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Movies / Upcoming / The Informers
The Informers

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The Informers (2009)

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14 %
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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

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for The Informers

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Reviews
Tomatometer Critic Review Category
tomato

Rob Nelson

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: | comment 1 Comment | Sep., 01 2009 11:33 AM

Variety

splat
1/4

Sonny Bunch

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: | comment Comment | Aug., 30 2009 11:46 AM

Washington Times

splat
3/10

John J. Puccio

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Aug., 23 2009 10:41 AM

DVDTown.com

splat
D

Paul Chambers

bleak, boring and bloated.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Aug., 10 2009 04:32 AM

CNNRadio

splat
2/5

Cosmo Landesman

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: | comment Comment | Jul., 24 2009 01:44 AM

Sunday Times (UK)

splat

Philip French

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 24 2009 01:41 AM

Observer [UK]

splat
2/5

David Edwards

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 24 2009 01:34 AM

Daily Mirror [UK]

tomato
3/5

Joshua Rothkopf

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 06:11 AM

Time Out

splat
3.5/5

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 06:04 AM

Channel 4 Film

splat
2/5

Wendy Ide

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 05:57 AM

Times [UK]

splat
1/5

Peter Bradshaw

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: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 04:55 AM

Guardian [UK]

splat
2/5

Tim Robey

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: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 04:39 AM

Daily Telegraph

tomato
3/5

Derek Malcolm

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: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 04:38 AM

This is London

splat
2/5

Ben Rawson-Jones

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: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 04:30 AM

Digital Spy

splat
2/5

For diehard Ellis completists only.

comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 04:27 AM

Heat Magazine

splat
2/5

Tim Evans

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: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 04:23 AM

Sky Movies

splat
0/5

Christopher Tookey

This film is bad - really, really bad.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 04:02 AM

Daily Mail [UK]

splat
1/5

A star-studded mess.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 03:36 AM

Sun Online

splat

Nigel Andrews

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: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 03:27 AM

Financial Times

splat
1/5

Anthony Quinn

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: | comment Comment | Jul., 17 2009 03:21 AM

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...

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