Worst Movie of the Decade: ‘Crash’

[Blue_Tires]

I haven’t created any best-of or worst-of lists yet, but I think that the 2000s featured one cultural phenomenon that deserves its own special shoutout for true heinousness: the 2004 best picture winner “Crash.”

It’s been called a “feel-good” racism movie – one that leads people to believe they’re on the right side of racism, when in fact they’re just having their buttons pushed and their preconceived notions re-affirmed.

In the film, the characters exist in what former L.A. Times critic Carina Chocano called a “daisy chain of bigotry.” Every interaction that takes place becomes racially tinged, whether it’s a simple business transaction, an auto mishap or even just a conversation with your own mom. I make my living in Los Angeles, writing about race, and even I don’t find race coming in to play when I order a cup of coffee, get money from the ATM, get my mail and go running. But in the world of “Crash,” all of those simple tasks would somehow become over-the-top racial incidents, complete with shouting and wild cultural misunderstandings. (It also needs to be said that when you’re living in a city with a 4 million-plus population, you do not keep running into the same six people over and over and over again.)

The movie is manipulative and unrealistic – the characters tend to reveal their true feelings in the most over-the-top and obvious ways imaginable. If racism is indeed so pervasive that it seeps into every interaction, why does the movie need such a complicated, twisting plot?

The fact that racism exists should go without saying, and yet “Crash” wastes an entire film trying to prove what we already know is true. The movie beat out “Brokeback Mountain” for a surprise best picture win at the Oscars. It’s no surprise, really, given all the clamor about our “post-racial” society, while the gay rights movement is still suffering setback after setback.

Bad movies get made all the time. But what infuriated me about “Crash” was that so many people mistook it for something profound when it was truly the opposite. It shouts at the top of its lungs: “I’M SUBTLE! I’M NUANCED!” and so many people somehow agreed.

http://trueslant.com/saralibby/2009/12/23/worst-movie-of-the-decade-crash/

[LynneSin]

1. I've seen crash and this is my 2 cents about it

It really was an acting gem. All of the main characters in the movie did an amazing job. Sandra Bullock as the traumatized wife, Matt Dillon as the Racist Cop, Thandie Newton and Terrance Howard as the couple violated by the Racist Cop. Ryan Phillippe as the partner of the Racist Cop.

There wasn't one badly acted role in that movie but the problem was - the plot was just too over the top. I mean here are all these very talented actors doing amazing jobs acting and yet the movie was just way tooooooo much. Does that make sense?

As for the Oscar - Brokeback was robbed but I could see the justification as to why Crash did win. And remember Ang Lee did get the Oscar for best director. Sometimes they split two top movies wit one getting best director and the other best movie. Go figure!

[deutsey]

7. I agree with you.

I thought the story was way too contrived and convoluted, but the performances were very good, nonetheless.

Maybe the cast should get together and do a movie version of "Six Character in Search of an Author"? :-)

[Blue_Tires]

24. +1

Those are my thoughts as well...The movie is actually good in some places and well-acted, but too many of the plot points are WAY too predictable, contrived and manipulative...

[gratuitous]

2. Nope, A.I.

Because it's ridiculous from the get-go, and gets only more preposterous as the film unspools. Steven Spielberg should personally apologize to every person on the planet for this, dig up the corpse of Stanley Kubrick, and make it apologize personally to every person on the planet.

[MicaelS]

5. Agree with you...

A.I. was awful, and I really liked Crash.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. I agree - A.I. was an awful piece of shit. If Spielberg had stopped at ending 1, I might like it.

But he went to ending 2, ending 3, and then however many more of those fucking endings.

AI was total Spielberg masturbation - everything that makes a Spielberg movie awful was in there, and in there in spades. Everything that makes a Spielberg movie good (as rare as that is) was absent.

it's so heavy-handed, I cringe at the thought of it. I bought the DVD years ago, and still haven't been able to bring myself to sit through it again and see if it really is as infuriatingly overwritten as I thought it was.

