L.A. Confidential
1997 Directed by Curtis Hanson
Synopsis
Everything is suspect... Everyone is for sale... And nothing is what it seems.
Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner in this lush tribute to tough film noir crime films. Based on the multi-layered James Ellroy novel.
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Film 2 of the Adapted April Challenge
I don't often feel inclined to compare films I'm watching to others, but while watching L.A. Confidential it was nearly impossible not to compare it to the recently watched Gangster Squad. Seeing them shortly after each other made Gangster Squad's weaknesses and this film's strengths all the more apparent. L.A. Confidential understands the difference between style and class, the difference between merely showing a story and telling a story and the fact that if you have a great cast, you have to give it great material and that pulp does not equal poor quality.
Based on James Ellroy's novel, it is clear from the start that we will be dealing with a plot…
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L.A. Confidential is one of those films I've always heard was good. Back in 1997 I think I felt it would't be my cup of tea so I passed it over. In the years since I've always meant to watch it, but it just never happened for one reason or another.
Last night I finally put my foot down, and said to myself you're watching L.A. Confidential tonight you've put it off long enough. As you might expect I'm glad I did. It's very well made and the cast oh the cast. Everyone is cast beautifully here. The performances are excellent and work well as a whole. It's one of those films that definitely deserves ensemble cast nominations and awards.…
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L.A. Confidential is a film I just knew was excellent despite never having watched it before.
How wrong I was though.
L.A. Confidential is a masterpiece.
There just wasn't a moment where I wasn't amazed, bowled over by its greatness. Every scene contains excellence.
It's probably a bit of a rare-breed, a mainstream Hollywood noir-inspired film containing enough blood and murderous violence to satisfy the masses, whilst maintaining a serious thrilling story populated by brilliantly dense characters. RARE. Curtis Hanson deserves great credit form selecting two (at the time) relative newcomers in Crowe and Pearce as his leads. This lack of star appeal avoids any distraction from the complex, twisting story. And they, like everyone involved act that story with…
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Crime Drama 1950's Period Film
Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell, David StrathairnI love it when I find a movie that for the life of me can't figure out how I missed it. L.A. Confidential is a great film full of outstanding performances, I especially liked Guy Pearce, probably because I knew I was going to get a heavy screen presence with Crowe and Spacey. I'm not a huge fan of Guy Pearce, not that I dislike him at all he's just not someone I get excited about when he has an upcoming movie.
L.A. Confidential with out giving anything away is about cops doing crooked things for justices and cops doing crooked…
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Some men get the world, others get former hookers and a trip to Arizona. As the consolation prize in a noir film that's not a bad one at all, especially when the ex-hooker is Kim Basinger as Lynn Bracken as Veronica Lake.
I've been looking forward to the tail end of the noirathon since it was conceived two years ago, the extremely low quantity of noir from the 1990's onwards is made up for my the sheer quality of the output, star amongst them being Curtis Hanson's masterpiece adapted from James Ellroy's deeply black novel of the same name. Not only is L.A. Confidential a great adaptation but it is a great movie in its own right that fully deserved every single one of those nine Oscar nominations. That it lost to Titanic of all films is a complete and utter travesty.
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Nicely paced
Outstanding acting
Intelligent screenplay
Remarkable film
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L.A. Confidential is a film I just knew was excellent despite never having watched it before.
How wrong I was though.
L.A. Confidential is a masterpiece.
There just wasn't a moment where I wasn't amazed, bowled over by its greatness. Every scene contains excellence.
It's probably a bit of a rare-breed, a mainstream Hollywood noir-inspired film containing enough blood and murderous violence to satisfy the masses, whilst maintaining a serious thrilling story populated by brilliantly dense characters. RARE. Curtis Hanson deserves great credit form selecting two (at the time) relative newcomers in Crowe and Pearce as his leads. This lack of star appeal avoids any distraction from the complex, twisting story. And they, like everyone involved act that story with…
-
Some men get the world, others get former hookers and a trip to Arizona. As the consolation prize in a noir film that's not a bad one at all, especially when the ex-hooker is Kim Basinger as Lynn Bracken as Veronica Lake.
