cfloyd3

I may see this film but the overly stereotypical characters of his screenplay (although adapted) of Million Dollar Baby (which I felt collapsed it) I hope are not as present in his feature.

Dawg

I was kind of disapointed by the film. It seemed as though there were chunks missing. Also, the message beats you over the head a little too much in my opinion. It was actually kind of hokey.

But... all in all, I enjoyed it and could still recommend it. It's just nothing I would ever really want to watch again.

animalmystic

Just got back from this movie and I absolutely loved it!! Ya it wasn't perfect, and overly stereotypical, but the acting, direction and the pure emotion was amazing! Great cast too, I liked most of the performances, a few of them though were a little tired.

One thing that kind of ticked me off was, I was in a 75% full theater, and on certain scenes people were laughing. Not histarically, but some laughs were coming out. Mostly at Ludacris's expressions and dialogue. I personally didn't see any funny shit in this movie. I know people react differently to movies, and maybe people were feeling so tense, maybe they felt like letting out a few laughs. This was serious stuff and serious issues. I was really caught up in the story and characters and I didn't see anything that was funny. Just my opinion though

Trelach24

Just got back from seeing it and all I can say is....WOW! I freaking loved the movie. I didn't even know what it was about as I stated above but with some of the positive reviews on this thread I was looking forward to it.

Spoilers you shouldn't read if you haven't seen the movie!



Also, it kind of surprised me heading in that like 95% of the theatre was black. I really didn't know the subject matter of this movie AT ALL going in. The subject matter almost made me feel a little uncomfortable at times in the theater.

But there was a huge line for it 30 minutes before it started at 9:30 which is a good sign. It was jam-packed so the word IS getting out about this movie already.

Oh yeah, and I have to commend Ludacris. He gave a surprising performance and if he's going to continue acting he has more than a gimmick-role career ahead of him.

Fincher Fan

I've been looking forward to this after seeing the trailer before The Interpreter, but now with all the positive reviews I'm even more eager to see it.

Patman

I'll admit to laughing at the stereotypical jokes/observations at times.

Michael T Hudson

I liked it it did remind me of Grand Canyon.

Dabaomb

me too. I laughed at the whole movie, even the Asian jokes and I'm Asian.

Third Baseman

I thought it was a great film, but lacked. James Berardinelli summed it up with this paragraph: "The best ensemble films are the ones in which the characters are given an opportunity to breathe (Magnolia, Short Cuts, and Nashville come to mind). With Crash, 105 minutes is barely enough time to let the numerous participants begin to inhale. For the most part, Crash is pleasant enough, and it deals with serious subjects, but it's difficult to shake the sensation that the characters are only half-formed. And the director's use of coincidence, karma, and irony to end nearly every plot thread is so forced that it comes across as a contrivance rather than a natural direction. It also takes away from the humanity of the characters. "

Dr. DVD

Saw it. Though it was a very good movie. I give it an A-. My only gripe is I feel some of the characters were underdeveloped and I am guessing a lot got left on the cutting room floor as it was obvious Haggis was trying to make a movie akin to the works of Robert Altman, P.T. Anderson, and a little bit of Steven Soderbergh. I agree with Trelach about the tense scene, it really had the small audience I was with gripped and then we all realized at the right moment what was up and it was brilliant filmmaking. (You know the scene, I won't tell it.)
One question about the end:

animalmystic

SpaceBoy

Caught this today. pretty decent flick.

Corvin

Yeah, I thought that's what happened as well.

slop101

I had high hopes for Crash, and I was completely let down... maybe I would have liked it if I had no hopes for it... but I doubt it.

First off, it was severely heavy-handed, with absolutely no trace or sense of subtlety which is needed in addressing such delicate and difficult issues - it came off like an R-rated after-school special about racism in LA. "Hey look, people are intrinsically racist in their own ways without really being aware of it." "No Shit! Tell me something I don't know, asshole!"

It was also far, far too contrived for it's own good, which just made it look silly. I don't mean the tenuous character relationships - I'm fine with those - I mean the contrived situations that happen which are improbable, illogical but mostly unearned because they happen so unnaturally that they feel like a writer's device fabricated just to get a cheap reaction without really addressing anything - thanks for treating me like a retard. But mostly, the movie's just utterly spine-less. It trots out race issues and lets them dangle out there for us, without really saying anything of value or substance. I expected A LOT more from the writer of Million Dollar Baby.