[gratuitous]

15. It lost me at the premise

I understand the couple's own kid had to go away somehow so that the robot kid could be introduced to the household, but really. Who in their right mind would want this monster to come through the door in the first place? A robot kid who is 8 years old forever! Aaaaaagh! You're, say, 32 when the kid comes in. All nice and everything. Takes the place of coma kid nicely. Three years later, he's still . . . 8 years old, doing 8-year-old stuff.

By the time you're in your late 40s, and a regular kid would be long gone working on a career and a family, there's little roboboy, who is . . . 8 fucking years old still. He never matures, never progresses past third grade. For all the headaches of puberty, it's a stage in a journey. He never develops an interest in girls (or boys), never advances beyond his allotted 8 years old. You get into seniorhood, and roboboy is still 8 years old. You're shuffling through the house and bark your knee on the corner of the coffee table. As you're hopping toward the bathroom to get a couple of ibuprofen, here comes the bundle o' joy with drawing number 4,637 in a never-ending series of "Mommy and Me." Get out of the way, you little shit!

When I couldn't get past the premise, the entire movie just. Plain. Sucked.

[JCMach1]

3. Brokeback Mountain should have won...

[rurallib]

21. I don't know if it was because of the hype, but I sure wanted my

money back for that stinker.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. Gigli and Glitter

maybe Crash did not deserve the Oscar but.........lest we forget, there are worse. far worse.

[MrScorpio]

6. How about the Cronenberg "Crash"?

[Iggo]

8. That was gold.

[supernova]

11. Probably my fav James Spader flick

[xchrom]

9. It wasn't very subtle - I'll say that. Nt

[fishwax]

10. not the worst, imo, but pretty bad -- and certainly among the most overrated

[MilesColtrane]

12. I thought 'Closer' was pretty bad.

It takes a lot for me not to want to watch Natalie Portman. That movie did it though.

I couldn't get through it.

[Taverner]

14. Agree 100% about Crash - it was contrived shite. A.I. was mighty excellent IMO

[bif]

16. I liked Crash and A.I.

No accounting for taste I guess. I didn't think it was a great movie, but I thought it was well crafted.

[proteus_lives]

17. I liked it.

Dillon is underrated.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. Dillon's definitely underrated. City of Ghosts, for example.

Crash was absolute filth. No surprise, given it came from the same writer as Walker, Texas Ranger.

[bookworm65t]

19. The Women (Meg Ryan version) was worse

I didn't care either way for Crash, but The Women, a remake of the 1939 movie, was the most appalling I've sat through since an Ann Coulter interview (well, all of them if I dare).
The original boasted Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Joan Fortaine, Rosalind Russell, and Paulette Goddard, among others.

The remake's script must have been so bad that the producers couldn't come up with a top-notch cast of their own except for Annette Bening (where were her brains?)

Avoid this movie unless you want to create a drinking game!

[CBGLuthier]

20. Worst highly praised movie, maybe. Worst movie, no fucking way

Lets see we have all those awful knockoff films like Date Movie,Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans.

Anybody see The Love Guru? The remake of The Wicker Man?

Beverly Hills Chihuahua?

Gigli or Norbit?

Hey, how about Superbabies, Baby Geniuses 2.

Avatar?


Worst movie my ass.

[Lilith Velkor]

22. I like "Crash" better when it was "Do the Right Thing"

But the worst of the decade? No, that's INLAND EMPIRE.

[tigereye]

25. no question that Spike Lee does it better

[HEyHEY]

23. Dang, that was the worst movie of the last decade too

[JonLP24]

26. I wouldn't call it the worst

Certainly not the best and probably not deserving of the best picture and wasn't a fan of it. Though I did think it had a great cast. Terrence Howard, Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Philippe, etc.

[RZM]

27. It was just ok. Not great, not terrible

Probably not deserving of best picture -- but plenty of other undeserving movies have won as well. I'm not a big movie person so I try to avoid really bad stuff. 'Into the Wild' sticks out for me as one of the more over-wrought pieces of drivel I've seen in the last few years.