The Black Dahlia

[jazzzbaby]

Sounds like they used Elizabeth Short as a centerpiece to lure an audience to a dressed up table and then served them canned baked beans for dinner.

I don't like that they used her murder & the gross aspect of it to lure & shock AND then have the story come up "Short" so to speak.

I think I will pass on this movie even when it comes to DVD. I just wished if a movie calling itself the 'Black Dahlia' would have been more about the events.

I can't tell you how many bad reviews from the public I have read on this.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Sounds like they used Elizabeth Short as a centerpiece to lure an audience to a dressed up table and then served them canned baked beans for dinner.

I don't like that they used her murder & the gross aspect of it to lure & shock AND then have the story come up "Short" so to speak.

I think I will pass on this movie even when it comes to DVD. I just wished if a movie calling itself the 'Black Dahlia' would have been more about the events.

I can't tell you how many bad reviews from the public I have read on this.

I agree entirely, but I must admit that I would not have minded so much if they had made a good film from it.

The bad reviews have kept me away as well, and I was really looking forward to this. It has been universally panned, so it is tough to spend money on it. I'll wait until cable.

 

[Feraud]

I was looking forward to seeing this movie. In the back of my mind was always a nagging feeling. Seeing Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, and Hilary Swank (all supporting actors at best) in a "love triangle" type of film gave me a bad feeling.
According to recent reviews, my first instinct was correct.

 

[scotrace]

Onward to The Next Film

Flyboys starts this Friday.
I'll skip The Black Dahlia based on reviews.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Yes, bummer. I had looked forward to seeing it, but won't now.

I may go, however, to see Hollywoodland, which is pulling quite decent reviews. A little past the golden era, but, still some time ago.

karol

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Yes, "Flyboys" does look good. But, I think I'll wait for my trusty Lounger reviews before I go to see any movie ever again!! Seems that all the ones I was looking forward to aren't worth time and money it takes to see them in the theater. I think, from now on, I'll just wait for movies to come out on cable.

 

[jake_fink]

I'm enjoying this new wave of movies set in the Golden Era and I'm not going to be too critical of them at all. This sort of thing brings the style back to public attention and it might bring people with a real interest looking for more info and may even bring them here to the Fedora Lounge. So even if the movie isn't an instant classic, sleeper, or cult favourite, or even a good flick at all, it's worthwhile in that respect, isn't it?

I see your point.

I'd also add this as food for thought: Recreating our period costs money, and when a studio pours buckets of it into a period-set film it has to perform at the box office or the stigma of period=bad investment becomes more ingrained. Remember, Curtis Hanson deliberately kept his heroes out of hats in LA Confidential because he wanted the film to feel less period, more contemporary.

It would be nice if period films were better than they have been lately, but is Gridiron Gang really that much better than Black Dahlia? It's proving to be a good investment for the studios. It cost less $ and made more $. Whatever the reviews say, if you want to see more films set in the first half of the 20thC, then you have to throw your money away at the cinema on all of them. If you just want to see good movies, well, that's a different story.

Regarding Flyboys, it will have less gore and will not be as convoluted as Black Dahlia, but from what I've seen it looks awful silly. I mean the zeppelin thing was silly in the Rocketeer, and I don't think the intervening years have made the idea any less so, and they certainly haven't made it any more original. And if one talentless pretty boy can ruffle so many feathers here (Josh Hartnett in Black Dahlia) I can't wait to see how you feel about an entire squadron of them... I mean James Franco. James Franco for crying out loud! Are you really looking forward to two hours of this guy?

I've found these most recent period films disappointing, but no more than the last round or the round before. It seems that period is defined not just as a look but as a series of cliches: the private eye; the hollywood premier - as if the 30s and 40s only existed in LA/Hollywood; the tommy gun; the sports hero coming from behind to win big... It's all so boringly pat and safe and pre-fab. As complex (perhaps also confusing) as Black Dahlia is, it's still just a quilt made of hand-me-down images, which I have to admit, as far as eye candy is concerned, look better than anything in DePalma's Untouchables . Even Hollywoodland, which felt more like a TV movie to me than something for the big screen, was built on the PI cliche. They tried to buck it a little by casting the hideously scrawny scarecrow that is Adrian Brody as a tough private detective, but it was thoroughly unconvincing, and one line that refers to Ralph Meeker is wildly inappropriate given the casting.

The best films may start with a cliche or a genre, but they rework them in complex, interesting, innovative and coherent ways. The best films have strong interesting characters and thematic or narrative structures that work as well in the third act as in the first. Good films are made by writers with original voices, directors with original visions and actors who aren't just posing prettily against well designed backgrounds. Do people like this even exist anymore!?!?

I've had so much trouble finding even just a few good - as in passable, not even excellent - movies a year in the last decade or so that with the cost of tickets and the utter horror of the modern multiplex I was just about ready to pack it in. I even quit reviewing films - something I'd always thought would be a dream job. I think I'm ready now. I'm sticking with my dvds and the tv for audio-visual entertainment. I'm declaring that the era of the feature film is dead (to me).

Now I have some weeping to do.

 

[Girl Friday]

I thought it was interesting. Movie going is about escapism after all. As long as you realize that it is a fictionalized version of an unsolved murder. A brutal and horrible murder. And knowing that Gridiron Gang beat it at the box office clearly sends the message that people like silly sports movies starting ex-wrestlers more that weird unsolved murders. [huh]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Personally, I preferred Little Miss Sunshine.

.

 

[Powerhouse]

Saw it last night...

I will have to say....


FRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


In other words...it was OK....sort of funny...not worth ten dollars...maybe $5.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I want a horn like that for my car!

.

 

[Powerhouse]

just give it plenty of gas

 

[Solid Citizen]

Out of Gas Dahlia

The Dahlia could have used some STP Oil Treatment. Where's Andy Granatelli
when we need him???lol

SC

PS FLYBOYS saw the trailer on this one watch out.The air computer graphic battle scenes look pretty cool, however back on Earth the actors didn't give off a very authentic feel IMO [huh]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

FLYBOYS ... another PEARL HARBOR? (What a stinker of a flick!)

.

 

[jake_fink]

Personally, I preferred Little Miss Sunshine.

.

Did you see Black Dahlia? It didn't sound like you were very interested.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Did you see Black Dahlia? It didn't sound like you were very interested.

I wasn't, but my better half was. And so ...

.

 

[jake_fink]

I wasn't, but my better half was. And so ...

.

When my better half chooses a movie it's usually a romantic comedy. [huh]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

My better half is from Chile. She's still trying to figure out Los Angeles, and when she heard that this was a true L.A. story, well ...

.

 

[Lincsong]

Well, it's based on a true story. There is a lot of dramatics placed in the movie.

 

[flat-top]

*spoiler*

Well, it IS a confusing movie...plot all over the place. But still, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Any movie opening with the Zoot Suit Riots is ok by me!
I wanted to love it, but I just liked it.
Did anyone else get the @$#& scared out of them at that last scene?
Holy Moly...I did NOT see that comin'!