Mulholland Falls (1996)

The Worst Film Ever

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

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

I've often wondered why Bruce Dern chose not to be credited with his appearance in this movie. The green glass at the test site emits enough gamma radiation to fog the x-ray photograph of Allison Pond's foot. Nick Nolte scoops up a handful of the same green glass shards and wraps them in his handkerchief, yet a few minutes later he is stopped at a road block where an MP scans him with a Geiger counter which doesn't get any reading. How come? Continuity error at Ellery Coolidge's funeral, the three surviving members of the police squad place their hats on Ellery's coffin as a mark of respect, yet in the very next frame Nick Nolte is seen wearing his hat, did he bring two hats to the funeral?

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.

I've found that if I somehow leave the room for food or a break, the film probably isn't really very good. Good or better keep me glued. I never left my seat during Mulholland Falls and from the opening sequences with the four LA cops in hats riding up sunny 1950's Hollywood Hills in a big black convertible, I was hooked.Hooked especially by a galvanizing, snappy performance by Nick Nolte as Hoover, head of his squad of four, a man of action before words, a man who simmers and glares and loves with passion: it's a performance that somehow should have been given more attention at the time of the film's release, a cops and crime film which somehow didn't match the zeitgeist of its period, lost in the shuffle.Almost every noir mystery past 1949 is a retread of some sort (Chinatown being a major exception),but what makes Mulholland Falls work is not the plot but the heady collection of dedicated supporting actors whether Melanie Griffith as a quietly restrained wife of a cop, or Chazz Palminteri, the wry right hand partner who talks about his psychiatrist without hesitation.The mystery deals with corruption in high places, of course, and John Malkovich and Treat Williams are good supports for Nolte to play against--but it's Nolte's show from start to finish and his intensity nails it!

This film looks fantastic and is chock-full of great actors(Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Chris Penn, Bruce Dern, John Malkovich, Chazz Palminteri, and more).A low-brow Chinatown. The 'look' of this film, and Nick Nolte's performance are the only things that are even close to the level of that earlier, finer work.However, this is well worth a view - especially if you are looking for a throwback escape from all the new release trash that's out there today.Sidenote: Jennifer Connelly's breasts should be the standard of perfection.Some of the fine actors have to take a backseat because there are just so many involved here. Nolte, however, is the star of this show, and his performance is definitely noteworthy.It's Nick's performance, and Tomahori's attention to graphic detail that make this film above average. The plot is an atomic bomb.You'll like this if you liked: Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential(note: this movie is nowhere near that level), Miller's Crossing and Basic Instinct.64/100