L.A. Confidential Movie Review

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L.A. Confidential MovieĀ Review

L.A. Confidential is a 1997 crime film starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pierce and Kim Basinger. It is one of the most overrated films that I have ever seen.

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Go back to Jersey, sonny.

This is the City of the Angels,

and you haven’t got any wings

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L.A. Confidential Movie Review

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The plot is your typical crime storyline. It is dull, uninspired and thoroughly difficult to follow and tedious owing to its too many characters and convoluted plot points that are not complex, but just needlessly complicated and none of them matter anyhow. I was bored endlessly by this film which is so long and so incredibly dull that it was almost unwatchable to me personally.

Yes, it does have a great cast, that is its only evident strength. Danny DeVito is as good as he usually is and the same goes for Kevin Spacey who is very good, but this is far from his best performances. Russell Crowe is the most likable of the bunch in one of his breakout roles, but Kim Basinger is not likable and Guy Pierce is actually very unlikable and annoying here. I really disliked him and his character. All of these characters are rather forgettable or dull or unlikable and all are very weakly developed.

L.A. Confidential is not a noir, neo-noir or whatever. They can call it that as much as they want, but this is a typical modern crime film that never can hold a candle to the noir classics of yesteryear. It is as overly violent as you would expect from these hideous crime films and as boring and as soulless per usual.

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L.A. Confidential Movie Review

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I also found its direction rather uninspired. The same goes for editing, cinematography and everything really is rather mediocre despite the acting which is the only good thing here. How it received its accolades is beyond me. Nine Academy Award nominations is just baffling to me. Thankfully it lost most of them to ‘Titanic’ which is a much better film and that says a lot as that film is far from great. This is a further proof of how the nineties proved to be the driest, worst period ever for the movie industry.

L.A. Confidential is very well acted by its great cast, but otherwise immensely boring and almost unwatchable, weakly developed in characters, so uninspired and needlessly complicated in its storyline and technically not that well made too. It is one of the most overrated films I have ever seen and I am thoroughly baffled at why everyone loves it so much.

My Rating – 2.5

4 thoughts on “L.A. Confidential (1997)

  1. I just saw it and loved it. I loved the score, I thought the movie was well developed and I enjoyed the whole concept of someone trying to avenge murders of people during Christmas. I enjoyed the actors in the movie quite well. I liked the subtlety and how this thing builds. I think it deserves all of the praise. This is a 4.5 movie for me. Maybe a five?

  2. Glad to hear that you enjoyed it. I unfortunately don’t care for most neo-noir movies as I find them infinitely inferior to the noir movies of the forties.

  3. Simbasible, I mostly agree with your take on L.A. Confidential. I remember that I was terribly disappointed by that movie! The plot wasn’t all that exciting, and I didn’t think that the cast was as great as many critics said in their reviews. It didn’t help that I am not at all a fan of Kim Basinger. I also didn’t like the totally shiny and artificial look of the movie. I was always aware that I was seeing a movie which IMO tried to imitate the classic noir look but failed. It would have helped btw if the movie had been shot in black and white like most of the classic noir movies šŸ˜‰

  4. I am glad that you agree! Totally agree with what you said about its artificial look, really made me not care for it even more. I may be in the huge minority here, but I generally tend to not care for neo-noir movies as most seem to only emulate those classic noir films, but only to a certain degree as they never fully succeed at what they are trying to do. Anyway, thanks for the comment!

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