once again i find myself defending a movie to all my friends which i loved and they didn't. my only problem with the movie is that the title and cover imply an action-type movie, when the film was really more of a thinker. other than that, i thought it was superbly written and directed. it's hard to follow all the differnet sub-plots, but that's the beauty of it; the subtlties that tie all of the stories together. i really like the fact that it's not skewed toward a specific race. it shows the very present condition of all races judging all other races with their own preconcieved prejudices, even sometimes subconciously. but at the same time, even the seemingly most racist character in the movie (Matt Dillan) has somewhat of a defendable position, due to the situation of his father-- as do the other characters due to their life situations. a brilliant film from all sides.