sol- Investigating the suspicious death of an attractive young woman, four LAPD detectives uncover a conspiracy involving atomic energy in this mystery thriller set in the 1950s during the peak of the Cold War. Luciously shot by the legendary Haskell Wexler and accompanied by an appropriately moody music score, the movie succeeds in creating an experience that is part film noir homage and part 70s paranoia thriller homage. The performances are also uniformly excellent. The film bites off a little more than it can chew though. The origin of the title, for instance, is revealed very early on as we see how shady the detectives are, resorting to letting some criminals (who they cannot legally touch) dive off the edge of Mulholland Drive. For the vast majority of the film though, they are shown as far less corrupt, which is a shame because morally ambiguous policemen are always far more interesting. A subplot involving the lead detective's neglected wife does not quite gel with the story-line either and mostly feels like a distraction from the Cold War conspiracy that the detectives eventually unfold. Generally speaking though, this is a fairly enticing affair. Released after the end of the Cold War, the film benefits in particular from speculating over what may have been in terms of government whitewashes and corruption during this heightened period of international tension.

Noirdame79 "Mulholland Falls" (1996) is not a bad film. The performances are more than adequate, the attention to period detail and the cinematography is breathtaking at times. The problem lies with the screenplay, and the editing (it seems that MGM saw fit to trim the original cut of the film down to a more acceptable running time), leaving much to be desired with character development (or lack thereof) and plot holes.The opening sequence is pure noir, or neo-noir as the genre that it falls into. "The Hat Squad" in which Max Hoover (Nick Nolte) is the leader is both comical and interesting. Unfortunately, the other characters (Chazz Palminteri, and particularly Michael Madsen and Chris Penn) are give little to do by comparison. And although Jennifer Connelly is featured prominently in the trailer and on the DVD cover, she also has very little do but look gorgeous and sexy (which she does very well) in a series of all too brief flashbacks and 8mm footage. Melanie Griffith, as Hoover's wronged wife, makes the most of her limited screen time but again, the film could have benefited from seeing more of her (and I say this as someone who is not particularly a fan, but she is extremely sympathetic and likable here). Andrew McCarthy gets the thankless role as the friend of Allison Pond (Connelly) who knows too much. John Malkovich seems to think he's in another movie, Treat Williams tries hard but never fully convinces as a military man. Blink and you'll miss Rob Lowe in a cameo and William Peterson is uncredited.The main problem with "Mulholland Falls" is that it does feel like two movies slapped together. The military/government angle felt very out of place; what started off as a promising detective story dealing with the murder of a young woman who has connections to both the police force and the corrupt underworld of Los Angeles turns into a bland maze of incoherent and uninteresting plot points.Some may argue that this attempt at neo-noir is unjustly compared to "Chinatown" (1974) and "L.A. Confidential" (1997), but it does fall short. As I mentioned before, perhaps the editing is to blame. It would be interesting if a director's cut exists. Perhaps that would make more sense out of the plot.Dave Grusin's score is nice enough, but only briefly evokes the feeling associated with the genre.In conclusion, "Mulholland Falls" is not a waste of time, it was an interesting premise that simply ran out of steam. Still, if you're an admirer of period pieces or films set in Los Angeles, you may want to give it a try.

Jakemcclake There are five mysteries in this movie: 1) Who killed Alison Pond (Played By Jennifer Connelly)? 2) Why was she killed? 3) How did they kill her? 4) who killed her next door neighbor played by Andrew Mc Carthy and 5) why?Spoilers Most of the solutions to the mysteries (with the exception of how) is shown in the opening scene. The opening scene, which is a home movie of several things, is repeated several times, throughout the movie. Pretty clever. The answer to the mysteries is being shown to you numerous times throughout the movie, including in the very beginning. Nick Nolte (who plays Max Hoover) and other people are the Hat Squad and part of the police force that have to solve this mystery. Max Hoover is also personally involved. By the way, do you think Jennifer Connelly is skinny, and maybe too skinny? Yeah maybe in many of her movies, she is pretty skinny, but not this movie. She "packed on" a lot of weight in all of the right places, and in my opinion Jennifer takes the crown. In this movie, Jennifer Connelly is the beauty crown winner and sexiest woman on any movie screen.But see her in this movie for yourself and decide. That is if you can either find a copy of the VHS or DVD on Ebay (the DVD for the movie is out of print) or if you can catch it on TV/cable.

david-sarkies The name of this movie comes from a place in the movie where the good guys throw the bad guys off of a cliff to let them know that they are not welcome in Los Angeles. This movie is set at about the same time as LA Confidential (in fact probably a little after World War II, considering the plot) and at this time the police rule the city and the criminals are being driven out by simple brute force.This movie is more of a murder mystery than anything else. A dead girl is found in an indent in a quarry and it seems that she has fallen from a great height. The thing that makes this death important is that the girl is a cop's mistress (Hoover - played by Nick Nolte) and he wants to find out why she died. As he searches he comes to find out that the girl's neighbour taped her with her men and has taped something that somebody doesn't like, as he lands up very dead.There isn't anything too deep in this movie. It seems to be that Hoover is trying to come to terms with the death of his mistress, and even though he had dropped her a while back, he still seems to feel responsible for it, so he is determined to get to the bottom of it. The bottom involves the military and some testing of atomic bombs, but it is something that J. Edgar Hoover is supporting. What is going on doesn't seem to be that much of a conspiracy (though if the effects of radiation got out then bad things would happen - but we already know about it now).This movie seems to be more of a character study of Hoover than anything else. This is a guy who loves his wife dearly, but also fell in love with another woman, had an affair with her, and then broke it off when he realised that it was not the right thing to do. Even then he still has strong feelings for her and is torn between his love for her and his loyalty to his wife. He does love his wife, and his wife is what matters, so when the bad guys give the film to his wife as a threat, it is simply a threat that has been carried through meaning that they no longer have any hold over him. The ending also reveals this aspect of the movie as it is not him catching the bad guys (which he does) but rather it is him trying to reconcile with his wife, and the movie leaves us hanging - she walks off. It is not a typical Hollywood ending where he is forgiven and they get back together - she simply walks off leaving him to deal with his betrayal of her.Now I come to think of it, it is the deep characterisation and the struggle that Hoover feels within himself that makes this movie stand out from the rest of Hollywood garbage. It is one that does not have a conclusive ending and also attacks the idealistic feel of the fifties.