I just don't get it

Rating: 3/10 (10 April 2006)

This film handles racial tension with all the finesse of a bull in a china shop. I wanted to turn it off only 10 minutes in but sat it out, waiting for redemption that never came. Crash is "Do The Right Thing" without the perspective, infused with "Six Degrees of Sepparation"'s novelty that our lives are all interconnected somehow, underpinned by a sliced-and-diced time line that's really getting overused these days.
The characters were seemingly ordered from a catalog: you've got your twisted racist veteran cop (Dillon), an idealistic rookie cop (Phillippe), a self-interested DA (Frasier) and his uppity racist socialite wife (Bullock). Each was played per the care tag. And if Queen Latifah has taught us anything, a Real Live Rapper can't hurt. Except in the case of Ludacriss, it does. To his credit Don Cheadle did what he could with his character, but was still required to make his own caustic racist remarks.
That a film like this takes Best Picture speaks more about the dysfunction of the Academy than anything else.