How can it lose...

Rating: 4/10 (8 September 2005)

...with Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Brendan Fraser, Matt Dillon, and Ryan Philippe headlining a director's dream of a cast ? Well, it just does. What seemed at first like an interesting story lacks any real direction or message and left me flat and wanting something worthwhile to watch. This story about people of different cultures and how they interact is cynical and caustic and the bitterness it portrays only breeds more bitterness, with no redeeming message. Bullock and Cheadle both seemed to sleepwalk through their performances and this film simply never delivered. I did enjoy the performance of rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges who amazingly managed to be the only character in the film not to come across as a caricature and a cheap stereotype. All this film accomplished for this viewer was prove that a cadre of big name stars cannot turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.