The Black Dahlia

Don't spend your money on this film. The advertisements for The Black Dahlia are misleading. You expect to see a story about the murder of The Black Dahlia but instead you get a nightmare of too much fiction. The movie covers... Full review

One of the worst films i have seen this year!! Everything was terrible!! And when i say everything i mean absolutley everything! Acting, plot, direction, visuals, etc. Ive seen high schools plays with better acting than this piece of crap had!... Full review

Dammit. I really wanted to like this movie and I wanted it to be fabulous. But it just wasn't. It kept going on and on, and I never really felt enthused by anything. The acting by Josh Hartnett and Hilary Swank... Full review

Yes, all of it and more. The images are beautiful but what a mess. I don't need to understand what's going on if, at least, I'm entertained. Look at The Big Sleep for instance. There will never be another "Chinatown"... Full review

Artistically, this movie should get some extra points. The use of color, the sharp contrast of black and white, good and evil, and so on. Based on that, I'd probably give the movie a 3.However, to put it simply, the... Full review

I was expecting the Black Dahlia to be very good. But, it was very disappointing, Mia Kirschner was the only good actress/actor in this movie. And, the romance between between Scarlett Johannsonn and Josh Hartnett was EXTREMELY fake and disappointing. I... Full review

Brian De Palma's so called "film noir" has all the aspects of a great film: detectives, guns, murder, a beautiful blonde, an Oscar winning brunette, and a boxing match. It involves violence, money, pimps, porn, and "the most notorious murder... Full review

Anybody expecting to get a great account of the Black Dahlia case, even fictional, will be disappointed going in to this movie. Of course, I knew that it was a fictionalization of the case, but I had no idea the... Full review

"The Black Dahlia" is a long, bloated, confusing, self-important, self-consciously artsy movie undermined by miscasting, absurd plot turns, naive symbolism, an utter disdain for history and laughable overacting that make Robert Towne's ponderous, plodding "Chinatown" sequel, "Two Jakes" (1990), look... Full review

I wanted to love it, but Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia" is a flat, paceless, uninvolving, constipated bore. It bears few of the director's signature set pieces, and possesses none of the energy of classics like "Body Double". "Dressed... Full review

Dahlia, meanwhile, is all surface and no substance in the most literal way imaginable. For Bucky, that big prize leads to extra time with Kay as Lee gets obsessed with the case, along with playtime for Bucky with rich, spoiled slut Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank). ... Full Review

But for the most part, The Black Dahlia steers sharply away from the genuine, the real, or even the cinematically plausible in favor of glorious full-bore self-parody. It's hard to laugh at The Black Dahlia when the blood it wallows in flowed from real veins. ... Full Review

If De Palma had used his considerable talents on a linear Dahlia police procedural without so many tangled plot threads he no doubt would have had a noir classic on his hands. But, the movie wanders off in subplots and then finally rushes to tie up the Dahlia case and not all that convincingly. ... Full Review

I'm uncertain as to who to recommend The Black Dahlia to, except perhaps those who have enjoyed the novel and are curious how the film plays out, despite the fact that the film differs from the book in substantial ways. One other thing that the film lacks is real star presence. ... Full Review

De Palma would have his "Dahlia" evoke "Chinatown," too, but its shoddy construction scandal is all too aptly a critique of his film. With "The Black Dahlia," though, the director makes a fatal mistake - he tries to play things seriously before devolving into a ludicrous last half hour, a finale so ridiculous it could be a guilty pleasure if what led up to it hadn't been largely tedious. ... Full Review

Hollywood has got to stop its infatuation with James Ellroy . Yeah, I know, it's not as if this crime writer's work is in the same rehashed pile with Rocky 51 , Ocean's 33 or the ubitquitous Friday the 13th... ... Full Article

Director Brian De Palma's film The Black Dahlia has been chosen to open the Venice Film Festival to be held in Italy next month. This is the fifth time that the director debuts a film at the festival since 1975's... ... Full Article

James Ellroy is proclaimed the Demon Dog of American crime fiction."L.A.Confidential" was his first book that was developed for the big screen."The Black Dahlia", in theatres now, is the second film adaptation of an Ellroy novel. ... Full Article

Apparently movie fans are ready for some football...and little else.For the second time in the past month, a heart-tugging film based on a true story of pigskin glory has touched down atop the weekend box office. ... Full Article

Based on the best-selling crime novel by James Ellroy."T he Black Dahlia" is a film noir mystery based on the brutal (and still unsolved) 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, a 22-year-old aspiring actress. ... Full Article