Though I really liked Matt Dillon's performance... what little there was of it, and also, Keith David's one scene was great.

I actually prefer Cronenberg’s Crash, which is about people who treat car accidents as a sexual fetish and a guy fucks a girl in her festering wound…

scott shelton

I think that was the point.

Sorry it wasn't to your liking.

slop101

I don't particularly have a problem with "heavy-handedness", per-se. But in this case I felt that the film's sledge-hammer approach made it feel really awkward and rendered it's thesis trite.

What Haggis was going for deserved a lot more time than 100 minutes, which could have made room for the subtlety and depth it was lacking.

rkndkn

Love Paul Haggis from the "EZ Streets" days. . .loved this film as well. As many people think the characters should have been more fleshed out, perhaps there will be a Director's Cut on DVD sometime. . .I will buy it regardless.

movielib

Loved it. Best movie of the year so far. ****/****.

SPiRAL

I saw this yesterday, it was good. I wish could have been a bit longer, but it did feel long. All in all, ***/**** .

DShaz

Honestly, I expected this movie to be pretty stupid. Full of unbelievably stereotypical characters that do over-the-top racist stuff and it is all meant to teach the audience a lesson.

After seeing the movie, I still feel that way about the movie. However, why were so many people laughing????

I mean, I'm one to have a pretty whacky sense of humor. Most of my friends think I am crazy for laughing all the way through a movie like Kill Bill. I laugh at a lot of stuff, but I just don't understand why everyone in the theater thought it was OK for them to laugh at a racist joke during a movie that is trying to point these joke tellers out as racists. Do you not understand the point of the movie?

For me, I was specifically caught off guard during the scene where


Like I said, I have a pretty good sense of humor, and I'll laugh at stuff like Chappelle's Show. But I don't think this movie was trying to be Dave Chappelle type funny. The jokes that were in this movie were not said (by characters) to be funny. They weren't laughing and looking around at the other characters to see if their joke went well. The characters said these jokes because they were racist characters.

Knowing that, I don't see why so many people still think it is OK to laugh.

I'm almost thinking this was sheer brilliance by the movie makers. Because this was the most profound thing I left the theater thinking about.

DShaz

Having said that... I DID laugh a little when

But not all the jokes felt like that to me. Many times I felt like the characters were serious when they said that stuff, and yet people continued to laugh.

One more thing...

Matthew Chmiel

I enjoyed the film, but it's not the best I've seen all year (Sin City still holds that title). In all honesty, it is one of the better films of the year, but look at what else has also been released this year (e.g. crap). However, I had two major problems with the film that kept it from being the greatest film of 2005....

1. None of the characters are likeable. With the exception of the character played by Michael Pena (the Hispanic locksmith), everyone in the film was pretty much a piece of shit. While most of the actors here did a fantastic job (especially Matt Dillon), I pretty much wanted every character of the film to be murdered by a member of another race by the last reel. Yes, I was that pissed off by the characters in the film. I'm pretty sure Mr. Haggis was trying to get that feel across to the audience, but it made the film less enjoyable in my opinion.

2. The film was simply too short and it felt like Altman-lite. Same taste, just with half the substance and character development.

Oh, and with my one minor problem.

3. The film needed more Keith David.

FrankTheTank

After reading all the positive reviews here, I decided to go see this movie for myself. I'm really glad I did because this was one of the best movies I have seen so far this year. The scene with the store owner and the locksmith on his front lawn had me on the edge of my seat too.

Brent L

I saw this today, and it took the place of In Good Company as my my pick for best overall film of the year so far. It's Crash, In Good Company, and then Sin City so far for me this year.

The scene where Dillon...



Is one of the best in recent memory. I saw things in just about every actor and actress in this film that I just flat out didn't really know was there. If nothing else, this film deserves an award for best ensemble cast.



Racism exists, even in the best people out there. I think the entire point of the movie is that, yes, it's wrong, but it's human nature for most people...to veiw those different than yourself in a lesser light, even if you only do so for a split second. Still, everyone can still get along fine if we just try our best.

IanH

I agree. So far Crash, In Good Company, and Sin City are the best movies of this year so far. But I can't say one is better than the other since they're all so different.