The Movie: Chinatown is quite a well-crafted story, written by Robert Towne and directed by Roman Polanski. Set in 1930's Los Angeles and told in classic film noir style, Chinatown is about a private detective played by Jack Nicholson who is hired by a rich woman to spy on her cheating husband... but nothing is as it seems in this film as he finds himself trapped in a web of lies, deception, and fraud, going up to the highest levels of the city government.

This is however, quite a complex story that requires you to really pay attention to the details or else you might just end up getting totally lost. You never really know who is on the up and up, and who is lying and who is telling the truth and for what reasons until you're nearly at the end of the film. Great performances are turned in by Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. Unfortunately, I found myself distracted by John Hillerman, because well, he's Higgins, haha.

This is definitely a must see for any film noir freak, and worth seeing for everyone else too. Check it out.

The DVD: It's unfortunate that such a great (and well regarded) film got such a lackluster DVD release. Murky picture, with washed out colors and crushed blacks (but not in a good way). Although this DVD features a new 5.1 audio mix, it's really more of a 3 channel mix with just the front three speakers and a bit of rear fill. Special features also run a bit light, with just a trailer, and some retrospective interviews with the filmmakers.