Overrated...

Rating: 5/10 (17 September 2005)

... Like most of Hollywood's blockbuster attempts at emotion and a "message." A message has to be presented to a viewer without patronizing them. Crash patronizes it's audience by focusing far too heavily on the racist and stupid and not enough on the other side. We are presented with a number of different stories and people. All these people are with 100% racist, 100% ignorant, or 100% none of the above. By the end, we are supposed to be believe that all the characters are 100% none of the above, but it is done in an unbelievable way that is too dry and shallow to make a solid point. Of course, if you are naive and easily won over then you will say you love this movie to feel as though you saw "The art side of a real movie," but what you really saw was a pathetic attempt at art that neither distinguished its self nor set any type of standard for future films aside from lowering the bar slightly.
Let me start with the good things, first. The acting was great, for the most part. Most notable Matt Dillon's character; this is by far the best performance I have seen him give. None of the other characters put forth a really note-worthy performance, but of course Don Cheadle's was great. That goes without saying. The direction is well done, with some nice shots, again nothing "new," but very ever little is. The acting is good because of the direction, and movie never looks "boring." That said, lets get into the problems.
The movie is too racist for its own good. It plays on pure stereotypes and nothing more. There isn't a single "good and bad" character in the bunch, they are either extreme one way or the other and this is not real, at all. The First hour is pure stereotypical garbage. I'm a believer that stereotypes are based in fact, but not so much as that I hate almost everyone who is that type of person. The character played by Ludicrous the one of the most racist characters I have ever seen in a movie and because of that I hated his character. Even when he "redeems" himself at the end, I can't say I was glad for him because he didn't do nearly enough to counter his image. I'm not racist at all, so I didn't even see Don Cheadle's character as anything but a person, but I saw Ludicrous as a black thief only because he made such a big deal out of it himself and for this I personally hate the movie. The other stereotypes were spot-on as stereotypes, however, way off in terms as reality. Bullock's sheltered, spoiled, rich wife was too over the top, and then the sudden change at the end was equally exaggerated. The only fairly accurate stereotypes were the Latino and Persian examples, but even those were a little too much. There are many Persian families that come to America to start businesses and know almost nothing about what they are getting into, but the extreme turn he takes seemed a little much. I also know, from experience, that there are many struggling Latino families all over America, so this was probably the only stereotyped character that wasn't massively exaggerated. All Asians, except for a 30 second scene with an insurance agent, were depicted as ignorant, submissive, and could only speak broken English, as well as being bad drivers. These are all stereotypes that not every Asian person falls under nor does one fall under all of them, but this movie makes you think they do. These are oversights that not only ruin a movie, but also lie to a possibly very naive audience and this is not entertainment.
The movie would have been a lot better if it had focused only on the cop stories. Good cop, bad cop. Bad cop ends up saving the day and good cop figures out why bad cop could be as angry as he is. But even then it would have been slightly believable at best. At least I wouldn't have gotten annoyed at the other stereotypes.
The other major problem I have with this movie is the Magnolia rip-off with the snow falling in Los Angeles, just like the frogs at the end of that movie and the cliché ending. The movie almost laughs in your face and makes everything it stood for seem like a joke when the fender bender at the end happens. It is either saying that this type of thing happens all the time and what you saw wasn't profound or great or it's saying that everyone is like the characters in the movie, which is a laughable idea.
Average, misguided movie that's overrated at best and racist garbage at worst.