Taut, atmospheric, acted with confident ease -- this is one of the greatest American movies of the 1990s.
Comment
04/09/08
L.A. Confidential (1997)
99 %
Reviews Counted: 74 Fresh: 73 Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8.5/10
Consensus:
Taut pacing, brilliantly dense writing and Oscar-worthy acting combine to produce a smart, popcorn-friendly thrill ride.
Runtime: 2 hrs 18 mins
Synopsis: Director Curtis Hanson captures the duality of 1950s Los Angeles in this striking film noir adaptation of James Ellroy's novel. The City of Angels might be sunny, inviting, and glamorous to the rest of the world, but it's also filled with corrupt cops, elegant hookers, murder cover-ups, and... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito
Director: Curtis Hanson
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland, Curtis Hanson
Producer: Arnon Milchan, Michael G. Nathanson, Curtis Hanson
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland, Curtis Hanson
Producer: Arnon Milchan, Michael G. Nathanson, Curtis Hanson
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
Reviews
Top Critic
As the emotional nexus, a Veronica Lake lookalike trapped in a web of male desires, Basinger is arguably the pick of a perfect cast. Subtle, shocking, compelling and immensely assured.
06/24/06
Top Critic
Top Critic
Director Curtis Hanson's elegant film is faithful to Ellroy's multi-layered and labyrinthine book, requiring some concentration to keep up with the subtle plot twists and coded dialogue.
04/17/01
Top Critic
You have to pay close attention to follow the double-crossing intricacies of the plot, but the reward for your work is dark and dirty fun.
04/09/08
Stop reading. Put this review on hold until after you've seen L.A. Confidential.
04/09/08
Spacey's Vincennes is the standout in a just about flawless ensemble, and director Curtis Hanson keeps the hugely complicated story zooming along the boulevard of broken dreams without losing sight of the details that make the trip worthwhile.
04/09/08
An irresistible treat with enough narrative twists and memorable characters for a half-dozen films.
04/09/08
Top Critic
This movie restores genre elements to a level of potency that's disturbing, satisfying, and rare as hell.
04/09/08
A parlor game has already begun as to whether the supreme acting revelation in L.A. Confidential is provided by Mr. Crowe, Mr. Spacey or Mr. Pearce.
04/27/07
Representing the best of Classic Hollywood Cinema, this noir policier is marked by densely-plotted narrative, psychological depth, moral ambiguity, emotional complxity, and great acting, mostly by non-Americans, such as Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce.
08/26/06
You could call it a huge epic, but it's also a scrappy movie, full of energy as well as style.
05/26/06
In doing away with manners, Hanson's hardboiled detective stories craft a more hard-hitting picture of the time than any filmmaker who worked in the 1950s could have dreamed
08/19/05
There is a gritty, hard-boiled feel to 'L.A. Confidential' that is so audience satisfying.
05/28/05
With every corner turned, the viewer feels that sinking feeling sink even deeper: everything's poisoned, everything's suspicious, everything's going down.
01/15/05
This police corruption thriller, based on a James Ellroy novel, drags in places and ultimately fails in its film noir genre, but it's tops in art direction and photography.
06/22/04
A hard-boiled cops and crime story that is at once viscerally entertaining and intellectually satisfying.
05/20/03
It is an intriguing whodunit, but nothing really unpredictable. Good work by Pierce and Crowe, though.
02/08/03
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