Simply overrated

Rating: 1/10 (11 October 2005)

When I heard about this movie I was genuinely excited to see it. The cast seemed solid and the plot outline gripped my attention. The lesson I learned: You can't judge a film by it's cast. I almost didn't get through watching this entire movie. By the time I hit the 1 hour mark, I almost shut it off. It's that bad. I'm stunned at how graciously people have received this movie, labeling it "electrifying", "brilliant", or some other tired adjective. The characters were all one-dimensional and wooden. I've never seen Fraser deliver dialog with such a constipated effort. I kept looking for the string in his back. And he's just one example of what you'll find throughout this travesty of modern cinema. Bullock's character should have just been cut from the movie entirely as she adds absolutely nothing to this film.
The pace of the movie is also distracting. It jumps around far too much and the dialog is ridiculous and labored. You never get a chance to get involved or to really relate to any of the characters. And in a way, they are all so miserable and arrogantly tragic, that you don't even want to.
People are praising this movie for the message it sends about racism. The only message I got out of this movie was; avoid miserable, violent people. Racism hardly seems the focus of this movie when you break it down. All of these characters are simply assholes. There is nothing of value to learn from watching this. If you want a true lesson in racism from film, watch American History X. They got it right. This movie gets it completely wrong.