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(1 - 47) of 47 OFCS Rating: 36% Rotten Page   1   3/5 "The Black Dahlia is not a black mark on the talent track record of anyone involved. Yet with such a potentially powerful story, it should have been something very special."   DVD Verdict   Bill Gibron "The real case of the Black Dahlia was never solved, and watching this film we understand why: the story is just way too complicated."   european-films.net   Boyd van Hoeij "DePalma is like a magician who dazzles us with a trick only to show us, alas, it really was only a trick, and in the meantime he's stolen our watch."   Beyond Hollywood   Brian Holcomb 4/10 "This muddled late-career meditation on Hollywood artifice and ambition only captures brief flashes of the director's former glory. The rest just feels like a bad joke."   Freeze Dried Movies   Brian Juergens B "De Palma's bliss in depicting the bruise-n-babes era roars at the senses like a 3-D effect, pushing Dahlia to wonderful heights of production detail."   FilmJerk.com   Brian Orndorf 2/5 "it seems time to stop making excuses for the man -- Brian de Palma has become one very bad director."   MovieWeb   Chris Barsanti C- "Excessive exposition, subplots, and secondary characters distract from the title story about the barbaric 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, a striving 22-year-old actress at odds with the treacherous streets of Los Angeles."   ColeSmithey.com   Cole Smithey "Kay is less a character than an image of the Dahlia's opposite (the blond/beige look versus the dark-haired/black-dressed look being your first clue)."   PopMatters   Cynthia Fuchs 2/4 "A slick but empty period noir. De Palma can do better than this."   rec.arts.movies.reviews   David N. Butterworth 2/4 "De Palma's lamentable decision to reign in his wild directorial flourishes certainly doesn't do the film any favors..."   Reel Film Reviews   David Nusair "It's hard to tell what De Palma wanted to achieve with this film. Whatever it was, what ended up on the screen is a confused, ugly mess."   Portland Tribune   Dawn Taylor B- "There's fodder for a good film in the screaming headline material, but De Palma only gets a whiff of that ..."   Ozus' World Movie Reviews   Dennis Schwartz 0/4 "Words cannot possibly do justice to what a total monstrosity this film is."   TheMovieBoy.com   Dustin Putman C "Vilmos Zsigmond's lush cinematography alone is almost worth the price of admission, and Jenny Beavan's costumes remind us why the late 1940s were one of the best times for fashion in the modern era."   FilmJerk.com   Edward Havens B "Ambitiously well-made, sometimes laughably trashy, always interesting, and occasionally so odd you just have to chuckle, shake your head and say, 'Oh, De Palma....'"   EricDSnider.com   Eric D. Snider C "A stylish but oddly flat exercise in noir conventions, a homage that doesn't so much honor its models as alternately embalm and ridicule them."   One Guy's Opinion   Frank Swietek 2/5 "Film noir set in Los Angeles in 1947 is way too long, poorly acted, and covered with a haze of cigarette smoke."   Spirituality and Practice   Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat 2/4 "This is far from one of the director's better efforts and should be avoided by all those who are not sworn De Palma boosters."   ReelViews   James Berardinelli 3/5 "The Black Dahlia is both a studious new entry to the genre and a schizophrenic parody of it."   Q Network Film Desk   James Kendrick 6/10 "Click here to read review."   Kinoblog.com   Jaroslav Vishtaljuk 3/4 "There's something irresistible about this convoluted puzzler, a bracing who-dunnit-ness that has its female leads to thank for its sleazy fancy."   Palo Alto Weekly   Jeanne Aufmuth 5/10 "Although the style amps the attractiveness of individual scenes, it undercuts believability across the whole."   Window to the Movies   Jeffrey Chen "The Black Dahlia is a good movie, a finely crafted, tasteful, polished, entertaining, and reasonably faithful adaptation of James Ellroy's novel. But it's not a great movie, and that third adjective above is one reason why."   Pajiba   Jeremy C. Fox "Director Brian De Palma's fascination with crime and sexual obsession is the perfect attitude for "The Black Dahlia.""   Light Views   John Larsen 2/5 "full review in Greek"   Movies for the Masses   Joseph Proimakis "I can’t say anything really stood out in a positive way."   3BlackChicks Review   Kamal 'The Diva' Larsuel 4/4 "The tragedy of Black Dahlia is that there is no finality for anyone--solving the "mystery," so to speak, counts for next-to-nothing."   Slant Magazine   Keith Uhlich "Ghost World: Keith Uhlich on The Black Dahlia for Reverse Shot's Brian de Palma symposium."   Reverse Shot   Keith Uhlich 1.0/4.0 "... ends up being forgettable enough that someone else in the future may still be able to take another stab at the idea."   MovieCrypt.com   Kevin A. Ranson 0.5/5 "The Black Dahlia isn't just bad. It's impressively bad. I didn't think they could make a movie this bad."   7M Pictures   Kevin Carr C- "Fiona Shaw's histrionics are so out there one could believe the entire crew was in drunken hysterics goading her on."   Reeling Reviews   Laura Clifford "A ludicrous mishmash undermined by ghastly performances and a hopelessly convoluted screenplay."   TV Guide's Movie Guide   Maitland McDonagh "He walked into my office like he knew he was trouble. 'Name's Hartnett,' he said. 'I'm looking for my career.'"   Flick Filosopher   MaryAnn Johanson 2/4 "The film gets worse the longer it goes on, as Brian De Palma slowly loses confidence in his story and starts trying to compensate for it by engaging in overwrought melodramatics."   Aisle Seat   Mike McGranaghan C "De Plama losses control of the tone as the story and its characters spin wildly over the top."   Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies   Nell Minow C+ "Nails the tale's particulars but not its soul."   Lessons of Darkness   Nick Schager 1.5/5 "To say [Hartnett] lacks charisma or screen presence is like saying Hurricane Katrina caused a few problems."   Film Threat   Pete Vonder Haar 4/5 "Brian De Palma's inventive filmmaking style turns this adaptation of the complex James Ellroy novel into a feast for the eyes, even if it's tough work keeping up with the story."   Shadows on the Wall   Rich Cline 2/5 "Won't do much to dissuade the common rap against De Palma as a cold technician who takes projects just for the elaborate set pieces they provide him."   eFilmCritic.com   Rob Gonsalves D "It slides from pulp classic to guilty pleasure to cautionary example to full-bore train wreck."   Flipside Movie Emporium   Rob Vaux C+ "This is one sick puppy of a movie. It is also entertaining in its own way if you don't take it seriously, and really, how could you?"   Laramie Movie Scope   Robert Roten C "The Black Dahlia uses many cinematic contrivances that do not help tell the story of who killed Elizabeth Short."   Reeling Reviews   Robin Clifford "The Black Dahlia feels wobbly and uncertain."   Salon.com   Stephanie Zacharek 4/10 "Plot threads get tangled in a florid web of confusion, and the cast's tawdry, melodramatic antics often evoke unintentional amusement."   Modamag.com   Susan Granger 2.5/4 "Without some serious gravitas, the picture flies apart under the strain of Ellroy and De Palma's complementary psychoses."   Film Freak Central   Walter Chaw "Click here to see review"   Wolf Entertainment Guide   William Wolf 1.5/4 Read review   Big Picture Big Sound   Joe Lozito  (1 - 47) of 47 OFCS Rating: 36% Rotten Page   1