MOST Overrated Film of the Year

Rating: 1/10 (24 January 2006)

I hate to spoil the lovefest for CRASH but I have seen it twice and I don't understand how this is rated any higher than just mediocre. SPOILERS!!! I think I might have liked it a little better if Roger (Payola) Ebert had not called it the Best Picture of the Year. There is no question that CRASH had a few good moments but those can't compensate for the utter nonsense that contaminates this Grand Canyon-Magnolia rip off. First of all--I live in L.A. I find it hard to believe that writer/director Paul Haggis has ever been here. THere are race problems but it's not the only thing we think about 24/7. How convenient that all of Haggis' unconvincing characters do. I can't remember so many repulsive people in one film. The silly drunk wife who emasculates her husband because he didn't take a bullet to defend her honor when Matt Dillon fondles her was such a contrived nauseating character. What did she expect her husband to do? She didn't love the guy so their subsequent kiss & makeup was nauseating too. And Sandra Bullock needs to let her pathetic, shrinking career just slither away. Don't try drama sweetie. You stink. As for the blanks in the gun and the subsequent events. Give me a break!!!! The persian man shot a child in the back and he's home spouting gibberish about how his angel saved him. The SAINTLY locksmith had every reason to kill that man on the spot. But like MILLION DOLLAR BABY (another Haggis disaster), there are no consequences for people's criminal activity. Clint pulls the plug on Hillary and there's no investigation. He's free to open a diner while Morgan Freeman drones on with his insipid narration. Hillary is clocked in the head by a criminal act but no one gets in any trouble. But back to CRAP, I mean CRASH. How did Paul Haggis pitch this garbage? "Let's make a movie about L.A. and its isolated population where everyone talks about race problems in a preachy unrealistic manner to each other and at each other. And everyone that appears to be a bad guy, will do something good. And everyone that appears to be a good guy will do something bad except the Hispanic locksmith--he's a virtual SAINT who just stares out the window. I could go on about the nonsense when the cops pull over the film director who is at the end of his rope because of the aforementioned fondling and a Tony Danza confrontation. Haggis knows nothing about the LAPD. That guy was a threatening menace and he would have likely been shot on the spot. And the idea that the other guy is hiding in the passenger seat with his gun is beyond laughable. Our cops would never let anyone leave like that without at least looking in the car--for their own safety. I don't have time to list the other hundred things that are wrong with this film.