Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9949 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-11-02
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Dolby, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 107 minutes

From Amazon.com
Too much surface. Director Lee (The Edge) Tomahori's noir story serves as a McGuffin to its ripe style. Amid secret agendas and unspeakable acts onscreen you stare at the fall of light across old cops' desks. Musing on super-8 footage of naked Jennifer Connelly, your mind wanders. Ah, yes, an allusion to the opening shots of Chinatown. Roman Polanski's grand reinvocation of the dark intuitions of 1940s noir is there, too, in the sumptuous look, the plump list of stars (Nick Nolte, Michael Madsen, Melanie Griffith, John Malkovich), and the swoony, bittersweet soundtrack. The zigzags of the story that bring together two cheating husbands, one pneumatic babe, and (somehow) homosexuality waywardly recall The Big Sleep. The Atomic Energy Commission subplot feels like an homage to Kiss Me Deadly. With so many other movies to please, by the middle of the film it's clear that the story isn't going to thicken, that for all the amperage in Nolte's performance, for all the male rage in Michael Madsen and Chazz Palminteri, the hints of sexual malfeasance aren't going much past Nolte's domestic guilt about his affair with Connelly. And yet there are rich things. Tracing a path from his girlfriend to the head of the Commission (Malkovich), Nolte listens, hat in hand, to a purring existential science lecture about the invisible world of atoms. "Yeah," Nolte growls, "well, I see too much." Would that the filmmakers had let us see more. --Lyall Bush

Review
The breakout picture of New Zealand director Lee Tamahori, this noir period mystery is purposely reminiscent of Chinatown (1974) and suffered badly at the hands of critics as a result of its effort to mimic a classic. However, it's not remotely a bad film, featuring superb acting from Chazz Palminteri and John Malkovich in strong supporting roles, top-notch production values, and accomplished direction from Tamahori. Nick Nolte is perfectly cast as the hulking, square-jawed lug whose moral compromise has polluted both his professional life and his family. If the film's script at times strains credulity with its connect-the-dots nuclear secrets plot, it must be pointed out that gumshoe detective dramas are essentially pulp tales in which adherence to authenticity is not necessarily the most important trait. Mulholland Falls (1996) is a far better picture than it's been given credit for, and unfortunately began a long-running underappreciation of Tamahori's skills that continued through the even more unfairly maligned The Edge (1997). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Synopsis
Four men just barely on the right side of the law step into a web of danger and corruption in this drama. In the early 1950s, Max Hoover (Nick Nolte) is a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who leads what's been dubbed "the hat squad," a group of sharp-dressed cops who are ordered to stamp out organized crime using any means necessary, with legality and delicacy not much of an issue. Hoover and his partners Ellery Coolidge (Chazz Palminteri), Eddie Hall (Michael Madsen), and Arthur Relyea (Chris Penn) are looking into the brutal murder of a young woman named Allison Pond (Jennifer Connelly). In the course of their investigation, they discover that Allison had a lively sexual history, and she possessed explicit films of herself with her lovers, including Gen. Thomas Timms (John Malkovich), leader of the newly-formed Atomic Energy Commission. Timms becomes a key suspect, and he reveals the first of a long trail of troubling secrets, but Hoover has secrets of his own that he's trying to keep covered in the process -- including the fact that he and Allison were once an item. Popular vocalist Aaron Neville has a cameo as a singer at a night spot. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

Mulholland...FALLS--Oh, NOW I get it!
Let's get to the good stuff about this movie before the real fun of dissecting it. For Nick Nolte fans, you'll enjoy it because he's good in it and cuts a swaggering figure in a fedora. For Jennifer Connally fans, this is a must have (you naughty boys) and you'll want to keep your finger hovering over the pause button. In the meantime, you'll be cursing the director for editing the heck out of that really good 8mm B&W movie starring the impressive Miss Connally and spending most of the film on something about radiation and men with hats in a shiny Buick. Even though this impenetrable storyline features the additional treat of one of the Baldwin brothers (Adam? Stephen??) getting the crap beat out of him, I still found it lacking since the complete footage of Miss Connally's kinky films were never found and fully displayed to their archival stature. Talk about an extra for your DVD edition!

