LA Confidential | Canadian First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Movie Review | Movie Commentary
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2024
- Simone & George are reacting to L.A. Confidential for the first time! Canadians React!
For unedited full length version go to / cinebinge
Merch Store: www.cinebinge.ca
00:00 - Intro
01:21 - LA Confidential
35:15 - Discussion
Artwork by Jay McQuirns
@jaymcquirns - Instagram
www.jaymcquirns.com
Subscribe | Like | Share | Comment
Early Access & Full Reaction available on Patreon!
#moviereaction #moviereview #laconfidential
Instagram: @cinebingechannel
Instagram: @simone.swan
Movie Reactions:
• CineBinge Movies
The Witcher Reactions:
• The Witcher
Squid Games Reaction:
• Squid Game
Band of Brothers:
• Band of Brothers
Blind Playthrough:
• Blind Playthrough
![เปิดบ้านสุดหรู "เเจ็ค the ghost" ลั่นถ้าป๋องกพลลำบากผมเลี้ยงเอง!! l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1xbW4vULqGc/mqdefault.jpg)
That Rollo Tomasi line by Spacey was freaking fantastic. That chuckle and smile subtly saying "Gotcha, bitch!"
I also love Pearce's dead stare at the captain when he says it. The only problem is that it's so good I worry that the Captain would notice it right away! Ha ha.
The thing is about Spacey's delivery is that he doesn't know if this will work. It's a Hail Mary play - he's hoping that eventually Dudley will say that name to Exley, but he doesn't know for sure.
Fun bit of trivia about the scene with Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato - They were an actual couple. He was tremendously jealous of anyone that even looked at her, which lead to him beating her quite often, sometimes to the point of her not being able to film for a while. He got very jealous of a leading man of hers at one point, and came after him. Said leading man was Sean Connery, who, having started out as a body builder, beat the tar out of Johnny. Johnny wanted to put out a hit on Sean, but his compatriots essentially told him, "He's an actor. There's nothing going on between him and Turner." (which, ironically, probably wasn't true.) In the end, at one point, Johnny was beating Lana real, real bad, and her 14-year-old daughter got a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Johnny til he died. She was acquitted in one of the first ever 'justifiable homicide' cases in California.
Sounds crazy, but all true. I remember hearing about all this before this movie came out from my folks who both grew up in 1940s & 50s LA.
The Rollo Tomassi reveal was epic. We all had pretty much the same reaction you both had when we saw this.
Such a fantastic reveal. CHILLS!
I’ve seen this movie at least a dozen times and I still got goosebumps when they saw it!
An ode to Chinatown, I'm sure.
In another link to Kevin Spacey, the same ruse was later used in an episode of House of Cards.
Stunning piece of acting from Guy Pearce. No dialogue, tight close-up on his face. He has to do recognition of the name, realising what it means, and then covering his reaction so Dudley doesn't suspect in barely a second.
My favourite film of the 90s. Perfectly cast and an incredible screenplay, adapted from a great book. I watch it at least once a year. Glad you guys liked it.
The 90s were such a juggernaut for films. My favorites of all time are all 90s films: Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, LA Confidential, and The Shawshank Redemption.
The two best pieces of acting in the movie is Jack's little smile after he said "Rollo Tomasi" And Ecksley's face after Dudley says it to him. Love this movie. Been waiting for your reactions, and you didn't disappoint.
The smile is great, but for my money, my favorite little acting moment in the movie is during the initial Rollo Tomasi conversation, where Exley asks why Vincennes became a cop, and with the perfect amount of burnt-out regret and gravity, Vincennes says, "I don't remember."
@@reservoirdude92But Jack's been hustling so long, he's forgotten what it means to be a cop. That seals his fate.
A perfect setup-and-payoff combination.
LA Confidential had the misfortunate of coming out the same year as Titanic, which was such a commercial juggernaut that it vacuumed up all of the media hype and dominated awards season, and this movie seemed to have been forgotten in its wake. Which is a tragedy, because it's one of the smartest and most underrated movies ever made
There was a lot of talk about this movie that year too tho. The 90's was a really golden era of good movies as well as good blockbusters.
This is one of my favourite films. LA in the late 1940s/early 1950s was incredibly interesting, and some of the craziness is covered in both the book and film here. The video game LA Noire also explores the setting.
If this was released in any other year, it'd have done very well at the Oscars I reckon. Titanic won pretty much everything that year though!
A flawed remake of A Night To Remember really should not have overshadowed every other movie.
agree. 20s-60s is the golden era of hollywood. the films, the controversies, the shenanigans, the glitz and glamour, just top notch
@@SnabbKassa Titanic is an awesome movie but so is L.A. Confidential. Sometimes one film (especially one released late in the year) overshadows all others at the Oscars.
