Wow, get a life... If you're not interested in the relevant links I am posting to this discussion then just ignore them. I don't know what else to tell you...
I say disregard many of the critics' reviews. I've heard it's a masterpiece by many people, thus I'll be seeing it tomorrow afternoon.
A lot of DePalma's best work is unappreciated, i.e. "Femme Fatale", and a lot of his work that is appreciated is awful, i.e. "Scarface". So I'll be going into this with no expectations, hopefully I'll be pleased.
Gender: Female Location: Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom
Re: Re: Re: CRITICAL OPINION OF THE BLACK DAHLIA
Yeah there are many films that critics dislike that I love. Plus, many critics love films whereas others hate them. It's all down to taste. None of them (well the ones that I've read) have said that it's absolutely awful, so I'm sure many people will like it. Hopefully I will enjoy it too.
Umm no, spamming is against the rules therefore Morning_Glory has a point. It's nothing to do with whether she wants to visit the site or not.
Gender: Male Location: Perfect night for hunting lowlife.
seriously take my word for it, it was a complete waste of money, but if u like doing that then by all means go ahead...i had no idea why half the movie was even made it didn't even fit into the story, it was filler, awful filler...
So, I just got back from this. I'll write a much longer and in depth review later, but briefly, this was pretty bad. I'll elaborate a little.
The first act starts off pretty slow, has a few ridiculous moments, but the second act makes up for it. The first two acts are a well made film noir homage, with 'over the top' acting galore. Then the finale comes along, they're revealing who the murderer is, and I'm looking around making sure I'm seeing the same movie, because this is absolutely terrible. I'm still trying to figure out if it was supposed to be a comedy or a drama. It has the most ridiculous ending of the year. Obviously, though, Hartnett was practically made for film noir. He took the whole thing so seriously, but the other actors made it seem as if it was a joke.
This film's failure is not DePalma's fault, however, it is the source material's. I'd have rather preferred an open ending, considering that the 'Black Dahlia' murders weren't even solved anyway.
Sorry for any typos, and what not, I'm tired. Some of it may not make sense.
The Black Dahlia was a potential fantastic neo-noir homage. The first hour and forty minutes is really solid, with all of the cuts paying homage to the past neo-noir genre. Then, James Elroy threw in the most implausible ending that I've possibly ever seen. The ending doesn't do any of the film justice. I wonder how DePalma could have been involved knowing the ending beforehand. Josh Hartnett throws in a decent performance and at times I wonder if he's the only one involved that took the film seriously. Aaron Eckhart, on the other hand, was a joke and I was embarrassed to be watching him on screen. Scarlett Johansson, is a pleasure to watch, but she gives the most stiff and artificial performance out of the whole cast (however, I didn't mind her much). Hilary Swank and Mia Kershner deliver very forced performances that really flirt with the bounds of believability to an extent that's really too much to handle. Although, this film did have the DePalma trademark, the sleek, stylish shots, it just didn't cut it. The source material delivered a hack ending, it made me sad to see a good movie spiral into a complete mess in the last twenty minutes. I was emotionally baffled in many parts of the film, and didn't care for many of the characters or their conflicts. Sooner or later the film just begins to descend into a downward spiral that it can't get out of. Many people I know share the exact opposite reaction of the film, saying it's 'well crafted', they even dare to call it a 'masterpiece'. So if you're a huge Hartnett, DePalma, Elroy fan or whatever, I say give it a try because there's a pretty good chance that you may like it. But if you want to save some money I recommend renting L.A. Confidential, it's similar in many ways and has many more pros than cons.
KMC Community Forums
Sep 14th, 2006 06:48 PM
save myself $9
