CRASH

Started by Finn, April 20, 2005, 05:02:29 PM

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ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

Quote from: abuck1220
Quote from: modageis it just me or is your avatar suddenly better quality?

someone with much better computer skills fixed it for me.  :-D

glorious, isn't it?

All this time I thought my monitor's resolution just magically improved.

You ruined it.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

polkablues

Quote from: JimmyGatoris this movie even worth renting?    i mean i want to join in on the bashing but there is so much that I want to see.

It's worth seeing just so you know what we're all talking about when we say how ridiculous it is.  It's easy to say, "It can't be that blunt and obvious... the trailer looked all right... Paul Haggis has an Oscar..."  Until you see it.  Then it becomes much harder to say those things.  Especially the Oscar one.
My house, my rules, my coffee

JG

I didn't love MDB, but I liked it.  I have a few friends that don't know much about movies and loved it.  Then I have another friend who kinda likes movies who says its so stupid.  I might check it out but I've been kinda watching Kurosowa lately, and this might take me out of the groove.  I am interested though.

abuck1220

Quote from: JimmyGatorI didn't love MDB, but I liked it.  I have a few friends that don't know much about movies and loved it.  Then I have another friend who kinda likes movies who says its so stupid.  I might check it out but I've been kinda watching Kurosowa lately, and this might take me out of the groove.  I am interested though.

well, it's certainly no kurosawa...

i really don't think it's as disgustingly blunt and obvious as everyone here says it is. it certainly isn't subtle, but i think some people here may give it extra hate because it's similar to magnolia. even if you don't like the movie overall, there are some really good (in my opinion) scenes...and some decent performances.

Ravi

Quote from: abuck1220i really don't think it's as disgustingly blunt and obvious as everyone here says it is. it certainly isn't subtle, but i think some people here may give it extra hate because it's similar to magnolia. even if you don't like the movie overall, there are some really good (in my opinion) scenes...and some decent performances.

But what good are some isolated scenes and moments and performances if they don't contribute to the film being good as a whole?

matt35mm

Quote from: Gamblour
Quote from: shnorff
"oorah!"
-Jamie Fox

Was that adding something to your post, or do you want it as a sig? Because you can do that.
It added that he was excited to see Cheadle's ass.

polkablues

Quote from: abuck1220i really don't think it's as disgustingly blunt and obvious as everyone here says it is. it certainly isn't subtle, but i think some people here may give it extra hate because it's similar to magnolia. even if you don't like the movie overall, there are some really good (in my opinion) scenes...and some decent performances.

I don't even really see a big resemblance in it to "Magnolia", though, beyond being an ensemble drama set in LA.  It's actually far closer to something like "13 Conversations About One Thing" than it is to "Magnolia".

And I agree with you to an extent... there were some great scenes in the movie:  SPOILERS AHEAD....

Terrence Howard facing down the cops and Matt Dillon pulling Thandie Newton out of the car.

SPOILERS BEHIND

There were also some embarassingly bad scenes:

The rest of the movie.

I think the big complaint that most of us had with the movie is that it didn't live up to its pretentions.  If you're making a movie that's setting out to be this big important parable on racism in America, you'd better come up with something deeper than "Asian people drive poorly."
My house, my rules, my coffee

Ravi

Quote from: polkabluesI think the big complaint that most of us had with the movie is that it didn't live up to its pretentions.  If you're making a movie that's setting out to be this big important parable on racism in America, you'd better come up with something deeper than "Asian people drive poorly."

And practice human trafficking.

abuck1220

Quote from: polkablues
Quote from: abuck1220i really don't think it's as disgustingly blunt and obvious as everyone here says it is. it certainly isn't subtle, but i think some people here may give it extra hate because it's similar to magnolia. even if you don't like the movie overall, there are some really good (in my opinion) scenes...and some decent performances.

I don't even really see a big resemblance in it to "Magnolia", though, beyond being an ensemble drama set in LA.  It's actually far closer to something like "13 Conversations About One Thing" than it is to "Magnolia".

And I agree with you to an extent... there were some great scenes in the movie:  SPOILERS AHEAD....

Terrence Howard facing down the cops and Matt Dillon pulling Thandie Newton out of the car.

SPOILERS BEHIND

There were also some embarassingly bad scenes:

The rest of the movie.

I think the big complaint that most of us had with the movie is that it didn't live up to its pretentions.  If you're making a movie that's setting out to be this big important parable on racism in America, you'd better come up with something deeper than "Asian people drive poorly."

well, i didn't really see it w/ those great expectations, and i didn't see it as setting out to be super important.

SPOILERS

and i didn't see the racism stuff as being cut and dry 'racism is bad' like everyone else did. if bullock's character had been just a little more racist, she wouldn't have gotter her car jacked. phillippe's character was the least racist of all of them, and he ended up shooting up a black guy. in some instances the racist people were right.

the way everyone's talking about it makes it seem like some evil redneck was out hanging black people and some angelic, open-minded liberal rode into town and taught him the err of his ways.

it wasn't super complex by any means, but it was waaaaay more developed than an after school special.