Now for the bad stuff. The film tries for atmosphere, but only occasionally succeeds. The shot out at the A-bomb crater is impressive, but on the whole, the movie spends too long doing too little. Of the cast, only Nolte is given enough meat to excel. This is a strong cast, but with the exception of Nolte, they have little to do. Melanie Griffith looks fresh off collagen injections to enlarge her upper lip, sadly ruining her beautiful face. Lord help me, but I kept expecting her to go "quack!" Why is it some gorgeous women keep obsessing about their bodies-tattooes, piercing, injections, etc.? They are like masterpieces that continue to have work done to them and hence ruin their natural beauty (ahem, end soliloquy). And miscasting reaches new heights with uber-quirky John Malkovich as an Army General! Apparently they offered him the part in the B&W porno flick and he was theirs for whatever role nobody else wanted.

Well, I don't want to give away the ending, but for me , the whole movie FELL FLAT. My interest PLUMMETED in the climactic scene. So don't feel you should DROP EVERYTHING to go out and rent this movie.

A Cops vs. Federal Government story of murder

Format: Color
Not for sale to persons under age 18.
Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios
Video Release Date: June 23, 1998

Cast:

Nick Nolte ... Max Hoover
Melanie Griffith ... Katherine Hoover
Chazz Palminteri ... Elleroy Coolidge
Michael Madsen ... Eddie Hall
Chris Penn ... Arthur Relyea
Treat Williams ... Colonel Nathan Fitzgerald
Jennifer Connelly ... Allison Pond
Daniel Baldwin ... McCafferty
Andrew McCarthy ... Jimmy Fields
John Malkovich ... General Thomas Timms

Kyle Chandler ... Captain
Ed Lauter ... Earl
Larry Garrison ... Perino's Maitre d'
Chelsea Harrington ... Lolita
Johnna Johnson ... Bar Woman
Rick Johnson ... Staff Car Sergeant
Britt Burr ... Staff Car Driver
Melinda Clarke ... Cigarette Girl
Ernie Lively ... Foreman
Richard Sylbert ... Coroner
Michael Krawic ... Assistant Coroner
Titus Welliver ... Kenny Kamins
Robert Peters ... Cop #1
Father William M. Thigpen ... Priest
Drew Pillsbury ... Chief's Assistant
Brad Hunt ... Guard
Aaron Neville ... Nite Spot Singer
Buddy Joe Hooker ... DC-3 Pilot
Eddie Caicedo ... Gasping Patient
Price Carson ... Honor Guard
Azalea Davila ... Perino's Girl
Sky Solari ... Perino's Girl
Alisa Christensen ... Spaghetti Girl
Bruce Dern ... The Chief
Rob Lowe ... Hoodlum
Johnny Martin ... Mafia Hitman
William L. Petersen ... Jack, Mafia Mobster
Sharmagne Leland-St. John ... Woman in Night Club
Louise Fletcher ... Esther

Max Hoover (Nick Nolte) is the head of a special police squad that is given carte blanche when it come to methods of running bad guys out of L.A., including throwing them off cliffs; hence the title: as one of the bad guys observed, "There are no falls on Mulholland Drive," Until of course, he discovers them as he falls down the cliff.

The instant crime which the story centers around is the death of a young woman, whose body, it turns out, is discovered to be radioactive, and was a paramour of General Thomas Timms (John Malkovich), who is in command of an Atomic Energy Commission base. The AEC and the FBI, on the one hand, and the LAPD on the other, head for an inevitable jurisdictional clash, in spades.

I will not divulge further details of the plot, except to say that it is rated "R" for language and violence--deservedly.

But, unlike several other reviewers, I found the film interesting and am watching it for the second or third time.

Perhaps not a "great" film, but certainly entertaining within its genre, and well acted and directed.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

entertaining
with a early 1950's flair, this los angeles police drama and suspense movie is no oscar winner, however a saturday afternoon a the movies would be good.
also after seeing the cast;

nick nolte
chazz palmenteri
bruce dern
kyle chandler
treat williams
william petersen
rob lowe

they could have had more of a movie, such as l.a.confidential
than this mess.

i liked it, up to a certain point.