It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Mulholland Falls shares a trait with another 90's film, Backdraft, in that both films have excellent casts, a good story but suffer from some of the worst dialogue ever put in a motion picture. Every thought a characters has is spoken on screen. Every line is written with no more substance than what is immediately on the surface. And every single attempt at humor is telegraphed so far in advance that the punchlines fall flatter than Jennifer Connelly from a plane.It is almost heartbreaking watching stellar actors like Nolte, Palminteri, Malkovich and Dern spit out lines that sound like a fifth-grader wrote them. It is all the more shameful that the central mystery of the film is a rather intriguing one and not easily solved in advance.Mulholland Falls is potentially great film that, due to lack of a good script doctor, turned out to be just painful to watch.

Mulholland Falls (1996): Dir: Lee Tamahori / Cast: Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, John Malkovich: This is a portrait of 1950's crime noir in a place where bodies are discovered and answers are sought. Nick Nolte plays detective Max Hoover who arrives at the bottom of an embankment where the body of a woman is found. Max recognizes her and immediately goes under denial mode as he struggles to find out who murdered her while keeping his relationship with her out of the public. His wife, Katherine is played by Melanie Griffith and she is frustrated with his lack of involvement until the truth surfaces. This leads to a conclusion that seems rather sudden and unresolved. The murder victim is played by the beautiful Jennifer Connelly and she is featured only in black and white flashbacks in all smiles engaging in sexual activity. Chazz Palminteri plays Max's loyal partner whose advice is often ignored but he steps up when his partner is in need of assistance. John Malkovich plays an ill General with a past with Connelly. Michael Madsen and Chris Penn play two of Hoover's men but their contribution is a total waste. Director Lee Tamahori attempts to capture the noir films of the 1940's but cannot rescue the screenplay from its corny delivery. It is a well crafted action caper that doesn't ask much other than to enjoy the view on the way down. Score: 6 ½ / 10

A thug cop runs up against military thugs as he investigates the mysterious murder of his former mistress.Great potential to this movie, but it's a dud. Brilliant cast, with Nolte doing his thang, and you can see him trying to spark some life into his character in the slap scene. But there's a constant sense of the actors crying out for drama and good lines. And John Malkovish looks bored as hell.The story is good, setting good, and it looks good. But the whole thing feels flat due to bad writing, directing, editing. At one point Nolte gets out of a car - after unbelievably knocking out two soldiers - lights a cigarette, and in the very next shot flips the cigarette away as he enters a doorway. Daft.There is an interesting theme in throwing people away, but not explored.Also the music is constant, hardly any silences, and all a bit gorgonzola.Basically this needed a dose of Tarantino or Lynch - either dynamic violence or weird malevolence. Thankfully we got it soon after in Reservoir, Pulp, and the other Mulholland.

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.