Titanic is pretty much junk. Very expensive junk. But still just crap.
I love that video game.
A stellar film full of stellar performances. I love everything about this film especially the story because it’s a twisty mystery with tons of twists. Everybody gives their best work here.
Russell Crowe is a force of nature in this film. An electrifying performance.
So was Guy Pierce (sp; drunk)
"Glengarry Glen Ross" is another brilliant film with amazing performances from an all-star cast that you really should consider watching.
I agree....great All-Star cast.
Shane Black’s “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and the criminally underrated “The Nice Guys” (also with Russell Crowe) are two other excellent LA-based Neo-Noirs.
Both of these are really great films, and would make great reactions.
Oh yeah, if they haven't got those on their list someone needs to change that.
The Last Boys Scout with Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans.
I've given up hope that someone would react to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It is one of my favorite movies but I don't know if it is well known enough to get the views my favorite reactors normally get.
@@SNSWoTClan One of my favorite movies. I saw a reaction to "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," but only one. I'd love to see more people react to it.
This movie should have won over Titanic as Best Picture. I love Cameron's work but Titanic is not a better movie than this, it is a more grandiose hollywoodesque one, but not a better one. I was 13 when I saw it for the first time and it has been on my list of best movies ever made since.
Definitely!
Agree to disagree, I loved this movie when it came out and I wayched it a lot. However, I'm still watching Titanic ever year at least once with out getting bored of it.
@@warrengday That doesnt make it a better movie, it makes it a more entertaining one. Space Odissey is a better movie than Titanic, but it is a heavier movie to get into and I can't blame anybody that rewatches it only when they are prepared to do so. Same thing for any Tarkovski movie: those movies require an effort that is not a given. Rewatching Tarkovski movie is not a thing you necessarily do out of boredom, you need to prepare.
Cameron movies on the other hand: good entertainment cinema. I guess I have seen T2 or Alilens more times than L.A. Confidential, that doesnt make them better movies. And they aren't.
That measure is very superficial.
I'm pretty sure that if this movie had come out in any other year than the same year Titanic did, it would be considered a legendary classic instead of being largely forgotten and underrated
@@lobachevscki Dude I watched the original version of Solaris. It was exhausting but worth it, what a trip! I also like the remake starring Clooney, it was like 20 times easier to digest. But the original was something I’ve never seen before or since. Tarkovsi was brilliant, I need to find more of his work.
Russell Crowe was almost broke while making this movie, to the point he was worrying about being thrown out his hotel due not being able to pay the bill.
Damn.
Yeah, he'd been in a few things before this but "L.A. Confidential" really made people sit up and take notice. Guy Pearce did well out of it too. 🙂
And then 3 years later he becomes the biggest name in Hollywood with Gladiator. Amazing how life works sometimes.
@@karlmortoniv2951 First noticed him in Proof, then Romper Stomper; so impressed
"Just the facts" was something Joe Friday used to say any time he was interviewing a witness about a crime on the old "Dragnet" TV show.
My dad grew up in LA in the 50s. He said that this movie captures the look and feel of the LA he grew up in more than anything else.
Kevin Spacey has some awesome roles in his career, his role in American Beauty is really great too
that PO S film reveals more about Holly wierd than any in HISTORY and as SOmeone said above SPACEY actions prob was covered up by his friends
@@michaelceraso1977 "Hollywierd" is nothing compared to the your beloved catholic church.
@@nikosvault You mean gays infiltrating the church?
More Guy Pearce... probably the most talented, low profile working actor out there (who should be in the front ranks). "Memento" by Christopher Nolan really shows his range...
Brimstone is good too.
Sam Rockwell enters the chat
This movie was nominated for best picture in '97. That was the year of the Titanic, which swept the Oscars, but did win for screenplay and supporting actress Kim Basinger.
The Rollo Tomasi part isn't in the book, but is a great addition to the story for the film.
James Ellroy really doesn't do that kind of plot-twist-reveal kind of thing, but he's amazing at conjuring a vast, festering cesspool of corruption and burning it all down. Some of his later books are written as though everyone's on amphetamines which is brilliant but rather exhausting to read. I need to take breaks between his books, which sucks because so many of them are so tightly intertwined that they'd benefit from binge-reading, but I don't have the stamina any more.
@@karlmortoniv2951 When done well, similar to the originals like Hammett and Chandler, the films far exceed the books, which can seem a bit hokey and puerile. Unfortunately this is one of the very few, if not only, well done adaptation of Ellroy's work, though.
@jean-jacquesgoebel5088 perry Mason level of production design and directing for a la confidential miniseries would be great. There's so many other plots in that book. Love this movie.
