Plot: What’s it about?
This is a classic cop film mystery that is based on the James Elroy novel by the same name. The movie is about the Los Angeles police department in the Hollywood glamour days of the 50’s and how the department wants to keep organized crime out of the city of angels and how corruption and greed come into play at the department. The cast of the movie is: Kevin Spacey, (Jack Vincennes) Russel Crowe, (Bud White) Guy Pearce, (Ed Exley) Kim Basinger, (Lynn Bracken) James Cromwell, (Capt. Dudley Smith) and Danny De Vito as the slimy Hush Hush writer Sid Hudgeons.
L.A. Confidential is about a web of betrayal, conspiracy and murder. You have three cops that continue to go back to a so called closed murder case that was called the Night Owl Massacre, due to the name of the diner in which it happened. There was a former cop killed along with a hooker and a few other people that were there at the wrong time. Bud, Ed and Jack continue to find things about that case that takes them deep into the police department and even into City Hall trying to link some clues together from another case. What you get is a very entertaining movie with a very superb acted ensemble cast.
This is a very good movie and an excellent DVD. I highly recommend owning this DVD and it should only set you back $20 at the most. Everything on this disc is first rate and very well put together. Kim Basinger won an Oscar for her role and Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland won oscars for writing the film version of this movie. So just go out and buy the DVD and ask questions later. [Editor: Well put!]
Video: How does it look?
This is a very good looking transfer from the folks at Warner Bros. The 16×9 picture looks great. I never noticed any grain or negative artifact throughout my viewing pleasure.
Audio: How does it sound?
This is also a very good sounding DVD as well. The dialogue is very easy to understand and musical score comes alive as well. The beauty of this soundtrack is the closing shootout. The subwoofer and all of your speakers come to life here. A referance sounding shootout.
Supplements: What are the extras?
You get plenty of extras to contend with when you put the disc in your player. You get three featurettes that deal with interviews, screen tests, the look the makers wanted in the movie and a 3-d icon based map and tour of L.A. then and now and how it related to the movie. You get a musical only track that is in 5.1 DD sound. Then the basic stuff rounds out this special edition like the theatrical trailer (ltbx 2.0), 3 tv spots, production notes and cast and crew biographies.
