I liked it. Not really what I was expecting, though.
I’m curious about it, because Ellroy’s one of my favorite authors, but the initial buzz hasn’t been great. Have you read the book?
According to Wikipedia (“if it’s on the Internet, it must be true!”), Ellroy really liked an early rough cut. Not sure if he’s just saying that, or if the rough cut was good and it got edited down to what is now greeted with middling reviews, but hey, at some point, the guy who wrote the book claimed to have liked what he seen a lot. FWIW. Yea.
No, but I’ve seen L.A. Confidential the movie, and this is similar.
LA Confidential was awesome! How can this be receive just “middling” reviews?
Well, it’s a little bit slow at parts, but I think what’s turning people off is that it’s a complex, character-driven film noir with a bunch of tangly subplots, in which the titular murder victim plays a less prominent role than you would suspect. It’s kind of like how Japanese roguelikes always get bad reviews here, because the reviewers are expecting an RPG, and measured by that yardstick, they don’t meet the reviewers’ expectations.
It isn’t as good as L.A. Confidential, but if you liked that, I think there’s a good chance you’ll like this.
Oh, and I’m glad Aaron Eckhart is getting bigger roles lately. He deserves them.
Not asking for the thread to be defiled, but how do you end a movie about a crime that was never solved? I guess you just decide it’s long enough and hack it off.
edit: nevermind
The book handled the ending well - I’d assume the movie uses the same ending.
Really bad movie. Stay away. (And I loved LA Confidential.)
“Fire and ice.” Ugh. I would be happy to be cut in half and have my organs removed if only it had happened before that.
And so it goes to show what a has-been (perhaps never-was) director and a nobody screenwriter can do to a hell of a novel.
I really don’t think it’s one hell of a novel. I think it is one of Ellroy’s weakest actually, the strongest being The Big Nowhere and White Jazz. I’ve always been surprised by the praise thrown its way. Ellroy really should stay away from portraying women at all, then he can be magic. I have low expectancies for this film. Maybe it’ll open up over here before Christmas.
Wow, I walked out on this one. Spectacularly bad. So, in the end does it turn out that Mr. Fire and Mr. Ice are actually the same person? That would be the cherry on the sundae. Fuck, that movie was awful.
Nice sets though.
Because Be Cool.
For some reason the promotion for the movie left me cold.
Are you confusing Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy?
Ell no. Go on and see if you can figure it out, Andrew.
Can someone do me the favor of just snipping out all the bits with Scarlett Johawtson and collecting them in a small montage? I’d be satisfied with that.
Hell yeah. I’ll take a copy of that .avi too!