I love that, in the beginning of the film Captain Smith asks Exley if he'd be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back, to make sure he didn't get off. And then Exley ends up shooting him in the back.
That scene with Kevin Spacey whispering "Rollo Tomassi" was brilliant. Just the most subtle way of saying, "I got you, asshole. We got you."
Also, this is such an amazing film. Incredible script, incredible performances and it emulates film noir so perfectly. I find something new to be in awe of every time I watch it.
His stare as he died was awesome. The director had him stare at a spot on the wall and have James Cromwell walk in his line of sight so that when he “died” his gaze was far off and not looking directly at Capt Smith
Hard to believe this movie is over 25 years old.
One of my top 10 favorite movies of all time, of any genre.
Film schools use this movie as one of their examples of a “perfect movie”. As far as the “tortured hero”, hero facing adversity, 3rd act reveals, etc… Well written and well acted.
Incredible movie. Shoulda won the 1997 Best Picture award (shakes fist at Titanic).
I'm always curious how many people notice the questions the Captain asked him at the beginning were foreshadowing the ending.
I didn't notice that until just now, but I am not surprised!
Perfect movie. Just plain perfect. Story, characters, acting, pacing, look: perfect.
This movie is an absolute masterpiece; Bud confronting Exley remains hair-raising no matter how many times I've seen it, and the catharsis of the two of them finally working together afterwards still makes me grin from ear to ear.
This is one of my favorite movies. The callback to Dudley's lecture at 3:10 at the end of the big shootout is absolute karma.
This movie was pretty damn good, and easily one of the best I've seen in the last 20 years. The story, acting, characters, set pieces, time period, everything came together well for an epic film.
"Would you be willing to plant corroborative evidence on a suspect you knew to be guilty, in order to ensure an indictment? Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back, in order to offset the chance that some... lawyer...? "
Exley at the end of the film "yes"
I've always loved how the tipping point for him is that he can't take the hypocrisy of Dudley holding up his badge to identify himself as a cop.
When this movie came out in '97, the most high-profile actor in it was Kevin Spacey. The rest were a bunch of unknowns. How times have changed.
Yes and no, Spacey was probably the most high-profile actor in it at the time but everyone knew DeVito and Basinger and James Cromwell had just been nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Babe a year or two before so the rest weren't exactly unknown. This is the film that jump started Pearce and Crowe's careers but the rest of the cast weren't unknowns.
@@88wildcat And both Pearce (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) and Crowe (Romper Stomper) were known as rising stars in film circles but mostly unknown to the general public. Although this is Crowe's third or fourth American film behind both The Quick and the Dead and Virtuosity.
The best line of the film is at the end- “hold up your badge… so they know you’re a policeman.” It’s amazing how that line basically sums up the corruption in the film.
to quote Cypress Hill: "I'm in the biggest gang you ever saw, we're called the law. Lookin' through the eye of a pig I see it all"
For those wondering, Mickey Cohen was a real gangster and he was the biggest mobster in Los Angeles for a time. He wasn’t necessarily part of the Five Families (New York Mob) but he did heavily associate with guys like Meyer Lanksy and Bugsy Siegel, Cohen’s boss. Movies always portray Cohen as a drug dealer or absolutely bonkers but in real life, he was mostly a stable boss who detested drugs.
Fun fact for Simone, who I think has mentioned this movie before: this film is directed by the late Curtis Hanson, the same man who directed In Her Shoes with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette.
Fun to see James Cromwell's name come up and to assume he's being recognized for Babe but then Simone flashes the LLAP.
The film is not based on a true story, but it takes inspiration from real-life crime and corruption stories, including using the real LA gangster Mickey Cohen as part of its story. It gives the film a sheen of realism and a complexity that makes it more compelling. Even Jack's TV show "Badge of Honor" is based on a real TV show, "Dragnet," which was one of the most popular TV crime procedurals. It started on the radio in 1949, before starting on TV in 1951, where it ran until 1959. It was revived in 1967 and ran until 1970, and then again 1989-1991, and 2003-2004. There was also a comedy movie version of it in 1987 starring Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd. My guess is that even if you've never seen the show, you've heard the theme song. The line, "Just the facts, ma'am" is from the show, and if you ever see Die Hard 2 there's a little nod to it. Also, yes, Lana Turner was a real movie star, and in fact, her bodyguard Johnny Stompanato was also a real guy. He eventually started dating her, until Lana Turner's daughter killed him defending her mother when he tried to beat her -- one of the more famous Hollywood crime stories.
The movie is based on a novel by author James Ellroy, although recently Ellroy told The Hollywood Reporter that he thought the film was "a turkey," even though he respected Hanson as a filmmaker and suggested it was no more his right to tell Hanson how to make a film than it would be for Hanson to tell him how to write a book.
