bowmanblue The film 'Crash' was a hit, as it used multiple characters' individual narratives to intertwine a story which all ties up together. Here, 'Powder Blue' attempts to do the same - with mixed results.First of all, I didn't like it. But it is quite a long film and I persevered. Now, looking back on it, I'm glad I did. It's not as good as Crash and it is kind of overloaded with sentimentality - every scene seems to be trying to get you to cry for each and every character. Perhaps it was nice to see some Hollywood characters feeling as down and miserable as the rest of us? Either way, the performances are pretty good - naturally from Forest Whittaker and Ray Liotta, but also from Jessica Biel (who comes in for more than her fair share of acting criticism these days).It is certainly a slow-burner. Not much happens during the beginning and it takes a while to get going. So, although it doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel in terms of film-making, it's not a bad little piece, but I feel it's one of those films that you have to be well in the mood for to really appreciate. It should probably come with a warning not to watch it if you don't want to be depressed or brought down by one tale of woe after the next.

Don Shroyer Any movie featuring Forest Whitaker at least wants to be a powerful drama. This one is no exception. But Whitaker is not the only high talent name starring. Ray Liotta and Jessica Biel contribute their considerable skills. And Eddie Redmayne, who I have never heard of, turns in an equally fine performance.Supporting are Kris Kristofferson, Patrick Swayze, and Lisa Kudrow, each of whom likewise display their fine acting ability.This movie is a powerful drama. The various starring and supporting characters are each well developed. The actors effectively portray their character's individual situations and communicate their motivation, their desperation. The viewer can not help, not just to empathize with them, but to invest emotionally in them. They each have the best of intentions, in the most dire of circumstances. How the main four characters lives eventually intersect is emotionally draining.This film is not light entertainment, but it is well worth watching. And like "Crash" it is a movie that I would watch again, knowing how it comes out, as soon as I have recharged my energy.

lakeidamike This movie is one of a number of pictures in the last five years that attempts to mimic "Crash." You know--tell a number of little vignettes and then tie it all together at the end of the movie in some way that purports to represent the meaning of life...or something like that.This ain't no "Crash." This is one of the most pointless movies I have ever seen. It wanders all over the place with soap opera like clumsiness. The people who made this awful waste of celluloid must have had a checklist in front of them. A very large checklist. Let's see--there is the single mom with the dying child who's forced into prostitution to save the little nipper. There is Grandpa, just out of the can, looking for redemption. There is the man who wants to be a woman who ultimately kills himself, because no one will love him. There is the man who goes door to door looking for someone who will shoot him in the heart for $50,000, because he took his eyes off the road and killed his new bride. They even remembered the struggling waitress with the hillbilly ex-husband and a dorky white kid who is desperate for love, but my God, they forgot to include an incest victim (although they almost got there).And just for good measure, like your local evening news every night, they did work in a missing dog story.How can anyone watch this stuff? It is so contrived that it's unwatchable.One last question about this movie. What is this fascination about snowfall in Los Angeles with these Hollywood types? It was kind of cute in the remake of "Father of the Bride." It was kind of interesting in "Crash." It was downright silly in this movie, especially when Grandpa dies in a snowdrift the size of which they would never get in LA. We get snowdrifts like that here in Minnesota, but I have yet to see one that is blue. We also see powdery snow here and I can tell you that it doesn't look like the gravel at the bottom of your fishbowl.Blue Powder is truly one of the worst pictures I have ever seen. By the time we get to the scene with dead Ray Liotta teaching the dead little nipper how to fly a kite on the beach, I couldn't stop myself from laughing. It got only funnier when the dorky white kid was kissing the prostitute Mom at the bus stop with two tickets to Paris in her hand. This was really one of the most horrendously dumb movies of the decade.

msdi1105 Ironically I rec'd this movie from Netflix on a weekend I was seriously wanting to end it all & had a plan. Being the chicken-sh*t that I am, I didn't execute (obviously). This movie didn't give me the will to live but it made me want to keep going a little longer. My situation is bad, but not as bad as it could be. All of the characters portrayed had their struggles but made it through via communications that wouldn't have happened otherwise. . Anything can happen in Hollywood so the rest of us shouldn't give up so soon - yeah, right!! The 2 most poignant points for me were when Johnny asked Qwerty to go to Paris after her trauma - life goes on when other aspects don't. The shopping cart scene was too cool too! ;-) We should be so lucky to have some one who's willing to stay close during hard times. The other point is, I guess, there's hope,somewhere, somehow!! Charlie saw the light, so to speak, amidst his struggle with mortality. The potential homicidal,scenes were particularly hard to watch. Not because I wanted to do it (I still do) but that it would affect people who might actually give a scant or separate interest. Thanks Tim Linh Bui & producers who made this movie happen. The noose remains loose!