Black Dahlia

Pros: Excellent acting, music and directing
Cons: Ending a little contrived

My good friend and fellow Epinionator, Ed Williamson, kept bugging about a book a few years ago. He said I had to read it. Ed finally gave the book to me and I loved it. Yes, the book was James Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia." I have since read many of ...

Pros: thorough story, interesting interpretation, great use of camera and lighting
Cons: a little contrived, Hartnett doesn't work for me as narrator

The thought that Director Brian De Palma was taking on the challenge of a 1940's detective story really seemed like a perfect fit for me, and had raised my expectations of The Black Dahlia. With a successful time-period work like The ...

Pros: Good cast. Interesting idea for the plot.
Cons: Pacing. Too many subplots

The murder of Elizabeth Short, who came to be known as the Black Dahlia, has received a lot of media attention over the years even though the case remains unsolved. After seeing L.A. Confidential, I learned that James Ellroy, the man that wrote ...

Pros: De Palma's visuals.
Cons: Idiotic plot and hopelessly incompetent leads.

Let’s get one thing straight; Hollywood noir was never about the plots. The Big Sleep? Inscrutable. Maltese Falcon? Twaddle. Sensuous and dangerous, audiences were nonetheless left spellbound by the swarthy charisma of jolie-laide Bogart and the ...

Pros: Hillary Swank - rest not really worth mentioning here
Cons: Everything else

The film is based on a book by "The Black Dahlia", which again is based on a true story. I have not read this book, and after watching the movie, I don’t think I will, unless I somehow don’t have a better choice. In short, two cops, Lee Blanchard ...

Pros: Swank and Kirshner give hot and very believable performances.
Cons: The movie is a disjointed and incomprehensible mess from one end to the other.

After seeing The Black Dahlia, I immediately began chatting with God. I knew He wouldnÕt give me back the 2.06 hours of life I had just wasted watching this film. But I thought it was reasonable to ask if He would just let me live long enough to see ...

Pros: Mia Kirshner, De Palma thankfully restrained for once
Cons: Shockingly miscast, unconvincing, dull, clichéd

1940s Homicide detectives and former boxers Josh Hartnett (virtuous) and Aaron Eckhart (slightly unhinged) are assigned the sensationalised case of a murdered aspiring actress (Mia Kirshner) who was pretty much used and abused. The phenomenally overrated ...

Pros: I'm thinking....
Cons: D-E-P-A-L-M-A!!!!!

Let me clarify something before I begin this review. I'm probably going to blister the screenplay for Dahlia but I'm not going to single out writer Josh Friedman. The man responsible for the actual mess is the mad surgeon himself, Brian "the doctor" ...

Pros: Actors were strong and believable, amazing costumes and sets
Cons: Way too long...doesn't capture Ellroy's character's well...a snore

James Ellroy has given us extraordinary works such as L.A. Confidential and Brown's Requiem. Using real history as his canvas, he manages to take twists and turns like no other writer. Ellroys' infatuation with Los Angeles crime and the inner workings ...

Pros: The film ended.
Cons: The two ghastly hours the film lasted.

Based on the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short, an aspiring yet abused actress in the forties, Black Dahlia attempts to be something it’s not - - - interesting. The tale begins by haphazardly introducing two ex-boxers who have now taken to police ...