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L.A. Confidential

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 16, age appropriate for kids over 18; suggested age 16.

  • Is it any good?

    4.0

  • Common Sense says

    Dense, tangled period cop drama for adults.

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 16–18

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    With cops like these, who needs gangsters? Police use bullying, blackmail and frame-up tactics against suspects, showing particular hatred for minorities. One police character says planting evidence and using brutality is standard for how cop detectives operate. Though technically "good" guys, Exley and White have their ruthless dark sides and both sleep with the same glamour-girl prostitute, though they manage to set aside their hatred for each other in the end.

  • Violence:

    Vicious beat-downs, gun-downs, men riddled bloodily with machine-gun and shotgun blasts. People with slashed wrists/throats/legs; bloody bodies pile up after a massacre. A rotted, rat-eaten corpse. The heroine is slapped around by a boyfriend.

  • Sex:

    Revealing clothing and brief female nudity, in bed (including a tied-up rape victim) and in the morgue. References to masturbation and pornography. Hints of kinky sex. The heroine is a working prostitute.

  • Language:

    "F--k" and "s--t" uttered frequently, and a lot of derogatory terms for women.

  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Social drinking that results in a violent, drunken brawl. Talk and depiction of marijuana, heroin, and cocaine.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About L.A. Confidential

Parents need to know that this isn't a thrill-ride cops-a-go-go actioner for kids. Laden with vicious homicide, numerous subplots and multiple characters, it depicts deep police-force corruption and entrenched brutality in law-enforcement. Even its "heroic" policemen are badly flawed, self-serving characters. One crusades chivalrously against assailants who batter women; yet he himself becomes one, out of sexual jealousy. Swear words flow thicker than the bloody wounds, and there is much talk of prostitution and sex.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about the time period of the early 1950s, and the parallels between this script's scandal-sheet Hush-Hush with the real-life one called Confidential. Research crime/showbiz scandals of the time (the Web has the juicy details), about the Johnny Stompanato murder, and how Confidential magazine went too far. Are popular gossip Web sites such as TMZ.com just as bad today or not?
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Most Recent Reviews

  1. Teen Reviewer Age 16
    who3697cares
    Lives in Pennsylvania
    I rate this title off for age 17 and give it 4.0

    If the shootout didn't seem like an attempt to bring in more audience members, if the plot was rearranged in flashback form to add to the post-noir effect, and if it didn't seem so full of itself, L.A. Confidential would be perfect.

    This review...

    Helped me decide | Had useful details | Read my mind
    Flag as inappropriate
  2. Parent Reviewer
    thejokerspencil
    Lives in Massachusetts
    I rate this title iffy for age 15 and give it 4.0

    Great Sets,Great Score,Great Acting must equal Great Movie?

    Wrong. This film was made outstanding and the actors in this are the best of the best but it does not live up to all the hype.

    This review...

    Helped me decide | Had useful details | Read my mind
    Flag as inappropriate

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