Crash & Alien

Drove a truck down to Iowa on Tuesday for my part-time job, and since I had to spend a night in the small town of Grinnell, I ended up renting a couple of movies.

The first one I watched was "Crash," which was released earlier this year and just came out on DVD. Its got an amazing cast including Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Terence Howard, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Ryan Phillipe, Larenz Tate, Ludacris (who does a fine job by the way) and many, many more.

It's about a series of events in L.A., showing how people of different races feel about each other and how they react to each other. I was hoping this movie wasn't going to preach to me about how everyone inherently is racist. It comes close to doing just that, but provides interesting enough snippets of these characters to stay above preaching level and actually be compelling. There isn't a set story here, just a series of events, often coincidences really, that bring the lives of these characters "crash"ing together.

Every scene in this movie has a purpose, usually to show the character of these people. And it all works surprisingly well for how much it jumps around. I can't possibly blow any of the storylines here for you, since many of them are surprising or conclude in a way that make you think.

This movie is powerful because of the way it shows its characters in different lights. Matt Dillon is a racist cop, but he is a caring son who wants the best for his ailing father. He is also an abuser of his own power, yet he is still willing put his life on the line to help people (which also provides for the best scene in the movie if you ask me). Ryan Phillipe plays Dillon's partner who cannot stand to work with this man, but is not above making a mistake because of another man's skin color. Everyone is involved, no one is innocent, from Persian store owners (don't call Iranians Arabs by the way, there's a difference) to Latino locksmiths, white, black, asian, and every other color of the rainbow.

I recommend this one if you are in the mood for a serious movie. It will surprise you and make you think, and although you might find it preachy, you might also find it enlightening. All of these people have preconceived notions about other races, but they are also willing to talk about their views and possibly change them if the right events happen at the right times.

Now...

Let me tell you about Alien, which I had not seen up until now. What a disappointment. Incredibly slow, not enough of the Alien, and filled with boring characters including Ripley. I've heard that Aliens is much better, so I will eventually give that a chance, but this movie was incredibly disappointing for me. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I knew how the Alien hatches from its egg and attaches to a face and explodes out of a stomach, but I think it had more to do with the slow pace. There were a few thrills and the suspense was surprisingly palpable (nice word, eh?) for a movie made in 1979, but still...

Anyhow, I'm the last guy in the world to see this movie, so who cares?

Couple quick notes about my Top 100 List. I moved a couple of movies around. I just watched "When Harry Met Sally..." again, and moved it up to #85. I will be moving Wayne's World down from #80, since I saw most of it again recently and it has definitely lost a lot of its pop (although I refuse to dump it off my list, it was on of my favorites as a teen). And also, I added Million Dollar Baby after seeing it last week. It debuts on my Ever-Changing Movie List at #95. Much less powerful a second time around which was to be expected, but still genuinely touching and funny at times. It has a chance to move up after another viewing (like everything else I guess)

Oh, and uh, since no one is reading this by now, I might as well mention that my fantasy football team, CPG Speedwagon, is 1-0 and off to a decent start in their journey to become the first team in our league to defend its title.

I need a job.

I'm done typing now.