L.A. Confidential (1997)

Flawless From Beginning To End
This latter-day descendant of film noir may be the most perfect movie to come out of Hollywood in my lifetime. Great story, excellent cast, show-stealing performance by a then little known Russell Crowe, classy soundtrack, violence that still manages to shock jaded modern sensibilities, and above all enough twists and turns in the masterful plot to surprise the innocent and smug alike. A fabulous achievement in filmmaking, and a rare example of a movie that is every bit as downright good as it is monumentally great. I could see LA Confidential fifty more times and never grow tired of it.

My favorite movie
Back in the day when the cops were dirty, the women were dames, and the music was jazz; LA Confidential delivers a perfect portrayl of Los Angles during the early 1950s. This is a brilliantly crafted crime drama based on James Ellroy's novel. The characters and the places appear to be so real that you wonder if this really happened (it didn't). Kim Basinger won the Oscar for her role as the "high classed whore cut to look like Veronica Lake". Guy Pearce truly shines as an up and coming police detective. Its amazing that this guy isn't a $20 mil/picture star. With enough twists and turns to keep anyone enthralled, give this a look...in fact don't look, buy it. You will watch it again and again.

Uniformly great
Sun Tzu once said that "strength everywhere is strong nowhere." That's a good way to describe this movie. It is strong everywhere. You cannot point to casting, or directing, or acting, or writing, or cinematography, and say "that's not as good as the rest." It's uniformly great. Guy Pearce was fantastic in a definite breakout performance; Kevin Spacey was dead on and Russell Crowe was completely convincing as the muscle head with he heart of gold. See, there I go -- I can't criticize any of the actors relative to the others, they were all outstanding.

Anyhow, buy this movie for your collection and you won't be disappointed. The DVD transfer on my copy was excellent, although I wish it had additional features. It's well worth full price. The movie even has a surprisingly high body count for action fans!