There were talks of a sequel fairly recently, with plans for Pearce and Crowe to reprise their roles in a story that Ellroy had developed with this film's screenwriter Brian Helgeland, with the idea that Chadwick Boseman would star as a younger cop. As you can probably guess, that idea fell apart when Boseman passed away. There were also two attempts to make it into a TV show, the first in 2000 with Kiefer Sutherland playing the Jack Vincennes role, and then again in 2019 with Walton Goggins as Vincennes, and Scott Pilgrim's Mark Webber as Bud White.
They probably wouldn't do super-great on the channel just because they're older movies, but I hope you two watch some classic film noir. Three obvious recommendations would be The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, and Touch of Evil -- you've actually seen a tiny bit of Touch of Evil before, when it was playing on a TV in the film In Bruges. Also, I just mentioned it on your Collateral video, but I'll say it again: the true-story drama The Insider deserves to be on your radar alongside this as one of Russell Crowe's best performances. Also the recent comedy The Nice Guys, which reunites Crowe with Kim Basinger, 19 years after this film.
Also, the movie did receive nine Academy Award nominations, and it won two, for Best Supporting Actress (Basinger) and Best Adapted Screenplay. And the poster is probably arranged in order of fame, with Basinger having become an A-lister off of Batman (1989). She hadn't had many hits after that but remained incredibly famous, and of course Spacey was coming off of The Usual Suspects and Seven. Crowe and Pearce were both unknowns in America in 1997, with Crowe having a couple of major Australian acting awards for 1991's Proof (an incredibly great, underrated film) and 1992's Romper Stomper, and Pearce having broken out with the cult drag comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (also great), and pushing Basinger, Spacey, and DeVito on the posters was akin to the way the movie got made, leveraging established star power to allow Hanson to cast the younger actors, who are absolutely great and carry the movie.
Last but not least, "neo-noir" is correct. I'm sure you were kidding, but it doesn't mean "kinda noir," it means "new noir" -- anything made outside of the classic noir period of the 1940s through to *maybe* the 1960s is probably a neo-noir.
Gotta give some major props to the late Curtis Hanson, who directed and co-wrote this. Up until then, he was known for cheesy thrillers like The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, but this movie really showed how talented he was. He followed it up with well-received movies like 8 Mile and In Her Shoes. This one is probably what he'll be remembered for, though.
Your movie suggestions are spot on, and are important milestones in our cinema history. The opening shot, alone, of Touch of Evil is worth the price of admission!
In that same talk where Ellroy called this movie a turkey he referred to himself as “the American Fyodor Dostoevsky” and talked about how much he genuinely loves the LAPD. Yikes.
3 great recommendations right there. Film Noir at its finest(along with, The Third Man)!
One of the great American movies. A movie that could play in any period of time that movies have existed. The phrase "they don't make 'em like this anymore" truly applies. Timeless.
One of the greatest movies of all time, yet rarely talked about in that sense. The Rolo Tomassi reveal is just SO epic. Great reaction you two, as usual!
I don't think I've ever seen you two speak so little during a movie :D
Ville nerds out with James Ellroy stuff, bear with me, please. This might be a long-ass comment.
So, it's based on an excellent and incredibly complex novel -- that's actually the third in the series, L. A. Quartet. If you're interested in the book, I really, really, really, really recommend reading the two earlier books. They lay the background and introduce many characters that are in this story, too. The first one is about the Black Dahlia murder that George mentioned. It's twisty and intense as fuck. I first read it on the recommendation that it's actually an amazing psychological horror novel. Ellroy himself was obsessed with the murder and conflated it with the unsolved murder of his own mother. It shows. It's really dark, though; I recommended it to an ex and deeply disturbed, she never again trusted my book recommendations. But several of my friends thanked me for the recommendation and said that it's the best-written novel they'd ever read by that point. Some blurb on the back cover of one of Ellroy's book said that he's like a man possessed writing about men possessed.
Just don't expect the story in the book(s) to be like this one is. They changed a LOT but somehow still retained most of the spirit and the passion of the book. Ellroy is amazing at describing the impact of reveals on his characters. Such drive, much obsession, wow.
Bloody Christmas was an actual event. Mickey Cohen and Johnny Stompanato were real people and the latter actually dated Lana Turner. Ellroy likes mixing fact with fiction.
IIRC, the interrogation techniques that Exley (let alone White) uses wouldn't be legal anymore. This was more than a decade before the so-called Miranda warning.
Someone said in their Letterboxd review that the three main characters are basically the ones from The Wizard of Oz: Exley gets courage, White gets a brain, and Vincennes gets a heart.
