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Movies / Upcoming / The Informers
The Informers

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The Informers (2009)

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Reviews Counted:99

Fresh:14

Rotten:85

Average Rating:3.6/10

Consensus: As miserable and insipid as its protagonists, The Informers fails to provide anything to think about after the sheen of fake blond is gone.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong sexual content, nudity, drug use, pervasive language and some disturbing images.

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Apr 24, 2009 Limited

Synopsis: In such works as Less Than Zero and American Psycho Brett Easton Ellis brilliantly dissects contemporary American society, a culture in which too much is never enough. Now, adapting his own... In such works as Less Than Zero and American Psycho Brett Easton Ellis brilliantly dissects contemporary American society, a culture in which too much is never enough. Now, adapting his own acclaimed novel for the screen, he returns to the Los Angeles of the early 1980's with a multi-strand narrative that deftly balances a vast array of characters who represent both the top of the heap (a Hollywood dream merchant, a dissolute rock star, an aging newscaster) and the bottom (a voyeuristic doorman, an amoral ex-con).

Connecting all his intertwining strands are the quintessential Ellis protagonists -- a group of beautiful, blonde young men and women who sleep all day and party all night, doing drugs -- and one another -- with abandon, never realizing that they are dancing on the edge of a volcano. Filmed with uncommon glamour and grit by acclaimed Australian director Gregor Jordan (Ned Kelly, Buffalo Soldiers), The Informers is an alternately blistering and chilling portrait of hedonism run amuck. --© Senator [More]

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Jon Foster, Amber Heard, Brad Renfro, Chris Isaak, Austin Nichols, Lou Taylor Pucci, Mel Raido, Rhys Ifans, Jessica Stroup

Director: Gregor Jordan

Director: Gregor Jordan
Screenwriter: Nicholas Jarecki
Studio: Senator Entertainment

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Reviews for The Informers

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Rating less than zero on the sophistication scale, The Informers is thus a totally faithful adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel--and an accurate look at early '80s-era Los Angeles.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment 1 Comment
09/01/09
Rob Nelson
Rob Nelson
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Imagine American Psycho with less violence but more nudity, transplanted from New York to California and stripped of all self-awareness. That's The Informers.

Full Review Source: Washington Times | comment Comment
08/30/09
Sonny Bunch
Sonny Bunch
Washington Times

...a ninety-eight-minute snooze-fest.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
08/23/09
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

bleak, boring and bloated.

Full Review Source: CNNRadio | comment Comment
08/10/09
Paul Chambers
Paul Chambers
CNNRadio

It has a good cast and a terrific 1980s soundtrack (Devo, Simple Minds), but it also has the superficiality of a TV soap. The Informers is not so bad that you can’t sit back and enjoy it, but nor is it good enough to go and see.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | comment Comment
07/24/09
Cosmo Landesman
Cosmo Landesman
Sunday Times (UK)

In structure and location the film resembles Robert Altman's Short Cuts, though it's much inferior and far less interesting.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
07/24/09
Philip French
Philip French
Observer [UK]

While it's an occasionally unsettling piece - and comes with a big-name cast - the story never goes anywhere.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
07/24/09
David Edwards
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

We may not care about these cokeheads, but only rarely does Jordan fall into knee-jerk retribution.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
07/17/09
Joshua Rothkopf
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out

A lurid, soapy, moralistic melodrama so mucky you'll need a shower.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
07/17/09
Channel 4 Film

Directed by Gregor Jordan, Ellis’s aimlessly dissolute collection of stories just doesn’t hang together as a coherent whole.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
07/17/09
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]

There is a weird, almost comic absence of insight and perspective here. But it is a joke without humour and without a punchline.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
07/17/09
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

This self-penned adaptation of his 1994 short story collection - a period piece set in 1983 Los Angeles - has supposedly been cut to ribbons, and it shows.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
07/17/09
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph

Jordan gives all this an entirely appropriate sheen and the cast play well through glazed eyes. The film will fascinate those who love to see the tormented lives of those who seem luckier than the rest of us.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
07/17/09
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

Failing to work on so many levels, The Informers operates as a time capsule of 1983 and a time when substance was negated in favour of style. Sadly, this movie is severely lacking in both of those departments.

Full Review Source: Digital Spy | comment Comment
07/17/09
Ben Rawson-Jones
Ben Rawson-Jones
Digital Spy

For diehard Ellis completists only.

comment Comment
07/17/09
Heat Magazine

It's an empty shell entertaining a nasty streak of misogyny, a single note ensemble piece that's very much less than zero.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
07/17/09
Tim Evans
Tim Evans
Sky Movies

This film is bad - really, really bad.

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
07/17/09
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

A star-studded mess.

Full Review Source: Sun Online | comment Comment
07/17/09
Sun Online

Bret Easton Ellis pens a mean tale, in all adjectival senses. His prose is artfully maleficent; he is a laid-back Severus Snape of the sex-and-drugs generation. You need a smarter directing hand, though, than Gregor Jordan’s.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
07/17/09
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times

Director Gregor Jordan seems to have gone into reverse since his 2001 Buffalo Soldiers, aiming for the LA rondeau of Altman's Short Cuts but missing all the vital ingredients – wit, humanity, charm, nuance and meaning.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
07/17/09
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent
 
 
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Latest News for The Informers

August 24, 2009: RT on DVD: Exclusive Informers clip, Dungeons & Dragons, and more!
This week in home releases, we have a Bret Easton Ellis adaptation (The Informers, which we present with an exclusive clip), a classy Criterion release (The Last Days of Disco),... More...

April 24, 2009: In the buff naughty boobs 'n buns bad parenting sex and drug addiction romp. And a weird cry for help cinema probing wasted LA youth without adult supervision in sight. Though with sly hints on where all those hallucinatory Hollywood plots arise. Opens in new window
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