Writer-director Curtis Hanson's adaptation of the James Ellroy novel wasn't merely one of the two or three greatest movies of the 1990s; it stands as a masterpiece for the ages.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:80
Fresh:79
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.6/10
Consensus: Taut pacing, brilliantly dense writing and Oscar-worthy acting combine to produce a smart, popcorn-friendly thrill ride.
Runtime: 2 hrs 18 mins
Genre: Dramas
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... 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 manipulative paparazzi, all of which are just the tip of the iceberg. It's impossible to know exactly who's trustworthy and who's not as three detectives (Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, and Guy Pearce) each use their own tactics to investigate a coffee-shop massacre. The script by Hanson and Brian Helgeland maintains the fragile framework of human relationships developed in the novel, while 45 different shooting locations give the film a solidly unique tone and feeling of integrity, immersing the viewer in 1950s Los Angeles. The entire cast is first-rate, with compelling performances from Spacey, Crowe, Pearce, James Cromwell, Danny DeVito, Kim Basinger, and David Strathairn. [More]
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell, David Strathairn
Director: Curtis Hanson
Director: Curtis Hanson
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland, Curtis Hanson
Producer: Arnon Milchan, Michael G. Nathanson, Curtis Hanson
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
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Reviews for L.A. Confidential
Everything Angelinos love and hate about their city is here, as well as anything a movie fan could possibly wish for.
A modern cinematic classic...the alchemical reaction of a director and a charmed collaboration of actors, writers, and design artists...[Blu-ray]
...one of the most absorbing, compelling, most thoroughly enjoyable crime thrillers to have come along in the past decade.
Taut, atmospheric, acted with confident ease -- this is one of the greatest American movies of the 1990s.
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.
Stop reading. Put this review on hold until after you've seen L.A. Confidential.
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.
An irresistible treat with enough narrative twists and memorable characters for a half-dozen films.
This movie restores genre elements to a level of potency that's disturbing, satisfying, and rare as hell.
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.
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.
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.
You could call it a huge epic, but it's also a scrappy movie, full of energy as well as style.
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
There is a gritty, hard-boiled feel to 'L.A. Confidential' that is so audience satisfying.
With every corner turned, the viewer feels that sinking feeling sink even deeper: everything's poisoned, everything's suspicious, everything's going down.
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