Yeah, Ellroy's a rabbit hole. I loved "Black Dahlia" but frickin' ADORED "The Big Nowhere." That's peak James Ellroy for me. I really need to have another go at "White Jazz" - that didn't land with me at all but someone whose opinion I respect says it's her favorite of the four. I haven't gotten through all three of his "American Tabloid" trilogy yet (were there only three? I lost track.) but those are epic-scaled fever dreams encompassing everything that one might have queasy feelings about in '60s America. The book Ellroy wrote about his mother's murder is kind of amazing, and seems a lot more disciplined than a lot of his more recent fiction.
I have no idea how Curtis Hanson spun the screenplay for this movie out of the book "L.A. Confidential." Ellroy did NOT plot his stuff in such a way that it makes for an easy transition to the big screen. Not sure I can come up with an example of such a smart adaptation from an epic-length book except maybe "East of Eden" which got to be what it became by eliminating 70% of the book.
@@karlmortoniv2951 I felt the exact same way about White Jazz. I’m hoping I vibe with it more now. American Tabloid was pretty good, but I missed strong characters.
@@karlmortoniv2951 Oh, and I dug The Big Nowhere a lot, too. Some parts of it have burned themselves forever into my brain. I wasn’t completely satisfied with it back in the day, though, so I’m wondering how it’ll be on a reread. I just started rereading Black Dahlia yesterday and I intend to read all four. I’m so excited!
I love this film. Pretty much everything about it. The acting, the lighting, the tone, the noir feel, how everything from costumes to music fits perfectly with the 50's era (even the instrumental background music, using a lot of horns to play the movie's themes, sounding like the old big band stuff of that time). And the story -- how it's this set of three seemingly different stories going on, for Bud, Ed and Jack, and then slowly but surely you see it all coming together and realize that they're all interconnected and the 3 should be working together -- is so clever. And the pacing just ratchets up from there, when the stories finally merge and the stakes get so high, and Ed and Bud start working together. It's all so good!!
I remember seeing this in the theatre, and at the end of the film I realized that I'd been clutching my purse in my lap for probably the final 20 minutes of the film without even realizing it, I was so into everything going on and feeling the tension and wondering how on earth they were going to resolve everything. I didn't move, I was so riveted.
So glad that the screenplay won an Oscar -- the book is so detailed and complicated that it probably was really challenging to condense into what became this film, but I think they did a brilliant job. Likewise, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey deserved joint acting awards for their work on this film. They were fantastic and unique characters, and didn't shy away from playing the darker flaws that each of those characters had.
Thanks so much for reacting to it! I'm thrilled you liked it. 😊
Thank you so much for this great movie. Guy Pearce's frozen expression when James Cromwell says "Rollo Tomassi" to him is a master class in conveying a man fighting to keep absolutely cool.
Nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture but won for Best Supporting Actress Kim Basinger and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Sadly it lost to Titanic, which was such a commercial juggernaut that it captured all of the media hype that year, and this movie seemed to have been forgotten in its wake. Which is a tragedy, because this is one of the smartest, best written movies in decades.
I remember watching this with my dad at the movies. So many great twists. Incredible dialogue and fantastic editing. The pace is so perfect. It's always moving along. Also feels like a tribute to 40's and 50's era crime films. One of the best films of the 1990's.
Brilliantly paced, written and acted. One of the best offering of the 90'S.
One of my all time faves, I’ve seen this at least forty times and I’m always catching a little detail I hadn’t noticed before.
As much as I love the Rollo Tomassi reveal, my favorite bit of acting in the film also comes from Spacey. When Ed asks Jack why he became a cop, and Jack freezes and says with a whisper ‘I don’t remember.’
I love that scene. It’s heart wrenching because you can see that Jack wanted to be a good cop but got swept up in the glitz of Hollywood and found himself taking bribes and setting people up. THAT wasn’t why he became a cop.
Great acting all around and absolutely perfectly cast.
A great film -- and proof that, if Hollywood wants to make a movie out of your novel, Curtis Hanson is the guy you want in charge. I'd also recommend his adaptation of Michael Chabon's *Wonder Boys* (starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, and Robert Downey, Jr.). Hanson's skill at preserving the essence of a novel in spite of the enormous amount of material that is inevitably cut out is unmatched (IMHO).
Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent score is another great strength of this film. His music infuses the whole thing with that "Hollywood film noir vibe"... partly because Goldsmith *invented* that vibe in films like *Chinatown.* There's also a beautiful, almost note-for-note, call-back (in the last scene) to Leonard Bernstein's score for *On the Waterfront.* (And I love the use of drums in the Bloody Christmas scene. Gotta love the drums.)
"Just The Facts" is a quote from an old tv series called Dragnet.
