movies: the black dahlia

After all the back and forth about what we were going to end up doing tonight, we finally settled on staying at my place and just going to the video store.

And the nice video store man has just instituted a "$1 Tuesday" deal... so that worked out well (and I also think it was the shortest amount of time we've ever spent in a video store... we went in, picked up the movie we wanted, paid and walked out again... under two minutes)... especially since I don't know that The Black Dahlia is worth more than a dollar...

It's not a bad movie exactly... stylistically it's pretty enough, and I'm always fond of the whole 50's vibe... it's just that if you've seen and enjoyed L.A. Confidential, then it's a whole world of "been here, seen this... and they did it better the first time around". Kinda sad really, since I was really looking forward to seeing it.

On the plus side, we have Josh Hartnett in 50's clothes... and very much out of 50's clothes too (woohoo Hartnett butt!)... and the very limited number of things I've seen him in I've enjoyed... but as I said to Ma part way through the movie "It's a good job he's pretty, otherwise I'd be bored now". And the brief scene were he flashes his very pert little butt is probably the best scene in the movie.... which is saying something.

The plot is a little too uneven, overly complicated and convoluted, the majority of the acting is okay, although both Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank need a slap at various points... but all in all, it's a bad knock off of Confidential, and doesn't live up to it on any front.

yani's rating: 1 dead starlet out of 5