Way Too Much Going on

Rating: 3/10 (4 April 2013)

I surf Netflix all the time and put them in my instant queue and I finally go around to watching Crash and it reminded me a lot of Pulp Fiction. That is, if Pulp Fiction made no sense had stupid characters and was a little less racist. Yes, that's right, less racist. Crash has a huge list of actors from William Fichtner to Brendan Frasier and even Ludicrous. Oh boy, do I have a lot to say about this movie.
Where do I start? OK, this movie has little to no plot, way too many characters I don't care about, and it is a knock off of one of the best movies ever, Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction was so great because there were a few characters whose lives intertwined perfectly. These characters lives intertwine but when it happens I just didn't care. I was thinking throughout the movie where and when it would end and when it did it felt like nothing even happened. This movie literally could have ended anywhere. The first scene is of a crime scene and you would think it ends there but it doesn't. It ends in possibly the worst way imaginable. I have a 1000 word limit but that isn't enough to explain the disgrace that is, Crash.
Movies have had race problems all the time but this movie is kind of built around it. That isn't really a problem if it works and here it doesn't work. Everybody is racist in this movie. I do like how racism is shown and life can be like this, but this is extremely exaggerated. The police are racist. The Middle Eastern store owner is racist. The poor, black gangsters are racist. The rich, black people are racist. I have seen racism in movie but this was crazy. The first scene with Ludicrous is him and his friend walking out if a restaurant and he is talking about race. This was a really interesting conversation early on in the movie and it really sucked me in. It got me excited to watch the rest of the movie. It reminded me of the diner scene in Pulp Fiction, but it blew it. The movie pushed onto more and more characters and destroyed the potential. There were flashes of brilliance in the movie. Characters stories intertwine and in one of the most disgusting people I have seen on screen has a moment where he is human and I liked that. Crash wasn't a complete disaster but I expected better. Towards the end of the movie there is one scene that caught my attention once again and I thought the movie would improve, but once again I was disappointed. I wanted the disaster to be true because the movie would have been realistic and a stronger message would have been sent. As a new generation emerges, a generation I am a part of, race, sexual preference, hate, is in a decline. I feel the new generation will be more accepting of people and it is people of the older generation that still hangs onto racial tensions. Prejudice and stereotypes will always exist but they will be less offensive and people won't care as much. Anyway, I digress, this movie sends a message of racism and how it can destroy lives and how it affects society. The message and deeper meaning of this movie is good, it was the presentation and delivery that was a disaster. I can't tell you who the main character was, I can't tell you the plot, and I can't tell you why somebody would enjoy this movie. Overall, Crash had potential to be a good movie. It was too disorganized and messy. Each character had good stories but there was too many of them. Ludicrous' story was good. Fichtner's story was good. The rich black family's story was good. The emotional music was good. All these things were good on their own but when you put them all together it is a mess and hard to follow. I almost would have preferred ten different movies diving deep into these characters and having their stories intertwine. Have the racist cop save the woman he abused just the night before in a car accident but maybe have him involved in Ludicrous' story more. Stories need to be cut and intertwined closer and it would have been a lot better. I would like to see this remade in a different style, but I have to give Crash the WillyT Seal of DISapproval. It's a shame because I wanted to enjoy this movie, but the only thing I enjoyed was hating it and awaiting the time I had to write and rant about it. You're welcome.