“Crash”: White guilt run amok. A misguided, heavy-handed message movie about the current state of race relations in Los Angeles. That’s an important subject to explore – and let’s hope someone with the proper approach tries again soon – but not like this. This is schlock. Without a trace of subtlety, director Paul Haggis tackles the race issue by employing a cloying web of coincidences and stereotypes that leave his film choking on its own good intentions. Broadly and simply – and never with the insight of a director such as Spike Lee, for instance, or John Singleton when he’s good – Haggis uses his impressive cast (Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Ryan Philippe, and many others) to flesh out a story whose rage is manufactured and whose script feels as if it’s keeping it real by letting loose with an endless string of racial epithets. The idea is that if you say “the N word” often enough, that’ll shake audiences in their seats. Maybe it would have if the movie hadn’t obviously existed to manipulate its audience, but that’s nevertheless the case. Worse, Haggis’ script can’t support the stretch it takes to sustain those manipulations. It just snaps, taking the film down with it. In the movie, nearly a dozen characters from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds keep colliding in Los Angeles as if the city were restricted to one neighborhood, one street, one corner. There are 10 million people in L.A., most of whom likely will never see each other even once, but in this film, characters from all cross-sections of life just keep crashing into each other with unpleasant results. Along the way, Haggis hammers home his message. Guess what, folks – in spite of the initial negative impressions they can leave, some whites, blacks, Latinos, Iranians and Asians aren’t so bad after all. It all amounts to zip onscreen and the emotional wreckage, forced from the get-go, is ghastly to behold. Rated R. Grade: D

“Hammer Horror Stories”: Enough crucifixes to send Madonna back to her youth. This two-disc set from Universal is a fine example of what Hammer Studios did so well before they leeched into the horror of soft-core porn. Eight films from Hammer’s vast oeuvre are featured – “Brides of Dracula,” “Curse of the Werewolf,” “Phantom of the Opera” (1962), “Paranoiac,” “Kiss of the Vampire,” “Nightmare,” “Night Creatures,” and “Evil of Frankenstein.” Don’t come expecting Christopher Lee – the series disappoints in that his Dracula films aren’t included. Do come expecting pools of fake blood, hissing beasts, and plenty of rubber bats flapping about on visible wires. Satisfaction rings throughout, with the best films of the lot directed by that old Hammer mainstay, Terence Fisher – “Brides,” “Werewolf,” “Opera.” The appealingly overblown sets look as if they came from an antique warehouse – they trump the Baroque period, which never went for Baroque like this. With their waxy makeup and sky’s-the-limit Aquanet hairdos, the actors seem on loan from one of Madame Tussaud’s museums; they’re the living dead. And yet the movies can’t be dismissed – moments achieve genuine suspense, the stories respect the genre, the productions are lean and efficient. In their own B-movie way, these hammy horror movies are classics. Grade: A

“Racing Stripes”: The little zebra that could in a film that can’t and doesn’t. Frankie Muniz is the voice of Stripes, an abandoned circus zebra who falls into the hands of two people: Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood), a depressed farmer and former horse trainer whose wife died in a riding accident; and his daughter, Channing (Hayden Panettiere), who recognizes in Stripes a zebra who could be as fast as the racehorses who tease him from the neighboring property. If someone would just believe in him – and agree to ride him – Stripes could find himself on a path to greatness. And so Channing rides him (of course she does), which allows for tension to brew at home before Stripes competes in the Kentucky Open. Only the youngest of tots won’t know how this movie turns out; for them, it will work. For others, it’s glue, with surprise and imagination stripped from the story. Designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience, “Racing Stripes” becomes a movie whose gooey sentiment is strangely laced with bathroom humor. Assisting in the scat jokes are David Spade and Steve Harvey as Scuzz and Buzz, two computer-generated flies who are here to wallow in dung. Obvious echoes of “National Velvet,” “Babe” and “Seabiscuit” abound, but the comparisons only sink the film further. Still, Dustin Hoffman, Whoopi Goldberg and Snoop Dogg are highlights, providing excellent voice work for the barnyard of talking animal cynics who do their best to make Stripes feel like an ass. Rated PG. Grade: C

Other reviews

“Lost: The Complete First Season”: Plane-crash survivors try to coexist on a Pacific island while hoping for rescue in this drama series from “Alias” producer J.J. Abrams, a ratings powerhouse for ABC when it needed at least one. Matthew Fox serves as viewers’ initial guide into the situation, playing a doctor who tries to help injured passengers from the doomed flight … but strange sounds from the surrounding jungle alarm everyone. Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Harold Perrineau Jr., Naveen Andrews and Terry O’Quinn also star. DVD extras: “making of” documentaries; audio commentary by cast and crew; deleted scenes; outtakes. ??? (Not rated: AS, P, V)

“Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed”: The versatile performer takes the audience through her life in this autobiographical one-woman show made for HBO. U.S. fans who only know Ullman as a comedian – and the one who gave “The Simpsons” their start on her own Fox show – will be surprised to learn she also is an accomplished singer and dancer who had several hit songs (including “They Don’t Know”) on the British pop charts in the mid-1980s. The show was taped over three performances at the Henry Ford Theatre in Los Angeles. ??? (Not rated: AS, P)