L.A. Confidential

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)

A top-notch crime movie with an excellent cast. I must admit that I sometimes got a little lost in the sea of names and twists, but in the end everything turned out well when I found my feet again and continued watching with eyes out on stalks, watching them get to the bottom of this clever case. A flawless work. (02/14/2010)

A fairly ordinary, but intricate and cohesive retro crime drama that boasts A-list names in their younger years and a decent technical aspect. I probably don't downright share this extreme enthusiasm like the rest of the community here, but I still can't say I was bored. I guess it's just such a happy medium. (03/22/2024)

A gangster film as it should be – bloody, sometimes even brutal, with tough heroes, inconspicuous traitors, a beautiful femme fatale, and a brilliant shootout at the end. Exactly the type of movie where you give it the highest rating without hesitation at the end and the only thing you can say about it is that it is simply divine... (08/27/2006)

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)