The Black Dahlia (2006)

[landoconfusion 0]

Can't figure out how to embed this trailer.

 

I remember thinking, Brian DePalma....hell yeah. But I've watched it a couple different times, and wow, this movie really sucks.

 

This movie is meandering as hell, disturbing, and more or less a horrific misfire. I swear it seems like it destroyed Josh Hartnett's career. What a horrific voiceover.

 

Some compare this movie to torture porn, which I can't disagree with.

 

Aaron Eckhart plays every cliched tortured cop in the history of movies.

 

The Fiona Shaw character, holy shit was she awful.

 

Easily the worst movie that Hilary Swank has acted in, every thing she did after this movie has been a bomb.

 

I implore that this movie be done.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I only saw it once, but from what I remember, they didn't seem all that interested in the Black Dahlia story at all. Didn't it go off on it's own tangent for about an hour before going back to Black Dahlia stuff in the last twenty minutes or so? This was just a shitty, sloppy movie, and the opposite of something like "L.A. Confidential", which did a great job of intertwining the fictional story with real life events. Oddly enough, James Ellroy wrote the novels that both films were based on, so I guess it really DOES make a difference when it comes to who is adapting your work.

[landoconfusion 0]

Oh, and I just realized that one critical detail of the movie is that Hilary Swank is supposed to look very much like Mia Kirschner, except for the fact that they look nothing alike at all.

[RyanSzich 4]

This movie sucked balls, from Hartnett and Eckhart calling their partnership "Fire and Ice" to the movie not really being about the Black Dahlia until the end when the killer nonchalantly says she did it before blowing her brains out and that when Eckhart died his head shattered like an egg. Also, let's not forget that this movie is based off a book by James Ellroy, the same guy who wrote L.A. Confidential, yet this movie looks nothing like that movie in both feel and quality.

[seanotron 2307]

I wanted to love the Black Dahlia because I've always been fascinated by that case, plus Brian De Palma has made some great movies. But man oh man, that movie is terrible. And very unintentionally funny. How anyone could confuse Hillary Swank with Mia Kishner is the biggest unsolved mystery of all. I won't spoil anything, but the murderer's final monologue is one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen.

[AriannAdams 3]

Well I lost it when Josh threw the ice pack into the fire. To quote Boondock Saints that was the symbology of the movie.

[ClydeWheeler 3]

I thought Black Dahlia was among the 2 worst movies I have ever seen. The other being Crash. Not the good one but the one from 1996 directed by Cronenberg which fetishized car crashes. I would subject my worst enemies to these piles of crap.

The frustrating thing about Black Dahlia was they had an interesting topic and great actors who must've had a contest to see who could chew up the most scenery.

[Lando 2019]

My first time on this site. My friend brought me to this awesome show. I guess my bad movie recommendations would be Tuff Turf or The Black Dahlia. I would probably go for Tuff Turf only because I couldn't wrap my head around how they got The Jim Carroll Band in this movie among other problems.

 

As stated in Wikipedia "The film begins at night with Morgan exploring the streets of his new neighborhood on his bicycle. The intro sequence features the song "Love Hates" programmed by Jonathan Elias and featuring vocals by Marianne Faithfull. It's a great electronic track with a dark edge, similar in vein to early Ministry (All Day, Halloween) and sets the scene perfectly for the rest of the film; with small sequences of this song occurring throughout the movie.

 

The song sounds nothing like Ministry. At all.

 

Have you ever heard their debut "With Sympathy?" That sounds nothing like Ministry and I wonder if that's what they were going after.

 

Second pick, The Black Dahlia for so many reasons I cannot get into. It's just a terrible film. Everything went wrong with this movie. Best two quotes "She looks like that dead girl!" which the audience bursted out laughing and "Fire and ice." Why can't Mia Kirshner find a chair to sit on? Why is the pacing so horrible? No one can act in this film film it's like they were reading cue cards because they went on an 8 day drinking bender before the first scene. It's awful.

 

I saw this movie on a date and remember people walking out of the theater. Since then I have come to realize that Josh Harntett staring in a movie is a sign that I will not enjoy it (Blackhawk Down being the only exception)

[seanotron 2307]

I liked him in 30 Days of Night. Actually, that's probably the best I've ever seen good old Hartnett, though to be honest I'm not sure that movie was terribly demanding on him.

[Lando 2019]

I was pretty disappointed by that one, I just felt like nobody in the film acted anything remotely like anyone in that type of situation would. That is always the most frustrating sin in a horror movie.

[seanotron 2307]

I was pretty disappointed by that one, I just felt like nobody in the film acted anything remotely like anyone in that type of situation would. That is always the most frustrating sin in a horror movie.

 

Really? I actually thought it was nicely done. I don't remember anyone doing anything especially stupid or especially odd, but I haven't seen it recently.

[Lando 2019]

I remember that they were pretty bold for being in a town with nearly invincible creatures. I liked the concept, but thought it had weak execution.

[landoconfusion 0]

Black Dahlia really needs some FYI upvotes. It's such a stinky piece of shit and there is so much material for the crew to utterly destroy. The lowpoint being that the majority of the movie was construed as a ruse based on one character looking like another one that absolutely doesn't even come close to bearing a resemblance. It's straight out fucking bonkers.

 

Also, the suicide scene is one of the worst things I've ever seen in any movie. Loopy as fuck and 100% crazy.

[HipGuide 196]

bump

[DavidRosen 40]

This movie was SO unintentionally funny. It would make a great episode. The last 30 minutes or so are completely nuts.

[Samurai 0]

Yeah, I remember very little about it except that it was incoherent and the characters didn't seem to make any sense.

[NickLuchadore 0]

Mission to Mars really did a number on him.

[sillstaw 414]

From James Ellroy's Wikipedia page:

 

Shortly after viewing three hours of unedited footage for Brian De Palma's adaptation of The Black Dahlia, Ellroy wrote an essay, "Hillikers," praising De Palma and his film. Ultimately, nearly an hour was removed from the final cut, and the film was a commercial and critical disappointment. Of the released film, Ellroy told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Look, you’re not going to get me to say anything negative about the movie, so you might as well give up." He had, however, mocked the film's director, cast, and production design before it was filmed.

 

Who knows, maybe the missing hour actually deals with the titular killing instead of whatever else this movie was about.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

Black Dahlia is absolute garbage, but in the best possible way.

[SlidePocket 707]

The last major Brian De Palma film with a wide release before making two forgettable entries, Redacted and Passion.