Over The Top

I am certainly not an expert on this year's Oscar field. I only saw one of the films nominated for Best Picture. However, that one movie happened to be Crash. It was a shock to most at the ceremony that it won. I think the only person who would have been more shocked would have been Eric, circa Summer 2005, after he left a viewing of this picture.

It must have been a bad year for movies. Considering none of the nominees had much mass appeal - and this over-wrought, tired, racial melodrama won the top award - it's no wonder the ratings were down 10% from last year.

Crash had some decent moments, and some good drama, but the dialogue was so over the top and unrealistic that I pretty much had to tune out large portions of the movie. As someone who has had the displeasure of being in the presence of racist people (stereotypical and otherwise), I can honestly say none of them were recognizable in the characters of Crash.

Even the ironic twists at the end did little to make me change my mind about the film. At the time it seemed like a picture with alot of advance hype, and little to back it up. Considering the relative star power of the cast (Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillipe, and even Ludacris), it could have been much better.

I think I would have believed a movie combining a gripping father-son drama, big rigs, and arm-wrestling, would have had as much of a chance as Crash to take home the gold.



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