Gamblour.

This movie, to me, does for racism what Sex and the City does for feminism.

Sex and the City is about coping with men, but then also about being independent of them, which is a contradiction, of course. On top of which, the women are gross stereotypes, and, with the exception of Miranda, just horrible people.

My point is this. You can't address a topic seriously with stereotypes. Next time, let's see a movie about homophobia with a flaming homosexual and try to take it seriously. Philadelphia did a great job of avoiding this (except that scene where he listens to opera, BUT that was more about his humanity than the cliche of gay man being inclined to listen to opera).

To go back to the Asians in this movie, it's clear that they're the butt of racism from Haggis, because they're a fucking joke the entire movie. hell, why didn't they hand out egg rolls to the humans they were trafficking? The guy gets RUN OVER for fuck's sake. They're the only group not taken seriously or given any real redemption.

abuck, the idea that racists can be right.....again, let's go back to the idea of a movie about a homosexual. At any point during the watching of a film like that, would you EVER want to think to yourself, "Man, those homophobes are right some of the time?" It's ok for this movie to present it as maybe being right and the using that to contrast later. And it kinda does that. Kinda.
WWPTAD?

ono

Today I was at a friend's house and he put in a Dr. Seuss tape for his 2 1/2 year old daughter to watch.  It had three stories: The Sneetches, The Zax, and Green Eggs and Ham.

The Sneetches is a simple story: a race of creatures, one with stars on their bellies, the other without.  The ones with stars persecute the ones without, and exclude them from their fun.  So the ones without stars go to this guy who puts them through this machine that paints them on.  So the ones with stars go to the same guy and gets their stars removed (both for a price).  Chaos ensues with the removal and addition of stars until they all realize how silly they're being.

Now, it says a lot about how horrible Crash is when a simple Dr. Seuss story such as The Sneetches can say more about racism than a Hollywood movie from an Oscar nominee (whose previous effort I did love).

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

I did feel that I Can Read With My Eyes Closed touched base with its topic more than Million Dollar Baby, though.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

NEON MERCURY

i finally saw this and its rather cheesy. the screenplay reminds me of a group of high school drama kids writing something that they think its profound and hip but comes off ignorant and ridiculous.  there are episodes of saved by the bell that pact more intellect and social awareness that thsi shit  [believe me, i am the only loser who owns all the saved by the bell season too].  i think part of the film problem besides the script is the b-list actors saying this crap.  the only person w/ talent is cheadle and we only like him b/c of the pta connection.  but bullock, frasier, howard, ludacris, thandie newton, that mexican guy, matt dillion are all sappy actors.  bu ti like ryan phillapie [whatever his name is].  the only thing that kept me from stickign a fork in my eyes were the cinematography and the score-both were well done.  and  thought the scene.......

spoilers


w/ newton and dillion and the upside down car thats dripping gasoloine was erotic and surreal.     dont kno wif it was intentional by haggis but i liked it.

basically, this a "movie that assholes like".  whoever thought that this film was great, probly thought fight club was the coolest shit ever.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

Quote from: neon mercury on November 04, 2005, 06:56:14 PM
the upside down car thats dripping gasoloine was erotic and surreal.

You're thinking of the wrong Crash.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

polkablues

Here's chud.com's Devin Faraci with #1 on his list of Worst Movies of 2005.  I agree with every word in this:

1 – Crash. One of the most critically loved films of the year is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my entire life. Bee Season was filled with smug New Age nonsense – Crash one-ups it by being filled with smug Afterschool Special nonsense. One should not walk out of a movie about racial tolerance with an overwhelming urge to commit genocide, but I left my screening of Crash just about ready to end all of humanity.

What makes Crash most insidious is that it's well made and well acted. It fools you into thinking that it's worth a damn, but it's really a wholesale rip-off of Magnolia soldered onto a Very Special Episode of Diff'rent Strokes. At least in Magnolia the coincidences that brought the characters together were part of the point of the movie – here they're just a distracting series of plot contrivances engineered by a writer/director so full of himself that there's no room left for dessert. Characters don't behave like people or even stereotypes – they simply move across the screen like chess pawns, doing whatever the simplistic themes of the film require.

I call foul on every critic who fell for this film. I call foul on people like Roger Ebert, who have put it at the top of their ten best lists for the year. I call foul on any group that gives this film an award (including NYFCO, the critic group I belong to). This is a false movie. This is a movie made up only of manipulation and simplicity, a movie designed to pat you on the head and never truly challenge you with a new or original thought or concept. It's the White Man's guilt movie of the year, assuring us that everybody is just as bad as we are, and then giving us a greasy prostate massage of utter falsity. The fact that America's movie theaters weren't burned to the ground during the scene when the Saintly Hispanic daughter of the Saintly and Misunderstood Hispanic locksmith was "shot" proves only that the movie-going public is corrupt and depraved.
My house, my rules, my coffee