2 scenes stamd out to me. Jack (Spacey) dying, you can literally feel the life leaving his eyes. And Exley's (Pierce) reaction when Dudley (Cromwell) mentions Rollo Tomassi, the surprise, realization and anger all hitting one after the other in a single look. Amazing face acting by both of them
One of the best crime noir films.
Crowes character is what makes this movie for me.
Your opening comment had me thinking, I believe Spacey was cleared of the crimes ,
My favorite small detail is how they imply that the reason Exley is the only detective at the station to get the Night Owl call is because he wasn't wearing his glasses and so couldn't see what time it was.
That's an amazing detail. I've never noticed that before.
I love this movie to death. It's just all together a brilliant piece of art.
One of my all-time favorite films. Nearly perfect.
It was a travesty that Titanic beat this masterpiece at the Oscars for Best Picture.
In the same manner Goodfellas should have won Best Picture instead of Dances With Wolves.
Kevin Spacey's character using the name "Rolo Tomasi" to signal to Ed Exley that the Captain is corrupt is one of my favorite parts of the film. I remember being so shocked when the Captain shot him, and got chills when those were his last words, and then he died kind of laughing, like, "You may have just killed me but I just got you, you son of a bitch." And then the look on Ed's face, trying to remain neutral when he knows what that name means... huge. I definitely had chills too, Simone.
I also love the scene where Ed and Bud get into that huge fight in the records room, and they finally calm down enough to talk it through. The moment Bud helps Ed up from the floor and they start working together... chills again! SO GOOD! (I especially love how Bud says, "The Night Owl case made you. You want to throw that all away?" and Ed says, "With a wrecking ball...")
Johnny Stompanato was a real man. He was an enforcer for Mickey Cohen, if I remember correctly. Regardless, he really did date actress Lana Turner. One night, Johnny went to beat Lana when, as he often did, when Lana’s daughter, Cheryl Crane intervened and stabbed him to death. It’s been alleged that Crane attacked Johnny and her mother covered for her but it’s unknown how true that may be.
I believe he followed Turner to the UK when the studio sent her over to make a film (and get her away from him), He turned up on set with a gun only to be disarmed and sent running by her young co-star in the movie - Sean Connery..
It's Chinatown, Jake
Wait, wrong movie
This was an incredibly bold move for the director/casting director- hiring two virtually unknown Aussies to helm a powerhouse movie like this one. Career-launching for both. (Also, while I’ve always found Crowe’s American accent pretty convincing, Pearce’s is absolutely impeccable.)
Great reaction video, this movie IS so smart, as you mentioned, but my great joy comes in watching others, such as yourselves, discover the twists and turns in the plot, your delight in figuring out this amazing puzzle and how you respond to it all as it unfolds, brilliant, it really does challenge the viewer, a testament to the writing, direction, music, and of course every single actor involved, there was never a single false step to give away the fact that they're all just playing a roll, they all committed and sold this thing, should have swept the Oscars, great job, guys
So glad you guys watched this! "LA Confidential" is like a big, beautiful, gourmet meal.
The movie is based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy. He has this ratt-a-tat-tat style of writing that adds the old feel to the pulp fiction story. He's an amazing writer. Highly recommend the book. Such a great movie. You forget Russell Crowe & Guy Pierce are Australian. Great American accents. Thanks for reacting!
Not only was this the highlight of Basinger's career, but there is literally not a bad line delivery by anyone in the movie. Two of the three leads being Australian actors who weren't well known in the US at the time was totally gutsy by director and studio and paid off big-time.
Such a great film (and great reaction, of course). I live in LA and love driving by or visiting some of the locations in this film like the Frolic Room and the Formosa Cafe that are actually still intact, given L.A.'s habit of razing historic sites.
So glad somebody decided to react to this classic!!!! Great reaction!!! L.A. Confidential has easily one of the Top 5 greatest screenplays in film history!! Absolutely ❤ this movie!!!!
LA Confidential is one of the best-written, most meticulous films in history and was the true best film of 1997, in my opinion, having been nominated for 9 Oscars and winning 2 awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Kim Basinger.
Russell Crowe was in your movie poster/cover way in the back. Even though I recognized him when this film came out, I had never actually watched a film he was in, so this was my first time watching him act. This film pretty much jumpstarted both Crowe and Guy Pearce's careers in the late 90s and early 2000s, with Crowe getting 3 consecutive Best Actor nominations from 1999 through 2001 and winning in 2000 for Gladiator. Guy Pearce starred in the highly acclaimed Christopher Nolan film Memento in 2001. Kevin Spacey was in the middle of a roll 2 years earlier having just won Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects in 1995 and then 2 years later winning Best Actor for American Beauty in 1999.
