Black Dahlia

This story is wrapped around one of the most horrific murders that happened in Hollywood, and the movie itself is based on James Ellroy's novel Black Dahlia. Even though you get the impression that the story is about the murder and the investigation, it isn't, these are only the side stories to give the characters something to focus on while the bigger part of the story continues. Police corruption and conspiracy are the main focal points of the story, which is more reminiscent of L.A. Confidential, another of Ellroy's novels.
Two eager cops travel into the dark side of Hollywood to try to solve the grisly murder of Elizabeth Short, and find out along the way that not everything is as it seems in Tinseltown. From the opening scenes you can tell that Brian De Palma is directing this movie but it falls short of being some of his better works. The film tries to hard to be like Confidential, with the plot twists and turns your left hoping that things will progress in a direction that you'd care about. But with the stale acting, and characters that seems to tailor made for the situations, you have the feeling that you've been cheated out of a story that could have been a whole lot better.
I've never really been disappointed with a movie that De Palma has done but here I was expecting so much more from the story, and figuring in the cast that was gathered for this film I was hoping for something more than cookie cutter acting. This story is no where as good as L.A. Confidential, and with the misleading idea that the murder of the Black Dahlia is the main point of the film, just pulls the audience away from what could have been a decent police drama.