Mulholland Falls
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Movie Reviews of Mulholland Falls
Movie Review: "You killed her for nothing, you son of a [...]!"
Summary: 3 Stars
Human sacrifice is the cornerstone of civilization. Ten die so the hundred may live. Right?
The upside: this film stars a great ensemble cast--Nolte; Melanie Griffith, his wife; Chazz Palmintieri, Chris Penn, and Michael Madsen, his partners; Connelly; John Malkovich; Treat Williams; Andrew McCarthy, an effeminate witness; Daniel Baldwin, a smug FBI agent; Bruce Dern, the police chief, Louise Fletcher, a police secretary. The film looks super, and it recreates 50's L.A. in clear detail, and the dialogue is convincing. In conversation with Nolte, Malkovich (the Department of Defense nuclear weapons chief) draws the parallel between Malkovich's own "burden of leadership" (young victims of nuclear experiments being stricken with cancer or killed) and Nolte's (kidnapping and rolling out-of-town gangsters down a canyon) to protect the public.
The downside: although most scripts made into movies are implausible, the film has difficulty making a believable transition from everyday murder investigation to the scale of atrocity uncovered by the "Hat Squad." This lack of a smooth transition detracts from the credibility of the plotline and the cohesiveness of the film.
The director was influenced by "Chinatown," which is superior viewing, as is "L.A. Confidential," which was released soon afterwards. "Mullholland Falls" is a "Chinatown-lite," although set 15 years or so later.
If you can avoid overly critical comparisons with the best films of this type, you should enjoy it, too. 3.5 stars. (Adapted from my review of 5/23/00.)
Movie Review: Dick Tracy gone bad
Summary: 3 Stars
The opening of the film is the tumbling down a cliff of a mobster by the
LA police hit squad.
Nick Nolte plays a police detective who is a blunt instrument
and Melanie Griffith is his Tess Trueheart.
I think the best acting in this movie is by Chazz Palminteri
as the partner.
We have the LA police department meets Army Intelligence
and the FBI and the secret of radiation cancer exposure of
soldiers in Nevada tests.
Jennifer Connelly has a lot of exposure, but not a lot of speaking roles
as the girl thrown from an air plane over LA
whose murder is being investigated.
This movie has everything to be a big hit:
sex, violence, homosexuality and atomic secrets;
so why doesn't it click like L.A. Confidential?
I liked the movie, but think that it could have been done better.
Movie Review: Don't mess with Hoover and I dont mean J. edgar
Summary: 3 Stars
Let's face it. The director was probably overwhelmed by the talent and let control slip. The movie doesn't quite work until about three quarters way through and enjoyment of it will rest a great deal on whether you like the actors. Me? Most of them could read a relephone book and I would be fascinated. Nick Nolte is just brilliant in this and can pack a whallop with a blackjack not seen since the thirties. Not a great movie but a hell of a lot better than most that go under that name. The big car cruising with the hats aboard, terrific music on the soundtrack, an anti hero who does not take banana from anyone, and great costumes also add to the pleasure of this noir.Movie Review: Film Noir Lite
Summary: 2 Stars
A well-crafted but ultimately thin period piece taking place in late '40s-early '50s Southern California, MULHOLLAND FALLS is visually engaging entertainment that yet leaves you unsatisfied as the credits roll.
A powerful cast (Nick Nolte, Jennifer Connelly, Melanie Griffith, John Malkovich, Michael Madsen, Chazz Palmintieri and Chris Penn, et. al.) doesn't lend depth to this two-and-a-half-star effort, though it does distract you from its shortcomings. Director Lee Tamahori, no stranger to the dark side, makes much less than what he might of this potentially impressive tale of unfaithfulness, betrayal, murder and death.
Nolte (Hoover) is the leader of L.A.'s infamous "Hat Squad" a special organized crime task force that busts heads and breaks bones to keep the peace. When Alison Pond (the oh-so-Forties Era Connelly) turns up dead, all the signs of murder point back to her lover, who happens to be head of the Atomic Energy Commission (John Malkovich). Nolte too, it turns out, has had a dalliance with the peripathetic, kinky and very voluptuous Miss Pond. The expectable cover-up destroys Nolte's marriage and career as it evolves.
Although MULHOLLAND FALLS samples many other period films, Tamahori's noir is never quite noir enough. The intrinsic moral dilemma the characters face, of indulging in the hidden side of human nature, never expands past straightforward beating and cheating. Without more, MULHOLLAND FALLS disappointingly ends its run as a fairly mundane morality play about fidelity.
Movie Review: 1.5 stars out of 4
Summary: 2 Stars
The Bottom Line:
A garish and ridiculous neo-noir that features Nick Nolte in full screen-chewing mode, Melanie Griffith in full awful-Melanie-Griffith mode, and some truly terrible dialogue and situations, Mulholland Falls has a good first scene but nothing else to recommend it.