L.A. Confidential

On the list of movies I need to get around to seeing, I finally got around to seeing L.A. Confidential. Based on the book of the same name by James Elloy, L.A. Confidential is set in, surprisingly enough, Los Angeles.

Set in the 1950's, Los Angeles is competing with Chicago and Washington, D.C. to be the most crooked city in America. Not only is their a lot of organized crime, but organized crime within the police department. But then Guy Pearce (Edmund Exley) is promoted to Detective Lt. He has it set in his mind that he's going to do his job the right way and without corrupting influences, much to the chagrin of Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell).

When a disgraced former cop ends up dead, Exley wants to solve the case, but is butting heads with Detect Sgt. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) and Officer But White (Russell Crowe). But in this case of cops versus cops, Exley's investigation is turning up more than he bargained for. And he better be careful, because people close to the case start ending up dead.

L.A. Confidential has an all-star cast. In addition to those previously mentioned, Danny DeVito stars as Sid Hudgens, the magazine insider who works with the police for inside tips on hot stories, Kim Basinger, as Lynn Bracken, the love interest of many a man, and David Strathairn as Pierce Patchett, the local pimp lord.

Directed by Curtis Hanson, L.A. Confidential is Rated R for violence, language, violence, sexuality, and violence. The movie is about 2 1/2 hours long, so if you've never seen it make sure you block out a good chunk of time to watch it because you'll be glued to the screen.

I LOVED this movie and would easily watch it again. I'm actually disappointed that I never saw this movie earlier than I did. The movie was nominated for 9 Academy awards, including Best Picture. Kim Basinger won for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland won for Best Adapted Screenplay. Additional nominations were Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Director, Best Art Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing.

For the above reasons, I give L.A. Confidential the sparsely distributed 5 Stars.

3:10 To Yuma

Every now and then a good movie comes along and you know you'll want to watch it again. To me, 3:10 to Yuma is one of them.

The movie stars Russell Crowe as a bad-ass gun slinger who happens to get caught after a stagecoach heist. Christian Bale (Rescue Dawn, The Prestige, and the little kid from Empire of the Sun), is a homesteader trying to raise his family in post-Civil War western America. He lost part of this leg, which makes his life even more challenging.

Bale wants to help the sheriff and his deputies take Crowe to jail and they have to get to the town to put him on the 3:10 train to Yuma, hence the name of the movie. Problem for Bale is that Crowe's posse is hot on his trail and will make life for him miserable.

Crowe's character is a talker and a very likable bad guy. He's also influential, but also very smart and dangerous. They don't call him a bad-ass for no reason. He's as good with his gun as he is with his cell phone.

The movie goes from high action to slow talking, but nothing that really made you want to take your eyes off of the screen. The action is solid and the chase is captivating.

I give this movie all 5 stars that I'm allowed. Crowe's plays the best New Zealander British Commander cowboy that you can imagine. Bale's character is gutsy and you want to cheer for him, too. I was almost cheering for Bale to join the bad guys.