Mulholland Falls (1996)

Strictly average movie

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Amazing cast, acting, screenplay. If you Love 50s style police dramas, this is for you. In the style of Philip Marlowe. Don't miss this classic.

Everyone in this movie is quite literally at the TOP of their game: Melanie Griffith, Nick Nolte have never been better. John Malkovich, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, Christopher Penn, Michael Madsen,... Fabulous music, great plot. The plot centers around what's come to be called "The LA Hat Squad". There are probably three or four movies written about the same subject but none of them come close to the professionalism and virtue of this movie.The plot centers around five LA Detectives who answered only to the LA Police commissioner. Their assignment and only responsibility was to keep the mafia out of Los Angeles. Well, clearly, that did not work. This is the story of HOW it didn't work and how wreaked havoc on all of their lives I love this movie!

It's 1950s L.A. Lieutenant Maxwell Hoover (Nick Nolte), Coolidge (Chazz Palminteri), Hall (Michael Madsen) and Relyea (Chris Penn) are a squad of rough LAPD detectives who throw bad guys off a hill on Mulholland Drive. They investigate the murder of Allison Pond (Jennifer Connelly) who actually is linked to Hoover. They uncover secretly filmed sex sessions as well as the Nevada Atomic Testing Site. They are threatened by Colonel Fitzgerald (Treat Williams). She also had an affair with General Thomas Timms (John Malkovich), head of Atomic Energy Commission.It's a tightly wound neo-noir. Connelly is a sort-of-femme-fatale on celluloid. Maybe they should have included a sister following the investigation in the present. The flashback aren't as interesting. Nick Nolte is good at being hard but his desperation needs to be heightened. This movie has most of the elements of a hard-boiled film noir but it does lack the sharp dialog. It needs more thrills to go along with the style.

When I watched this film recently I thought that it must have been made by people trying to capitalize on the success of L.A. Confidential. It has the same look and it has nothing short of a phenomenal cast list. But it actually came out a year before L.A. Confidential. I suspect that the L.A. Confidential producers wee quaking in their boots after this attempted film noir bombed at the box office. But of course, L.A. Confidential turned out to be a great success and is remembered as one of the truly great modern film noirs, combining all of the best features of a great film, and getting that 40's and 50's feeling just right.About all the Mulholland Falls gets right is the 40's and 50's feeling. But the cast of the Hat Squad come off as almost comic book figures. They drive around town in a big convertible but their hats never even flicker, less blow off in the breeze, even when they are trying to outrace an Army jeep at a nuclear test site. Indoors, they take off their coats but never their hats.The pace of the movie is glacially slow. It's difficult to stay awake. The writing is sub-par and all too predictable. The two talented and beautiful women in the movie, Melanie Griffith and Jennifer Connelly are largely wasted with relatively little screen time. In one comical scene Connelly is slapped by her mobster boyfriend and barely flinches. She returns the slap and almost knocks the guy over. Aren't mobsters supposed to be able to hit better than that? Or at least take a slap from a girl? Parts of the plot are beyond ridiculous. At the nuclear test site, the Hat Squad takes off down a road marked restricted, shoots the padlock off a locked gate, and then acts surprised when the Army comes after them. And John Malkovich as an effete and intellectual Army general in a red smoking jacket is so out of place to be absurd.Continuity is also a shambles in this film. During the airplane fight, Treat Williams has one of the rip cords from a parachute tied around his neck as he is thrown to the floor of the plane in front of the door. The next shot is a close-up of him sitting on the floor and the cord is mysteriously gone. At the end of the film, the three surviving members of the Hat Squad place their hats on the coffin of their fallen comrade. Nick Nolte then proceeds to put on his hat (not the one on the coffin) as they walk away. Where did that hat come from? The film has its moments but its poor writing and incredibly slow pace waste a great cast that tries as best they can to overcome the deficiencies of a crummy plot.