The Black Dahlia:

Logan LeBlanc

Logan LeBlanc

Well-known member
This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long, long, long, long, long, long time. I thought M. Night dropped the ball w/ Lady in the Water,but De Palma has killed any glimmer of cinematic hope I had for him. The acting was HORRIBLE and the story, idiotically convoluted and pretentious. I felt embarrassed that I dragged my girlfriend and her 2 friends to that movie. Goddamn you Brian De Palma. Goddamn you straight to hell. I want my money back. Ciao'
 
Yeah, it's not so good.

Very sloppy film. Disjointed story that's harder to follow than it needs to be. Way too many scenes that do little to move the film forward. Basically every scene with Johannson could have been cut out of the movie, cuz whenever she was on the screen nothing seemed to happen.

The film seemed to never actually be about the Black Dahlia. It never seemed like the case was the focus... then next thing you know they solved it.

I'd recommend waiting for this to come out on video... maybe there's a directors cut that'll turn this into a better movie. This pales in comparison to LA Confidential, though it seems like they tried to relive the magic of that film.

The only bright spot would be a cool pov shot from Hartnet's pov when he meets Swanks family... only it completely takes you out of the film as the shot is completely different from every other shot and happens halfway into the film.

I won't damn DePalma to hell. He gets a pass for sure cuz he's entertained me a lot with past films. I only hope he gets another kick at the can to deliver a better last film before he calls it a career.
 
On a totally unrelated note...

just looked up some stuff on Dahlia and found out De Palma's birthday is Sept 11 :(

Damn
 
I think DePalma should be executed by The Academy for this piece of crap.

There was absolutely no structure, I didn't give a crap about an of the characters and towards the end everyone was snickering every 5 seconds because there was no way to try and take it seriously anymore.

As a filmmaker and a fan of movies in general, I was honestly insulted by this thing.
 
i really enjoyed the film. i agree that it didn't really focus a whole lot on the case, but what the case did to the people involved. it made them obsessed, driven to find the horrible person that could have done what they did to that woman. i agree that any scene with scarlett in it should have been cut, not because of it having no reason, but because her acting was HORRIBLE. that's what really ruined the movie for me. Swank, Eckhart, and Hartnett all did a great job in their parts, but Johanssan just can't act. i cringed when they showed the slicing of the mouth cause the thought of that happening to me, freaks me out. the film was shot incredibly well. i loved the shots of Hartnett sitting at his desk in focus, and showing Eckhart, and the Sgt, in the background in focus as well, and the shot of Eckhart standing outside the building and showing everything going on in the stairwell after the shooting. wasn't the greatest film of the year, but it was enjoyable. they should have put at the end, that the case still hasn't been solved to this day...
 
Logan LeBlanc said:
Yeah but you live in Hell (your avatar), so you're used to this kind of torture, haha!
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Nice one. :) I even read that in Mr. T's voice which made it all the funnier.
 
Logan LeBlanc said:
Dude your avatar is scary as hell! What/who is that?
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It's a pic of a baby that was crying/screaming that was photoshopped to look like that. Somone e-mailed me a series of that same baby pic in several different photoshoped images. Unfortunately I wasn't the one who did it. Cause if I did I would be damn proud and more than a little surprised. The avatar is just here for the Horrorfest. After that I will return to normal broadcasting.
 
Yeah, I have to agree... that is one sick avatar! Everytime I see it, I get the willies! And it is funny, I read that with Mr. T's voice, too. (Kinda hard not to when you see him there.) Very funnny.

Nothing more to add, just came across this thread.
 
Logan LeBlanc said:
I want my money back. Ciao'
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Whenever you buy something you dont like you can get your money back or change it for another item
Movies should be the same. Tons of crap would never see the light.
Of course everyone would say the movie sucked just to get the cash back.
So its never going to happen.
 
I cannot wait to see this film. De Palma is probably my 3rd or 4th favortie filmmaker. That is a list I'd have to carefully construct after the first 2 shoe-ins of Tarantino and Spielberg

There is a huge discrpancy between these two sites:

IMdb: 7.1/10 (558 votes)

Rotten Tom: 4.9 / 10 or 31% like it

EW: B -

But then again, De Palma usually does get mixed results. He is one of the more daring filmmakers working even if this does feel more traditional (Like his Mission: Impossible spin)
 
The film is gorgeous the directing is great, but around 2/3rds of the way through it i looked at my friend and said do you get this? he looked at me blankly. It felt like it would have been better as a TV show, or some sort of pacing. I didnt think it was all that terrible though. Not the best ever, but not too bad. Definatly a must see for anyone familiar with De Palma and anyone who wants to learn how to make a beautiful movie
 
DePalma WAS a god... he's pretty much off his game these days.

Dahlia was awful, considering the book was fairly mesmerizing. The movie had none of Elroy's voice in it, which is a huge problem. Casting was so-so, many things weren't explained or explored (like why the cops became obsessed with Short) and the end was so rushed-let's end this-kind of a feel.

The biggest flaw, for me, was that the Dahlia was barely in the movie or a focus of the film. The book was interesting because so much happened in the background of the Dahlia murder. In the film, it was easy to forget Short was even murdered.

Lazy and sloppy movie making. Horrendous script adaptation. Overall, a waste of ten bucks and a Friday night.

P.S.
De Palma was a customer of mine when I managed retail ten years ago. To say that he was an a$$ would be an understatement.
 
when I got out of this movie I told the lady friend I was with "I'm going to find all the people who said this movie was supposed to be good and I'm going to choke them." I meant it at the time.
 
Cynic821 said:
The film is gorgeous the directing is great, but around 2/3rds of the way through it i looked at my friend and said do you get this? he looked at me blankly. It felt like it would have been better as a TV show, or some sort of pacing. I didnt think it was all that terrible though. Not the best ever, but not too bad. Definatly a must see for anyone familiar with De Palma and anyone who wants to learn how to make a beautiful movie
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I'm actually very "used to" De Palma which made it an even bigger let down. Of course his stuff will look great, it always does, but there was nothing daring or original about his directing at all in the Dahlia. I don't mind camp, but there's a fine line between that, and huge B movie. And I'm sorry, but the acting was crap but I guess I can only blame the "normally great" actors (Hartnett not included) so much.

Bottom line, I usually buy DVDs form my favorite directors, even if I didn't really like the movie. I guess it's kinda like a "collect the whole set" thing, but buying a DVD I know I'll NEVER EVER watch again despite it's beauty, well, I think I'll just keep my $20.
 
De Palma is god.

That's all I need to know. The fact that this man did:

Obsession
Carrie
The Fury
Dressed to Kill
Blow Out
Scarface
Body Double
The Untouchables
Casualties of War

... cements his status in 'film godness' for me.

I'm a little bummed to be seeing Dahlia reviews coming out negative but willl reserve judgement for a later date when I see it.
 
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