I still love the movie, and give it an A but the deeper meaning behind it and all that has been greatly exaggerated. I admire how it's able to make us feel for unlikeable characters that are not on screen for that long of a time, how intricately woven the plot and stories are, and how moving some of the character arcs are despite how much of a stretch it is to believe some of the events that happen. But the film itself doesn't tell us anything about racism that we didn't already know.

That's because it doesn't and never tried too. It was meant to confront us, and how sometimes we turn our backs on racism.

The only people who turn their backs on racism are the types that would get something out of Crash.

[spoil]I liked the movie, but for me the moment that sort of slightly ruined it was when Matt Dillon's character rescued Thandie Newton's the next day. In a city of 10 + million, I just thought they could have handled that better and was a bit too overdone. Yes, I know it was done to increase dramatic effect, but just when that one part was what I was a bit disappointed with how Crash was handled. Granted, I loved Crash, but that comment was just a minor aside.[/spoil]

Tonight is Crash's big night - best picture Oscar here it comes!

How so?

Did Lecter ever post his review of Crash?!?!

If so... I wanna read that shiz... it

I originally gave this film an A-, but after viewing it again on DVD, it's a little lower. I agree with a lot of what Ripper, Dolce, nad others have said about it, and that has come only after I have taken time to actually think about the movie. It left an emotional impact after the first viewing, yes, and there was some great acting, especially from Newton, Bullock, Howard, and Dillion, but the whole movie felt contrived. Plus, the whole Oscar win has left me kinda sour because it wasn't the best picture of last year at all.

Crash was a movie that I thought was ok while I was watching it, but afterwards I could just tear it apart far too easily. In the end I was left with a lot of things I didn't like, and not as much that I did.

I think the problem is the movie takes itself too seriously and appears like it thinks it is really delivering a powerful message, when it's not. The movie felt soooo far out in fantasy land it was hard to take seriously. The story intersections were forced and exteremly hard to believe. The dialogue and actions of the characters also seemed very bizarre at times. You could see plot points coming a mile away. Certain scenes - like the traffic stop with Matt Dillion feeling up the rich black woman - were so contrived and extremely unlikely to happen in real life.

In the end I think Crash was a good movie if you viewed it as a complete fantasy on par with something like Harry Potter or Star Wars - to give it any more credit than that - or to think this is how everything happens in the real world - would be a shame.

C+

I finally got round to watching this last night, and i have to say i was extremely disappointed. I was hoping for a strong movie that would at least be a good watch, but i was never drawn in to any of the characters stories. That lack of feeling left me completely unengaged and i really didn't care for what was happening on screen.

I felt like i'd sat through a 2 hour lecture (was it 2 hours long? it felt like more) and each storyline seemed somehow forced and was trying to have more impact than it actually delivered. On the positive side i enjoyed some of the acting, Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton did a good job with what they had to work with. I still however can't take Brendan Fraser seriously.

Overall, it was a letdown and i now understand the 'Best Picture' outrage, there were many better pictures last year.

C+

Watched it for the first time tonight, and Crash is a great movie. Solid A from me. The scene with the little girl jumping in front of her dad, had a tear drop from my eye, and I think thats the first time..in a long ass time. The acting was brilliant all around. The scene with Terrence howard was just phenomenal, and as many others have said the seen between Dillon and the Camerons Girlfriend was very emotional. Just a great movie overall. Strong A

Its about as subtle as a Dirty Harry take down in the way it goes about its business and when it does attempt some big deep meaning moments it just comes across as terribly forced and contrived.

Gee Matt Dillon is a racist but hey he loves his father and saves poor old Tandie Newton from that burning car, yes how naturally that strand flows.
Shock horror, Ryan Philippe despite his outwardly pleasant exterior actually commits the most racist act in the whole movie. Yes inspired writing there no doubt.
And on and on the insultingly manipulative show trundles, the whole scene with Ludacris talking about how black people are stereotyped before pulling a gun is easily the worst of all. How exactly could they have thought the dialogue he spouts was compatible with his character i'll never know.

I don't mind films with clear messages per say, and Crashes racism is bad line isn't bad, but the way it goes about telling you this is the whole problem

C-

I need to see this again, but I think I still stand to a solid A-/B+ grade on the infamous film that Crash is.

Yeah yeah, racial message pounded too hard, surface grazing and contrived, I get it.

But regardless of all that, I still consider it within individual storylines an extremely powerful movie, with great acting, dialogs, direction, cinematography, etc. Not just good, but one of the best of the year in that area.

So I give it credit for that.

Now Babel on the other hand...

This was one crazy movie. Too many things happened to make it very believable but it was still very entertaining. I like how they showed that nobody is above corruption, for the right price. I gave it an A.

Too much credit is being given where it is not due.

Simply put, this film is a pretentious, racist hatefest.

I don't and haven't lived in LA or America but it seems an exaggeration to have almost every single person in the movie be some sort of racist.

Although I didn't realize at the time, it is true that the white people were the ones redeemed in the end, if you could even call it that. Redemption? Excuse me, you may have saved her life, but you still did sexually assault her. There is no redemption. So the black woman just accepts and moves on? Her husband doesn't even know she nearly died?

A poster brought up the Matt Dillon/Ryan Phillipe juxtaposition, and again, whilst I didn't realize at the time, that explanation is almost plausible but still entirely unjustified. We're supposed to believe that Phillipe would let a man acting dangerously go but someone harmless, he shoots him? That might've been the director's intention but it sure as hell didn't come across as such. In fact, that's the problem with most of the characters in this film- they are completely unrealistic. The thought processes and internal logic as another poster mentioned, do not flow properly and it ends up a mess.

This film is just so full of unwarranted hate and let's get this straight, we expect all the characters to change in one day? Yeah, it's empty.