LA Confidential ranks as probably my favorite film of all times. Great acting by everyone, brilliant writing and directing, and a film that didn't pull any punch and felt very grounded for post WW2 Los Angeles.
This is one of my all time favorite movies, I consider it practically perfect, ranking up there with Lone Star (1996), and my fave The Station Agent (2003).
Russell Crowe read the book and felt he was physically wrong for the part of Bud White, who is described in the book as being a giant of a man. Thankfully, Curtis Hanson convinced him that he could do the job
Kevin Spacey on K-pax (2001) Great performance
Love this movie so much. One of the all time underrated films. I saw this in the theaters and was thinking it was just an average film until the screen with the 3 suspects. That scene goes from zero to so intense in just a flip of a switch.
"L.A. Confidential" has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and it was nominated for a whopping 9 Academy Awards and won in two categories. It also won DOZENS of film making awards around the world. In fact, it's on the most highly rated films from the 90's. It's not some obscure art film that's been forgotten.
@@Col_Fragg nerds love to say things are underrated
It's regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time. It's not underrated.
@@TequilaToothpick "L.A. Confidential" didn't get nearly as much attention during awards season because that was "Titanic"'s year, so I'd call it a bit underrated.
Underrated is subjective so I can see why some don’t see it that way. But, it lost to Titanic in terms of the Academy Awards, Is seldom talked about now with many of their moves from 1997 discussed before this film. The kicker is, it was the 65th in the box office in 1997. Think about that, audiences felt there were 64 other films they would rather watch than this. I remember begging my friends to watch this and many thought it was just some art house film.
One of my favourites of all time. Excellent cast, brilliant acting, great script and direction. Has it all.
My mom was born and raised in Bisbee, Arizona. She always gets a chuckle at this movie
Kevin Spacey was cleared of all charges. Also this is an amazing movie that I doubt could be made in recent years.
24:54, "Just the facts, Jack." Is a reference to the cop show that Jack Vincennes appears on, but the quote is a reference to a very old TV show, called Dragnet. It starred Jack Webb. He and his partner were L.A detectives in the early 50's and when they interviewed witnesses, Jack Webb would always say, "Just the Facts, mam, or sir, just the facts."
My second favorite film of all time. I love the clockwork crime case, the acting, the incredible score and especially the period set and costume design. There are so many amazing lines and moments that still give me chills today. Between "Rollo Tomassi" and "Show them your badge, let them know you're a cop." Such a great film and one I recommend to everyone who appreciates film noir storytelling.
This is my all-time favorite movie. I watch it every year on new years eve (along with Long Kiss Goodnight). Your reactions were the best!! Thanks so much for your channel, I so enjoy it.
one of the things that isn't really revealed is the probability that the three youths who "escaped" more than likely were just let go by one of Dudley's men and reported as escape in order to kill them later.
This is my favorite film of that year. SO dense and amazing in tone and plotting.
Oooh a classic! Great performances and amazing script. :D
It's the third (I think) novel in the LA Quartet by James Ellroy, a police thriller writer whose own mother was killed in an unsolved rape and murder. (In the novel, Smith doesn't die.)
No other movies as yet, but the books are worth reading. There's a new LA Quartet that Ellroy is working on.
If you rewatch this pay close attention to when Exley knocks the shotgun upwards when they enter the Nite Owl suspects house. In the background you can see Smith's men look at each other and both have "what do we do now" looks on their faces.
"They're talking about something entirely different..." Yes they are, and that's Exley's first clue. This scene is interesting because it highlights the difference between Exley and Bud White - Exley is cool and manipulative while Bud is explosively violent, but it takes BOTH of them to get the information they need, and Exley is smart enough to notice that. So it foreshadows what happens later in the film.
The film is a character study. All three of the protagonists are flawed in different ways, but those flaws - Exley's ambition, Bud's violence, and Jack's cynicism and small scale corruption - actually help them solve the mystery. The system is imperfect because people are imperfect, and the choice we face isn't between good and bad, it's between bad and worse.
There's a TV miniseries called Mob City which deals with Los Angeles during the late '40s, which you might enjoy.
You gonna love The Departed by Martin Scorsese guys. It's a crime drama as well,just like LA.give it a shot guys!
Right up until the last 5 minutes. Then it becomes complete farce.
"The Aviator" with Leo Dio is also a great movie.
Aw hell yes! I am so happy you're doing this, great great film.
In over 40 years of going to the movies, this was one of he few instances where I witnessed a collective gasp from the audience. Great film - glad the studio had the confidence in the director and not butcher it in editing for fear that it was too long and too slow a burn for the audience.
I remember seeing this in the theater, and it's been in my top five favorite films ever since. Such an excellent movie!
