51
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThis is the kind of movie where every note is put in lovingly. It's a 1950s crime movie, but with a modern, ironic edge: The cops are just a shade over the top, just slightly in on the joke.
- 80The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinMulholland Falls is so well cast and relentlessly stylish (thanks to some fine technical talent assembled here) that its sheer energy prevails over its shaky plot.
- 63ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliMulholland Falls isn't a bad film, but it definitely is disappointing, especially coming from director Lee Tamahori, who brought the powerful Once Were Warriors to the screen. Tamahori's direction is inconsistent, but, ultimately, this movie is undermined by its screenplay. Certain aspects are laudable, but, all things considered, those elements aren't enough to keep Mulholland Falls from slipping over the edge into mediocrity.
- 50San Francisco ChroniclePeter StackSan Francisco ChroniclePeter StackMulholland Falls is a provocative crime drama with a limp script and a forced feeling. But star Nick Nolte is a ticking time bomb as a brutal Los Angeles police detective with a hulking, gasping sense of pain and meanness. He gives the film an odd, askew tone that keeps it tough and alive.
- 40VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyMulholland Falls is a "Chinatown" wannabe that comes up short in every department. Although loaded with talent on both sides of the camera, this sex-and-corruption-drenched mystery meller about a big official cover-up in postwar L.A. simply feels underachieved, as it lacks the heady atmosphere, tasty intrigue and dramatic punch the alluring premise would seem to promise.
- 40EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanSloppy crime epic.
- Everything looks fabulous, but the fight scenes are stagy, the dialogue stilted, the characters underdeveloped and the tone superficially cynical.
- 40Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovA classic sophomore slump, all bark and very little bite.
- 40IGNIGNChinatown had sex, greed and water, Body Heat had sex, greed and high humidity, while Mulholland Falls has alluded-to sex, hats and cigarettes bundled with radiation sickness and anachronistic pop psychology references. (Palminteri spouts endless Sensitive Guy pabulum that's supposed to be ironic. It's not.) It's a mess and a shame, considering all the talent involved.