I love well done period pieces. One of my top five favorites is L.A. Confidential.
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Absolutely love that movie. So perfect
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It's The Godfather of cop movies.

I always thought it was kind of ironic that the weakest of the main performances won the Oscar. I guess Spacey, Crowe and Pearce were all so good that they cancelled each other out.
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That's a prime candidate for a re-watch. One of the few movies that I know i watched and I know I enjoyed a great deal, but I couldn't tell you much about it at all.

I mean, I have a good memory, but I watched it once, on VHS, in my dorm, right after it came out of home video. What was that? 25 years ago?

EDIT - Looked it up, closer to 20. So it was more likely on DVD in my apartment. I just recall it being a rental, which is more than I remember of the movie.
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Just got back from seeing this film and damn it I knew I should have known better than to hype it up so much. Fucking huge letdown folks. This was about as self indulgent & pointless as you can get overall. Tarantino has his head so far up his ass with this one.

Its not all bad though. Leo & Brad both do their best and have a few cool moments but overall it just didn't deliver.
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Netflix streams it from time to time
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Damn that's so tough to hear as I want to see this real bad as I haven't been to the movies in about 10 years.

WITHOUT getting into plot lines or spoilers, why was it so disappointing to you? :-)
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I really liked it, but if you go in expecting Kill Bill, Basterds, or Django, you’ll be disappointed.

It’s more of an atmospheric mood piece & vehicle for QT to reflect on his place in a changing industry.
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I just watched that here 2-3 weeks ago. One of my all time favorites as well. It is one of those few movies I revisit on a near yearly basis.
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This is fair.

Then again, if you've read anything about this movie, you'd be foolish to think it's gonna be anything like KB, IB or DU.
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Its probably my own fault tbh. I was hyping the fuck out of this film. Leonardo Dicaprio's 1st film in 4 years, combined that with Brad Pitt starring alongside him with Tarantino directing. I thought it'd be so great but honestly it was a pointless/self indulgent bore.

For example, the Sharon Tate angle / story line was stupid.
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This movie was fucking amazing!

If you are a QT fan you will love it.
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Went ahead and queued it last night.

Was an excellent film, if a tad Hollywood-stylized [which I realize is an odd criticism of this particular film, and it's not it's fault, but time has witnessed a move away from prestige films looking like Hollywood productions, . . grittier, less 'star power,' ironically].

The performances were great, but the one true star of the movie is James Elroy. Such a narrative. Such writing.

A close second was Cromwell's understated accent. Could so easily have fallen into caricature.

I disagree that Basinger was the weakest acting of the bunch. But I do think her OScar was lifted a bit by Hollywood's love of her character [they love when Hollywood lionizes Hollywood /cough Shakespeare in Love]. This also was Elroy's creativity.
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She basically had no character arc. She started as a whore with a heart of gold type and ended that way. OTOH all the other main characters change significantly as the story unfolds.

Don't get me wrong - I thought Basinger did a excellent job. Just not as good as the others.

Ironically, one of the pivotal moments of the film - when Dudley asks Exley about Rolo Tomasi - wasn't in the book. Elroy said he was just as surprised by that as everybody else.
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its a different movie from Tarantino. It’s a period piece. Atmosphere. Style. Location. Cinematography are important. It’s about a time, not driving a plot. In some parts it is classic Tarantino. Shots behind the driver in a car etc.

I loved the movie. But, this is in no way his best film, better than a Pulp Fiction. GTFO. If your a Tarantino fan, you’ll love it. I don’t see how in this era of superheroes, animation or franchise action movies there is room for a mass audience for this movie.
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