L.A. Confidential

Yeah, I got it after a second screening. A brilliant crime drama with a sophisticated script and the wonderful atmosphere of 1950s L.A., the film's main strength. The same can be said of the perfect cast lead by Crowe’s macho protector of women, he’s flawless. Guy Pearce outdoes himself here, this role opened him the door to the acting elite for a while, before it embarrassingly slammed in his face again a few years later. I am not giving this 5* just because the fairly similar Polanski's Chinatown is a notch better. (04/13/2003)

A film so perfect that I'd like to climb each letter of the Hollywood sign in turn and salute it at length over the City of Angels. The retro atmosphere is so captivating that in the nineties it must have set the old generation's loins on fire. The actors are absolutely fabulous, from the characterful tough-guy Crowe to the role model Pearce and the cool playboy Spacey to the cold-blooded Cromwell, the direction is as polished as a pop star's fingernails (the scene with the corpse under the house is heart-attack inducing), and then there’s the script!! One bloody event unleashes an unreadable chain of intrigue and murder in which everyone is somehow implicated, and it's so damn wonderful to watch, thanks to the slowly unfolding communicativeness, the rhythmic switches between multiple storylines, and the superb portrayal of all the characters, that when it's over it seems the most sensible course of action to watch it again immediately. The only thing that’s beyond my comprehension is the Oscar for Basinger, the Academy must have had some kind of extended version where she's naked in the shower for 15 minutes, otherwise I don't get it... 100% (05/08/2011)

A stubborn gorilla with common sense, a crafty opportunist and a hypocritical, calculating careerist par excellence. All with a cop’s badge and doing things their own way. And all of them unknowingly working on the same case. A (non)noir multi-genre movie that in terms of plot and star-studded cast (and not just those in the main roles) was easily enough to make a trio of excellent movies, each of which could aspire to being a crime classic. Simply three in one in the form of a movie not to be missed, its only fault being that it didn’t finish one minute sooner - it could have avoided the undignified ending. And also a practical demonstration of “how to adapt a complex novel (Ellroy’s best - no less ingenious and ten times more complex) overflowing with characters, events and story for the big screen". (04/09/2011)

Lol, who wouldn't want to be a tough guy like Bud White? To crush criminals with a fist of stone and gently protect women with the same hand? Russell Crowe perfectly plays the type of character that earned him his fame - the type of unbreakable tough guy with character. Guy Pearce as Lieutenant Exley is his excellent counterpoint - slimy, devious... L.A. Confidential utilizes their mutual energy, which they initially repel and then unite in a deadly blow. The seemingly disparate story, which flows in all directions, harmonizes perfectly in the finale and culminates in a magnificent shootout gambit. In the end, from the genre paintings of Sinful People of L.A., it becomes detective story with a good point and with a nice twist. Curtis Hanson has proven to be a pretty cool guy - his directing swings, the images alternate with brisk action and convincing retro... it's just one big dose of "dirty" police goodness. Rough, straightforward and as graceful as Kim Basinger’s ass. Jesus fuckin´ Christ! (11/04/2007)

Just as the sunny and idyllic suburban Los Angeles makes a beautiful mask for domestic violence, Mexican women strapped to the bed, dead bodies in the basement, and a pile of gunmen in the public toilets, a cop's musty, rotten, and lost soul is framed by the aura of good intentions that got him to join the force in the first place. Touching; today's movies work the exact opposite way. (06/19/2010)