Reviews

Crash is the biggest cliché in movie history to win the Academy Award for the Best Feature Film. Paul Haggis wanted to give a moral lesson about racism so he made a movie which is simply a collection of situations with no plot, inside which are characters acting in a racist way. From the first to the last minute of this movie, the only thing you see is RACISM. It's like there's not even one last not-racist person alive in the U.S.! It seems like the world is lost and everyone hates the guy next to him, who is, in this movie, in the most idiotic way, always a person of a different race! Crash almost hasn't got a single scene with two characters from the same race! Always a black and a Latin, or a white and a black. It's ridiculous and exaggerated. Crash is so moralist! And worst, it calls RACIST (with capital letters because they exaggerate everything) to every person in the audience. Well, I'm an anti-racism activist and what I have to say is that nobody goes to the movies to get moral lesson and to be insulted. Specially by a film - and this is the biggest problem of Crash - which is, itself, a racist picture! The film's characters are horrible cliché caricatures of every race in the world - the white racist cop, the black honorable cop, the black robber, the Latin with tattoos, the Asian guy who practices traffic of Asian woman and children, the Arab shop owner. In Crash, suddenly, all these characters become stupid and start doing ridiculous things just because Paul Haggis needed some simple conflict for which he could, later, find a resolution. By some miracle they all know each other and they all have problems between them. The plot is so obvious! You can find out everything that's going to happen one hour before it happens. When it happens you only feel like laughing, which is not the picture's intent. It's ridiculous to compare this film with Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson. Both have lots of characters who have connections between them. But in Magnolia, every character has a very specific job or role in the other person's life that generates the link between them all. In Crash, we have common people that by the most weird as hell coincidences (that is to say: by no reason) deal with each other. Once again we want to stop watching the film when we realize how grotesque and unreal the plot and screenplay are. To say more about the screenplay: the dialogs are absurd! Specially those between the two black young robbers. Nobody talks like that. Something like: "Don't catch a bus man! Are you crazy? Buses have big windows so that people can humiliate the black people that have no other option but to travel in them"???? WHAT? Another problem of this screenplay is the resolution of the conflicts that happen by no motif. Sandra Bullock stops being racist because she falls of the stairs??? One word about the directing. What is the deal with Slow Motion? Slow motion when Terrence Howard is trowing pieces of junk to a car set on fire? Why? About the sound. That song is horrible. It fits the movie by being such a huge musical cliché! Besides that, the melody has nothing to do with the rest. I couldn't believe when I heard "Crash" was the winner of 2006 for Best Feature, Best Screeplay and Best Editing. I hated this movie. From the screenplay to the actors, including the directing and the music. My conclusion is people are compelled to say they liked the film because it deals with racism and everyone likes to think of himself as an anti-racist person.

This is a very interesting film, but I'm afraid only a Portuguese person from Lisbon can fully understand it's unique feeling.

João Cesar Monteiro died, and this film are his final words.

"Vai e Vem" is art of a man who knows he's near his end. João Vuvu is João César Monteiro dying, like he's capable of touching death. There's nothing similar to this state. Everything comes and goes back again.

In this film, JCM humor is different. There's an even bigger amount of sadness in it.

Wonderfuly heavy.

However, it's hard to watch and probably boring if you're not in the mood, or if you're not able to understand it.

Cidade dos Homens belongs to Cidade de Deus' world. However, its not such well done stuff. However, it shows the reality with a more realistic approach. If you liked Cidade de Deus, try to see this mini, but don't expect such a gorgeous creation.