The Black Dahlia (2006)

Jesus, why have I seen this film 3 times now? Dipshit. First time I struggled with the muddled story lines. Then I read the book by James Ellroy a couple of years later and it was fucking great so I watched it again so I could do the book/film comparison thing. It does a reasonable job of capturing the era and translating the characters to the screen but takes some deviations from the book to it's detriment and the stilted acting doesn't help the cause. I watched it again because my lady just read Ellroy's fictional account of the 1947 true crime and she wanted to do the comparison, much to her disappointment. Sob. I can't imagine she'll put herself through it another two times. Read the book instead.
2/5

Scarletts not in the book but it's still much better

Brian De Palma directed this underwhelming neo-noir trip and apart from a few other notable misses has some great films under his belt. Scar Face, The Untouchables and Carlito's Way all being flicks I've gurgled joyously through. While reading about his earlier directorial efforts, two in particular wrenched at my curious little balls, 'Greetings' (1968) and 'Hi Mom!' (1970). They star a young and relevant Robert De Niro in America's first X rated films (re-cut for an R rating). 'Hi Mom!' is described as a counter-culture satire which caused controversy back then and after reading some comments on a few movie sites it still disturbs many people today...sounds just like the sort of garbage I need to see. De Niro is a novice adult film maker who is recording his neighbours from his window and gets entangled with a radical group of black actors. Scenes of urban terrorism and rape are rightly distressing to many people but stay tuned as I endeavour to track this black comedy filth down and deliver my verdict on it modern day potency.