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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

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for The Informers

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81 - 99 (sorted by date)
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Perhaps the film's biggest mistake is that after more than an hour of proving how pointless and vapid these characters are, it leaves us with a parting shot indicating we should care about what happens to them. We don't.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
04/23/09
Connie Ogle
Connie Ogle
Miami Herald

An outbreak of '80s nostalgia is the best explanation for The Informers, a worse movie based on a worse Bret Easton Ellis book.

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
04/23/09
Joe Williams
Joe Williams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

If The Informers doesn't sound to you like a pleasant time at the movies, you are right.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
04/23/09
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In spite of the title, The Informers doesn't get below the surface of the era of Reaganesque excess to tell us anything new. But it's way cool to look at.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
04/23/09
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

The Informers is a beautiful picture of misery, but the surface quality is never penetrated to satisfaction. In the end, it's a mess of smeary mascara, mix tapes, and hair mousse in search of connective tissue.

Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | comment Comment
04/23/09
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
BrianOrndorf.com

The Informers is the kind of movie that, upon leaving the theater, provokes the urge to take a shower.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
04/22/09
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The Informers is the new gold dream: a gorgeous lie of squandered wealth that might make you choke laughing.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
04/22/09
Joshua Rothkopf
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York

Occasionally, some fool gets the idea that his literary wretched excess would make for a good film.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
04/22/09
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

There's plenty of incident, but not much plot. As befits a tale of absolute self-absorption and unconscious revelation, The Informers often seems to be telling on itself.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
04/22/09
J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A rancid load of swill called The Informers, from a depraved 1994 book by Bret Easton Ellis, is, like The Soloist, a look at the underbelly of L.A., but the resemblance ends there.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
04/22/09
Rex Reed
Rex Reed
New York Observer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

I don't find The Informers to be without interest -- unlike most critics -- but neither do I find it successful enough to recommend it.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
04/22/09
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Sublimely awful, director Gregor Jordan's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' dystopic vision of '80s era Los Angeles bounces between a slew of unlikable reckless characters.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
04/19/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

[Features] a ludicrously concocted, thoroughly unconvincing narrative and the pervading sense of style supplanting substance.

Full Review Source: Critic's Notebook | comment Comment
04/19/09
Robert Levin
Robert Levin
Critic's Notebook

Gregor Jordan and Bret Easton Ellis take no prisoners in this uncompromising, expertly crafted shocker about hedonism in early-'80s L.A.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
04/17/09
Erica Abeel
Erica Abeel
Film Journal International

Perhaps the only use this film has is to give philosophers who sit through it some way of experiencing what eternity truly means.

Full Review Source: CHUD | comment 2 Comments
04/04/09
Devin Faraci
Devin Faraci
CHUD

An ugly, blank slate of a film, one that feels like a rough outline for one of the better Ellis adaptations.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
02/02/09
Scott Weinberg
Scott Weinberg
Cinematical

People sometimes had ordinary, reasonably polite conversations, even in the '80s. Not absolutely all the talking was affectless mumbling, angry recriminations, drug deals or TV news about Ronald Reagan.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
01/23/09
Andrew O'Hehir
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Characters become real enough to draw you in, yet are not deeply drawn enough to make you care.

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
01/23/09
David D'Arcy
David D'Arcy
Screen International

Open endings work for some movies, but a story this depressing needs some resolution.

Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | comment Comment
01/22/09
Joshua Tyler
Joshua Tyler
CinemaBlend.com
 
 
81 - 99 (sorted by date)
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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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