>I felt some of the conflicts were sensationalized for the sake
>of being provactive. Like when Chealde was stroking jennfier
>Esposito and he answers the phone and tells his mother that he
>is fucking a white women. wtf! Who would tell their mother
>that.

I might not use the word f---ing because I don't usually curse (period) but I might say "having sex with a white guy" and we might have a little laugh about it but that's because me and my mother have a certain understanding. In Cheadle's case it seems as if he and his mother were very distant and he was very angry at her. She seemed to only care about his brother...she was pestering him to find him like it was his sole responsibility, meanwhile she was drugged out at home. I didn't think they flushed out Cheadle's character enough but it was definately more 3-D than some of the others.

>There was no chemistry btw Cheadle and Esposito. I thought,
>why the fuck she wit this dude who is a complete ass hole and
>has not realized that she ain't Mexican but rather Puerto
>Rican/Peruvian.Again shock value.

I think it was obvious that Ria (Esposito) cared about Graham (Cheadle) and he seemed to be very insensitive...perhaps because of what he was dealing with (mother, brother). I recall that she was at the hospital with him and his mother. She was crying. There's was more to their relationship than fucking and race. They were partners.

>I thought Luda and Tate where charactures. Luda being a
>philosphic thug gives a speech about why white folks are scare
>of Black men yet car jacks a white couple was on a buffoon
>side.

Perhaps but in college I met some guys like that. For a while, me and my roommate were affliated with a bunch of young Black guys from Bed-Stuy who called themselves the "Brotherhood" and sometimes they would sip tea from cups with their pinkies up (no lie) but were known to mug white folks on the street...and sell drugs. It was more complex than just drinking from teacups. They had no role models and were pretty much out there on their own...so they often contradicted themselves. I did like the brief lecture Cameron (Howard) gave Anthony (Ludacris) before he kicked him to the curb. It shut up some of the noisy teens in the back.

I think Haggis entered some interesting territory but it was hard to flesh any one story out because there were so many. I think he hinted at some of the complexities but sometimes he missed the mark.

>The rescue scene was heinous and trite. Why all of a sudden
>the man who sexually assualted her is the same man who recues
>her from the burning car? That scene was very sexual.

I thought so, too. Perhaps Haggis was working out something personal. Hmmm...

>mind you this
>was the same individual who sexually assualted her while her
>husband watched helplessly(Echoes of slavery) That was an
>insult since it trivialized both the Black male and females
>abuse in the prior encounter by legitimizing their teeming
>erotic crisis and now the racist becomes the hero.

The first scene with Cameron and Christine (Newton) made me very upset, from the fellatio to the frisking down/feeling up. This was the only time I was upset during the movie.