There is a myth in Hollywood amongst producers and studios that if you spend enough money and you have a bunch of old cars, clothes and sets to make a period picture, you will have a hit. Folks, it ain't necessarily so! The above mentioned factors are important but you must have a story, a script and reasonable acting to get the movie going public to vote with their dollars, especially since it is no longer five bucks to see a movie. Having said that, this picture was a COMPLETE P.A.S. (piece'a shit)! This was the worst picture I have seen this year! It was worse than that turkey, "Superman Returns"! No, it is the worst picture I have seen, PERIOD! Really bad. Trash! Are you getting me here? It's 1947 and Betty Short's mutilated body is found in South Central Los Angeles. The case was never solved. The synopsis is unusually short this week because that story of the real murder was not told in the picture. Instead they chose to use the James Ellroy fictionalized story about the killing and who and why it was done. It's a rambling, convoluted story that makes NO sense and takes WAY too long to do it. The writer must have been drunk for a week before he wrote the first word! VERY bad writing! Then there's the acting. Wow! Where do I start? Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart and Scarlett Johansson never once convinced me they were actually in the 1940's. They seemed to be 2006 actors, playing dress up in their grandmother's and grandfather's old clothes and spouting all the old sayings and hip words they either heard about or read somewhere. PLUS, the acting was just down right BAD! Horrible! Where do they find these people? The only acting that I actually "believed" was Hilary Swank who played a tramp/lesbian/accessory to murder/bastard. A very complex role that she tried to pull off to no avail because of the bad writing. This picture had so much wrong with it that I don't have space to say it all. First, they should have told us the story of the murder and the real suspects they had. We should have been able to see the actual account of the event, as we did with "Hollywoodland". Second, the actors SUCKED! These people are character actors and can not carry a picture on their own. Third, the music was so loud and overbearing, there were times that we could not hear the bad dialogue (I guess I should thank them for that). In other words, bad story, bad (REAL bad) acting and a terrible mood set by the score make for a very bad picture. Some day, and it won't be soon, I will watch this picture again and hope it won't be quite this bad the second time around. I have little faith in that. RECOMMENDATION: You and I both know how hard it was to earn that $12.00. KEEP IT! DO NOT, I say do NOT spend it to see this turkey! If you do, you will hate yourself in the morning. Rated R for sex, violence, EXTREME over use of cigarettes, language, gore and being REEEEEEEEALLY bad movie making. Trash. TWO DIRTY AND DISMEMBERED THUMBS DOWN....WAAAAAAY DOWN, LOW AS THEY CAN GO!!! (Brian De Palma, what the hell happened to you, man?) Movie Review © 2006 by Terry Anderson |
