racist people are racist, not-racist people are racist, liberals are racist, conservatives are racist. Everybody has prejudices and the problem of racism is complex and requires much introspection and analysis. There are not easy answers, we get the fucking point.

 

The audience is not asked to resolve within themselves their internal conflicts and to work at understanding the issues. Instead, they are told what to think and why they should think it. Ooh, the racist cop is bad... but wait! he also saves the woman. Ooh, the idealistic cop is good, but oh no! he also hates black people! The rich bitch finds her only friend is her housekeeper! The black carjacker saves the asians! Don't bother thinking about it, just react with your gut and then brace for the inevitable twist which proves that what you thought was wrong.

 

I guess the best way to put this is that I found crash patronising. The director doesn't trust us to make up our own minds about the issue so he has to rely on ham fisted direction and contrived situations in order to make sure we absolutely do not miss his point.

 

It's little more then "Magnolia" for retards.

 

Bring on the 2007 Oscars, Eastwood Vs Scorsese II (Flags of our Fathers Vs The Departed)

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I saw "Crash" and thought it was OK. I thought it was interesting seeing Sandra Bullock play a biggoted character. Not a terrible movie, but best pic of the year? No way. The quality of the plot and writing simply don't merit a title like that.

 

I personally don't care about Hollywood awards though.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Crash was decent, not great, often way too cheeseball for its own good. Kind of like a really, really overwrought Altman movie. I agree with Banky that it ended up in a much better place than where it began. Also, pretty much every scene with Terrence Howard was great. He's fantastic.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Crash was more about racial relationships(not love relationships) then RACISM IZ WRONG.

 

I really like the movie. Sandra Bullock I thought did her job well as a snobby rich bitch. Don Cheadle had a very strong performance, like always. Michael Pena did a good job as well.

[SpikeFayeJettEdBebop 0]

I really enjoyed the movie although I haven't seen Syriana or Munich.I'm planning to watch both when they hit DVD though. I'm not really sure if I would say it deserved "best picture", but I did really enjoy it, and I thought the whole picture itself was done well.It was def. one of my personal favorite movies of the year(in the top 5 anyway) but as I said, I havent seen Syriana,Munich, or Goodluck and Goodnight among others.

[SuperJerk 0]

Crash was more about racial relationships(not love relationships) then RACISM IZ WRONG.

 

"Racial relationships"?

[Jingus 0]

Kind of like a really, really overwrought Altman movie.

 

THANK YOU. Has nobody else here seen Nashville, Short Cuts, Gosford Park, or any of the other various Robert Altman movies where he invented the whole "20 main characters" gimmick that Crash blatantly rips off?

 

I thought it was a decent movie. Not the godawful piece of suck that some believe, not worthy of Best Picture either, but it had its moments. But it kinda dragged at times and by the end I never wanted to hear the word "racism" again. Good Night, and Good Luck was the only other BP nomination I saw this year, but personally I liked it better than Crash.