Undeserving of Best Picture Oscar

Rating: 3/10 (4 April 2006)

This is a terrible film. For shock value, it didn't work. For any racial message, it's been done before and in a better way. For plot, it was confusing and often lengthy and boring. I cannot believe that this film was voted over BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, which was so much more of a statement. And that Hoffman was Best Actor over Heath Ledger's underplayed beautiful performance. Makes you doubt the Academy thinking process and you wonder if the entire awards thing is a put up job.
Back to this sordid and much too long film. Paul Haggis is at the helm with writing, producing and directing this piece. I read all the other comments and it's scary to think they love this film. It's also great to see there are others that weren't bulldozed with it like myself. You can put all the talent you have into a film and that doesn't make it a hit. Sandra Bullock going around being angry, Don Cheadle (an actor I don't get) walking around with one look on his face "Duh", Matt Dillon maybe the best performance of the lot, Terrence Howard another overrated actor, Ryan Phillippe, not too bad in this as the rookie cop, Thandie Newton, who was excellent (scene with her and Dillon best in film) and Shaun Toub going around being miserable. There are others I won't go into. Believe me, they were not that imposing in their performances.
I shall always remember this picture not for it's value as a film but as the film that beat out BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and shouldn't have. But, you know, history will tell. Like CITIZEN KANE, which was thumbed down all those years ago, now remains one of the finest. Who remembers HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY? The same will happen with BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. CRASH will disappear and the Academy Awards will go down as a big fiasco.