The movie I named myself after on the internet
I was today years old when I realised the hole in the floor White hides in was the one he made tearing the chair up.
Edit: And I saw this when it came out and have seen it loads of times since...
One of the greatest films ever made!
"Rollo Tomasi." remains the most awesome wham line that I've ever seen.
I still can’t believe that this absolute Masterpiece lost the Oscar for best picture to Titanic. As far as quality of the acting, story lines, and cinematography titanic doesn’t compare. But Titanic was a hit at the box office and a hit for pop culture due to Leo and Winslet love story. Titanic is a very good movie and very popular but as far as quality of movie it don’t come close to LA Confidential. Great review.
That Victory Hotel gunfight was a fantastic surround sound demo at the time.
Shirley Temple was 25 when this movie takes place.
This might be my favorite noir film. I had no idea where it was going for most of the runtime, and I was very satisfied by the end of it.
In the scene, she was made to look like how she was when she was a child, though.
Keep 'em intrigued and entertained - that'll do movie, that'll do.
So glad you loved this classic masterpiece.
This movie is one of my favorites of all time. Very stylish. Awesome acting.
This is the movie where I recognized Russell Crowe and Guy Pierce for the first time.
Good reaction!
6:47 Thank you, Simone, for mentioning Alias! Love that show. Ron Rifkin was great as Arvin Sloane. And technically, he won which is very rare to see happen, pyrrhic victory that it was. Gotta complete the Spacey trifecta. Three great, star-studded, Oscar-winning films. American Beauty (1999), LA Confidential (1997), Usual Suspects (1995).
Worth mentioning: when the rubber met the road, Axley did shoot a man he knew was guilty in the back, despite what he said Dudley in the beginning.
This is one of the best police movies I've ever seen. Many great (and logical) twists.
This looks like a great movie. I always planned to watch it and I certainly will now! Thanks guys.
The cool thing alot of people miss is at the beginning when one the things Cromwell asks guy is will you shoot a hardened criminal in the back to make the case and guy says no and at the end thats what he does to Cromwell !....couple other good ones in this vein are hollywoodland,auto focus, and black rain
Hey Simone! Totally agree with you on Spacey's performance during Jack Vincennes' death (that 'breath leaving his body' relaxing is great). Too bad about Spacey as a human being. And great job for picking up on the two-man shooter teams being sent by Cpt. Smith (one of them being Stenzland and Meeks) earlier in the movie.
I completely agree. It was difficult for me first to separate Kevin Space from his roles. Once I managed, I can enjoy again: K-Pax, American Beauty and Negotiator.
@@thejamppa he did win the New York trial ...lots of accusations but thats all so far.
@@dturasky19 The trouble there is that aquittal/victory is not the same as innocence. Innocent people get convicted and guilty people get free, it might be that Spacey simply had a better legal team.I just hope the accusations aren't true, not for him, but so that those things didn't happen to the victims.
@@theaikidoka we may never know, just in todays world immediately you are guilty until proven innocent in many ways.
One of the things that makes this movie such a brilliant adaptation of the novel is that (almost) every decision to change something from the novel works for the story in the movie.
James Ellroy's novel is easily twice as complicated as the story here. Literally, they cut out the second major plotline completely, just ot have a workable length for a film story.
So, for example, in the novel, the reader knows from the prologue that Dudley Smith is the bad guy (and readers who read the previous two books in the series knew damn well that Smith was rotten anyway). Jack Vincennes is not killed by Dudley, and there is no "Rollo Tomisay", that was a brilliant invention by the screenwriter and the director to simplify how Exley figures out that he's up against Dudley.
And the ending is, not bleaker, but more tentative, because Exley swears to Bud White that he's going to bring Dudley Smith down (which he does in the fourth book of the LA Quartet, _White Jazz._ )
The plotline that was cut from the book could never have been made in a Hollywood movie. There's a Walt Disney analogue who turns out to be the father to a serial killer, and you find out that Dudley Smith convinced him that the wrong son of his was the killer, so he participated in setting up an "accident" to kill his own son, then has to participate in the fall of his other son, the real serial killer. (I kinda think James Ellroy hates Walt Disney for some reason.)
Oh, and the show _Badge of Honor_ is an analogue of the real show _Dragnet,_ which was an influence on Ellroy as well. "Just the facts" was Sgt. Joe Friday's most famous recurring line from the show.
All these years later, and I still have my Rollo Tomassi goosebumps, too!
Oh, and if you want to see the two leads in an earlier film, watch "Proof" from the early 90s (great Australian drama)!
One of the greatest crime/drama movies of the 90s! Incredible story telling!
Greatest movies and story telling, were made in the 80s and 90s!
LOVE this flick. Great story, great cast. Just a really good movie.