Ticket Stubs #1: Crash Back Into Me
Do you save that little piece of cardboard they tear off your movie ticket before you go into the theater? I do. And I've saved every movie review I ever wrote, some of which I have referenced quite frequently in Just the Ticket, beginning with Crash, which I first referenced for you in last year's review of The Ledge.
FROM November 22, 2005 (SW@ Ticket #45: Happy Accidents): SW@ Ticket returns with a few delayed movie reviews (that I promise will score higher than a C in all cases), regarding the strange things that happen when people and metal crunch together unexpectedly...
First, a crash course in Crash: Sandra Bullock, Hustle & Flow's Terrence Howard, MI2's Thandie Newton, Ludacris, and Matt Dillon (as a kinder, gentler scumbag) play a few of the more important strangers who collide (literally) with each other as well as with just about every racial stereotype you can think of. Dillon is a corrupt cop who stops Newton and Howard on a Driving Under the Influence While Performing Fellatio charge, sexually assaults Newton, and later has to save her from a burning car just as it is about to explode (in movies, aren't they all?). This was the most profound of the stories (obviously, I couldn't remember any others or I would have had GOM's memory allocation chewed up by now), but not by any means the only one.
Crash is done telenovela style, complete with extreme close-ups, selectively bold coloring, intertwining tales, and little touches of failed romance and the supernatural, and of course, the race issue. Not that the many racial references in Crash are unwelcome; just that they are nothing new in the world--racism hasn't changed (as is evident early in the film when Luda and friends accuse Bullock of being prejudicially suspicious of them, and then mug her in accordance with said stereotype).
As I always like to say, the lack of newness didn't put me to sleep, so it's all good. Rent it, buy it, pay for keeps.
B+
The other "Happy Accident" I reviewed in tandem with Crash was its lower budget counterpart, 11:14, which I will re-issue at some point down the road. For now, stay tuned and save those stubs because tomorrow's Ticket Stub will be from my review of Hustle & Flow, the Terrence Howard drama referenced above.
FROM November 22, 2005 (SW@ Ticket #45: Happy Accidents): SW@ Ticket returns with a few delayed movie reviews (that I promise will score higher than a C in all cases), regarding the strange things that happen when people and metal crunch together unexpectedly...
Crash is done telenovela style, complete with extreme close-ups, selectively bold coloring, intertwining tales, and little touches of failed romance and the supernatural, and of course, the race issue. Not that the many racial references in Crash are unwelcome; just that they are nothing new in the world--racism hasn't changed (as is evident early in the film when Luda and friends accuse Bullock of being prejudicially suspicious of them, and then mug her in accordance with said stereotype).
As I always like to say, the lack of newness didn't put me to sleep, so it's all good. Rent it, buy it, pay for keeps.
B+
The other "Happy Accident" I reviewed in tandem with Crash was its lower budget counterpart, 11:14, which I will re-issue at some point down the road. For now, stay tuned and save those stubs because tomorrow's Ticket Stub will be from my review of Hustle & Flow, the Terrence Howard drama referenced above.
Comments
Post a Comment