The One Line Summary: Bad cops, good cops, and Kim Basinger duke it out in the seedy underbelly of 1953 Hollywood sex, murder, and police corruption.
The Two-Line Blurb: Sure, sure, the story is nothing we haven’t seen before, but there’s still plenty of good twists and Russell Crowe isn’t singing, so right away, we’re on the right track. Plus, the guy from Memento is in it and he totally remembers everything this time.
The Three-Line Set-up: The last meeting between Captain Smith (James Cromwell) and Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Russell Crowe). Smith is not a good guy though Vincennes doesn’t know it. But he’s gonna.
The Four-Line Moment: This moment has always stuck out as one of my favorites because the underlying tension that lingers between the men, and that horrible, sudden turn at the end. When Smith realizes that Vincennes is connecting the right dots, you can see the shiver in him as he decides what he must do, even though he carries on as if nothing is out of place. The distraction of that cup of coffee is tremendously effective. No one saw this coming.
The Five-Word Review: I think I soiled myself.