I've been looking forward to the tail end of the noirathon since it was conceived two years ago, the extremely low quantity of noir from the 1990's onwards is made up for my the sheer quality of the output, star amongst them being Curtis Hanson's masterpiece adapted from James Ellroy's deeply black novel of the same name. Not only is L.A. Confidential a great adaptation but it is a great movie in its own right that fully deserved every single one of those nine Oscar nominations. That it lost to Titanic of all films is a complete and utter travesty.
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Just watched this again after recently reading James Ellroy's book. I had a generally positive memory of the movie before but now it feels flat. Baby Russell Crowe is great as a psycho cop and Kevin Spacey is still in his charismatic glory days but then you got Guy Pearce and his weird cheekbones hanging around which never works for me. Mainly the movie lacks some of the luridness of the source material which hinges on a subplot concerning a Walt Disneyesque entrepreneur's psychotic bastard son kidnapping and dismembering children and sewing the pieces together with tennis racket strings to make a fuck-doll. It's all in the details.
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The June Challenge #11
L.A. Confidential stands as an example of what happens when a project is approached with talent and skill, a reminder that working within well-established genre tropes is not an excuse for laziness. Here we have a strong balance of characterization and narrative, successfully weaving the two together as a cohesive whole. A little more creativity with the characters and it could have been brilliant. As it stands, it's merely really good. -
Its rare for a movie to be pure perfection and it should be celebrated and appreciated to me this film is neo-noir perfection on 50's platter.
As corruption grows in 1950s LA, three policemen - the straight-laced, the brutal, and the sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.
This films plot has twists and turns and you never know where its going to go its absolutely brilliant story telling by the writers and the directors style complemented it perfectly (Gonna be using that word throughout the review). Also has one of the best endings in cinema history.
The acting and chemistry were also perfect it felt like they had been working on this movie…
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L.A. Confidential is an extremely well made film and is one of the best crime dramas I have ever seen. There is not one thing in this movie that I would change because to me the film is brilliant. At the 1998 Oscars L.A. Confidential took home the award for Best Writing (Based on Material Previously Produced or Published) and it definitely deserved it. Brian Helgeland's and Curtis Hanson's screenplay is just absolutely stunning, everything in the writing is just so damn good. One thing I love about this movie is that it has one big mystery but it also has a lot of drama and it just works perfectly. To me the mystery part of the film was done…
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I think L.A. Confidential have a little of all the following genres (some more than others):
-Action
-Comedy
-Crime
-Drama
-Neo-Noir
-Mistery
-Romance
-ThrillerThis feature alone is not the big deal, but the fact that L.A. Confidential succeeds in each one of those make it a complete and nearly perfect movie.
What are the three main things in a movie? Acting, directing, and screenplay. This film does all three of them with such subtlety. The direction may not be the most notable thing between them, but Curtis Hanson managed to create a style that boths feel modern but pays tribute to the 50's at the same time.
The script is gold, and I don't mean just the story, but…
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The perfect double-feature with Chinatown, L.A. Confidential is a slick neo-noir with twists and characters aplenty to keep the 138 running time seem like a break-neck pace. Dozens of great performances by a stellar cast and a deconstruction of the genre all while paying homage to it makes this one of the best films of the decade. Like its characters, the film doesn't shy away from violence, earning its R rating with ease. For anyone who loves movies, police dramas, the noir genre or plain good entertainment, this is a great choice.
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What makes this movie memorable is its great ensemble cast. The story itself, while complex, lacks the emotional depth I feel could have pushed the film into greatness. However this is made up for with consistent action, twists, and blend of old style Hollywood.
The film doesn't contain the hypnotic vibe that Polanski's Chinatown has, but it's definitely a highly worthy entry in the noir genre.On a final note: Kim Bassinger...yeaaaaaah that's what's up.