L.A. Confidential

Just as the sunny and idyllic suburban Los Angeles makes a beautiful mask for domestic violence, Mexican women strapped to the bed, dead bodies in the basement, and a pile of gunmen in the public toilets, a cop's musty, rotten, and lost soul is framed by the aura of good intentions that got him to join the force in the first place. Touching; today's movies work the exact opposite way. (19/06/2010)

Lol, who wouldn't want to be a tough guy like Bud White? To crush criminals with a fist of stone and gently protect women with the same hand? Russell Crowe perfectly plays the type of character that earned him his fame - the type of unbreakable tough guy with character. Guy Pearce as Lieutenant Exley is his excellent counterpoint - slimy, devious... L.A. Confidential utilizes their mutual energy, which they initially repel and then unite in a deadly blow. The seemingly disparate story, which flows in all directions, harmonizes perfectly in the finale and culminates in a magnificent shootout gambit. In the end, from the genre paintings of Sinful People of L.A., it becomes detective story with a good point and with a nice twist. Curtis Hanson has proven to be a pretty cool guy - his directing swings, the images alternate with brisk action and convincing retro... it's just one big dose of "dirty" police goodness. Rough, straightforward and as graceful as Kim Basinger’s ass. Jesus fuckin´ Christ! (04/11/2007)

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. (14/02/2010)

One of the best crime movies I have ever seen, and also one of the best scripts. Complex, mysterious, unpredictable, yet not confusing, it can be understood with a little attention. Personally, (hough it is a very similar movie) better than The Usual Suspects, because whereas that one mainly benefited from its shocking ending, here everything is carefully dissected, making the whole a little better. Curtis Hanson made a great film, one of the best crime movies and one of the most accomplished scripts ever. (21/07/2004)

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". (09/04/2011)