The Song Fight Bulletin Board

One of the most depressing movies I have ever seen. Also amazing. Sandra Bullock even puts in a good performance. The first 15 minutes had me worried that it was going to suck and be too "clever" script-wise, but everything moved really naturally and devastatingly afterwards. Don Cheadle and Matt Dillon were brilliant.

This movie is excellent.
A

I take it this isn't the JG Ballard book remade? The thought of Matt Dillon making love to Sandra Bullock's amputee stump fills me with horror ...

j$

j$ wrote:I take it this isn't the JG Ballard book remade? The thought of Matt Dillon making love to Sandra Bullock's amputee stump fills me with horror ...

j$

Yeah, it really really isn't that.

Ehhhhhhh. Being against racism isn't anything controversial. Everybody learns an important life lesson. It ought not have won Best Picture, imo. I have kind of the same objection to this as I do to In Good Company and The Constant Gardener: it's some white Hollywood writer writing about race issues in scenarios he made up (yes I know the car crash bit is based on his own experience or whatever and that was the genesis of the film). Anyway, it's all just really familiar. There's a white couple who gets carjacked by some black guys and they hire a Mexican locksmith to change their locks but the wife is racist against Mexicans, and also blacks, but it's kind of a reasonable bias in her opinion (that is, she justifies it); white cops hate black people; some other cats hate Middle Eastern cats; etc., etc. It plays upon our notions of stereotype, but it does it using stereotypical behavior and in some other instances anti-stereotyping becomes itself a stereotype. Maybe that's ineloquent or refutable, but, and I've said this before, what was the point of the movie? What was it saying? Was it saying, racism is bad? Was it saying, race relations are a prickly pear? Either way that's not news, and I didn't find any insight into race relation problems in the film.

j$ wrote:I take it this isn't the JG Ballard book remade? The thought of Matt Dillon making love to Sandra Bullock's amputee stump fills me with horror ...

j$

Wasn't that made into a movie with james spader?

This movie gets a big 'meh' from me too. I saw it after the Oscars, thinking "Well, if it beat Good Night and Good Luck it has to be pretty freaking amazing". But it wasn't amazing. It wasn't really anything. It was two hours long and then it was over. Maybe I just can't take racism seriously. Also, could a movie have more unlikely shootings? There were some good actors delivering ridiculously over-crafted speeches, but it was all spread a little two thin and--unlike Traffic or Magnolia--never seemed to gel to a satisfying climax. C+, would have been a bit higher if I hadn't had such high expectations.

I disagree with Puce, which is odd because we usually like the same movies ...at least according to the movie threads.

This movie was very very good in my opinion. All of the characters developed ..for better or worse. Everything developed for that matter as you learned each character's part in the whole story. I can't say enough good things about this movie.

<b>A</b> EFFING <b>+</b>

Wow. So I didn't even remember writing this, but I need to point out that I now hate this movie after much deliberation. Two white guys talking about how hard it is to be black just doesn't work for me.

Ugh. Worst Best Pic since Gladiator. It's like someone took Amores Perros, crapped on it, then painted it a lovely new shade of tangerine. D

I thought it was kinda dull, and the acting and dialog were uneven. Definitely overrated, but not horrible. A couple critiques here:

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/stor ... &pID=93441

http://www.blackcommentator.com/176/176 ... er_pf.html