The Black Dahlia (2006)

This movie tried to be too many things and not really sure what kind of movie it's suppose to be. Sometimes it's a murder mystery, sometimes it's a love story, sometimes it's a thriller. The camera work was inconsistent and I feel like The Black Dahlia was just a background story. Which would be fine, but the movie is called Black Dahlia, so you go in thinking it's going to be about her with smaller stories supporting the major plot. Not a movie I would watch twice, but it's good enough if nothing else strikes your interest and you want to see some decent enough acting.

Two policemen see their personal and professional lives fall apart in the wake of the "Black Dahlia" murder investigation. The Black Dahlia has an impressive and talented cast but it's a poor man's Sin City and a poor film Noir and what makes it a suprising failure is that it was directed by Brian De Palma (Scarface, Carlito's Way and Mission Impossible). The overall plot is also boring and the characters are so bland, overall a waste of time and talent. (0/10)

Brian DePalma assembled a good cast for this attempt to memorialize a famous Hollywood legend from the 1940s as a film noir. He had already proved with the magnificent "Chinatown" that he could realize the noir style as well as any contemporary director, so we are left to puzzle over what went wrong here. Notwithstanding an excessive amount of screen time devoted to a single boxing match, I still really liked the first half of this movie, which took its time developing the characters and story using classic noir tropes and compelling cinematography, all of which promised a splendid overall experience. Then came the second half, in which the sheer volume of subplots, plot twists, and added complications overwhelmed the actors' ability to fend off self-parody. It made me sad. It was as if DePalma had been halfway through making a good (if overlong) three-hour movie when he suddenly realized he had only a half hour of film left to finish it. (Did he ran out of money?) In the end, he tried to tie everything together with a series of brief, confusing, talky, and even ludicrous scenes that were a poor substitute for letting the audience think along with a protagonist while he pieced things together on his own.

The Black Dahlia, 2006.*Spoiler/plot- In 1940's Los Angeles, two LAPD detectives get involved in the famous gruesome murder of a Hollywood starlet.*Special Stars- Aaaron Eckhart, Hillary Swank, Scarlett Johanson, Josh Harnett. DIR- Brian De Palma. *Theme- Things are never of what they seems, even to detectives.*Trivia/location/goofs- Exteriors shot entirely in Los Angeles.*Emotion- A confusing detective story artificially wrapped up in the famous murder case of the 1940s. Very seedy plots and violence in this film seems to be gimmicks to make the film more interesting that it really is.*Based on- The Los Angeles 1940's Black Dahlia murder case.