Crash

A bunch of people with various backgrounds and races all collide in Los Angeles.

I had to trick Jer into seeing this movie. I didn’t tell him that this movie is about everyone basically being racist, which could be true, but is still a horrible thought. I knew that once Jer realized that every character was unlikeable, he would start to hate everyone in the movie. I asked him about 20 minutes into the movie if it was making him mad and it was. He did watch the entire movie though.

I didn’t realize how many people were in the movie. I knew it was an ensemble, but didn’t really pay attention to who was in it. When the credits started, I was surprised to see Sandra Bullock, Ludacris, Ryan Phillippe, Don Cheadle, and Brenden Fraser. I seemed to only remember Thandie Newton and Matt Dillon were in the movie.

The movie starts out with Don Cheadle’s cop character talking to his partner, played by Jennifer Esposito, while they are at a murder site, but just got into a fender bender while pulling up to it. He is talking about how everyone is so disconnected nowadays that sometimes the only human contact happens when they actually crash into one another. It was the kind of statement that might be said by someone at the end of the movie or not said at all, but the sentiment would be taken away from the movie if it did a good job telling the story. The movie told me what I needed to think right away and I really didn’t like that. Jennifer Esposito looked at him like he was crazy and then went on to yell at an Asian lady while making wonderful racial slurs.

It is what starts the racial slurs and stereotypes that continue throughout the rest of the movie. Some of them are too obvious, like Sandra Bullock’s character not trusting the Hispanic locksmith at her house since she is sure that he will make copies to give to his hoodlum friends to steal from her later. Having her scream this through the house so he can hear is just too obvious. There are other scenes where it is more subtle and I think that are truer to life. Sure, there are people that are that blatant in their racism, but people that really think they don’t believe in stereotypes while thinking that the black man might shoot them when he reaches into his pocket, is more interesting to watch.

My favorite character in the movie was Ludacris’s character. He said what he thought other people were thinking about him and his friend, which was funny and true. Then they acted on some of the things they knew people were thinking about them. He was so angry at what everyone automatically thought, but then didn’t see a problem doing what others expected. It was too funny.

By the end of the movie, it seemed everyone changed their thinking, if only slightly. It was a realistic way to end a movie since not everyone is going to realize they are stupid and change how they think of other people immediately. It was little things that maybe made them rethink how they act since they want to actually be decent human beings.

I didn’t think this movie was the best movie of the year, which is recently was declared by Oscar voters. I think it had serious flaws, but was a decent movie. I just don’t think I have the need to watch it again, except for the scenes with Ludacris.

Rating: B

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