Crash is a pretty crazy story

Rating: 7/10 (19 February 2013)

Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets. The movie shows that people are born with good hearts, but they grow up and learn prejudices. Which, in turn bring out bigotry and racial stereotypes. The setting in Los Angeles, a city with a cultural mix of every nationality. The story begins when several people are involved in a multi-car accident. From that point, you are taken back to the day before the crash, seeing the lives of several characters, and the problems each encounters during that day. An LAPD cop (Matt Dillon) is trying to get medical help for his father, but he is having problems with a black HMO clerk who won't give his father permission to see another doctor. He in turn takes out his frustration on a black couple during a traffic stop. A socialite (Sandra Bullock) and District Attorney (Brandon Fraser) are carjacked at gunpoint by two black teenagers. Sandra takes out her anger on a Mexican locksmith who is changing the door locks to their home. Later that night, the locksmith is again robbed of his dignity by a Persian store-owner. Many of the characters switch from being bad-person-to-hero in ways. Farhad (The Persian) thinks Daniel (The Mexican) looted his store, so he grabs his gun and goes to Daniel's house. He threatens to shoot Daniel and Daniel's daughter runs outside to protect him because she has the invisible cape. She jumps into Daniel's arms and Farhad shoots her. It turns out that the bullets were blanks and the family goes inside and Farhad is left to think what he did. Peter and Anthony (Ludacris) try jacking Cameron's truck. Peter is left behind as Cameron and Anthony speed off. They are cornered by police. Cameron is finally fed up with the prejudice he sees and steps outside and tries to get shot. Officer Hanson recognizes Cameron and orders the officers to put down their guns and forces Cameron back into the truck. Cameron drops Anthony off. Peter tries to get a lift later and Officer Hanson picks him up. As they're driving, Peter notices the statue of St. Christopher that he carries along at starts to laugh. Thinking that Peter is laughing at him, Officer Hanson orders him out. As Peter goes to grab the statue, Hanson thinks it's a gun and shoots Peter. He sees what he was really reaching for and freaks out. He dumps his body at the side of the road and burns the car. We end with the beginning, where Det. Waters investigates the crime scene. We find out that in fact Peter was his brother. Anthony ends up riding the bus but gets out when he sees the Chinaman's truck, keys still in the lock. When he takes it to the chop shop, they find out there's a bunch of Asian immigrants in the back. Georgie offers 500 apiece for the immigrants and the money is excepted. The End :)