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100Seductive and beautiful, cynical and twisted, and one of the best films of the year.
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100A movie bull's-eye: noir with an attitude, a thriller packing punches. It gives up its evil secrets with a smile.
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100A juicy noir stew of amorality that's the best thing since "Chinatown."
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100One of the best crime dramas to come along in years.
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100Voluptuously engrossing.
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100As the story unfolds, carefully and elaborately, what develops is not just a remarkably intricate crime tale but a brilliant and compassionate story of people who struggle to rise above their flawed nature. This may be the best movie of the year; it's definitely one of the greatest crime films of all time.
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100He's (Hanson) never before generated the kind of heat inside a picture--and out of it--that he has with L.A. Confidential.
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100L.A. Confidential, with an exceptional ensemble cast directed by Curtis Hanson from James Ellroy's densely plotted novel, looks to be the definitive noir for this particular time and place.
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A tough, gorgeous, vastly entertaining throwback to the Hollywood that did things right. As such, it enthusiastically breaks most rules of studio filmmaking today.
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100An irresistible treat with enough narrative twists and memorable characters for a half-dozen films.
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100Blessed substance marries beautiful style in a '90s film noir.
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95See L.A. Confidential. Be astonished at discovering anew how very, very satisfying movies can still be. And how fine that can feel.
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90Once L.A. Confidential gets rolling, it hits with power, stunning in its sweep and surprising with its plot twists.
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90L.A. Confidential is at the same time his (Hanson) most personal movie and Hollywood filmmaking at its best.
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90You have to pay close attention to follow the double-crossing intricacies of the plot, but the reward for your work is dark and dirty fun.
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90There are so many things to enjoy here.
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90This movie restores genre elements to a level of potency that's disturbing, satisfying, and rare as hell.
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88This sleek adaptation of James Ellroy's dauntingly complex novel has the black-and-white tabloid soul of an old "Confidential" magazine.
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88Lately, it seems that film noir has become the province of independent productions. As a result, it's refreshing to see a big-budget, studio effort of this sort that does nearly everything right.
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80That rare mainstream cop thriller that refuses to telegraph its outcome in the first 15 minutes or, for much of its running time, to tell you how to feel about its protagonists.
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80A movie of shadows and half lights, the best approximation of the old black-and-white noir look anyone has yet managed on color stock.
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80Hanson delivers something ever rarer in film culture, not a new film noir but an old-fashioned total movie, somehow of a single piece.
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78Full of period locations, costumes, and one very clever Lana Turner gag, it's easy to see why Ellroy is so pleased with the film.
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75The story is so complicated that the movie can't quite make it clear, but the picture has impressive energy and high-intensity performances from Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, and Guy Pearce.
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75"The Big Sleep" and "The Maltese Falcon" echo loudly throughout.
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75A glamorous, alluring entertainment that revels in the artifice of Hollywood while exposing its corrupt heart, L.A. Confidential pays stylish homage to some of the great film noirs of the distant and recent past.
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70A movie that refuses to kick into gear until it's far too late.
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60Director Curtis Hanson keeps the hugely complicated story zooming along the boulevard of broken dreams without losing sight of the details that make the trip worthwhile.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 29 out of 31
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Mixed: 2 out of 31
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Negative: 0 out of 31
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HeleneS.10Best plot, best acting, especially Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey.