Sofa Cinema

Gifts - NEW | Help | Sign in

Hotlists: Rent games; New releases; Coming soon; In cinemas now; Top rated; Most popular; All-time favourites; Divided opinions

Games: DS; GameCube; PS2; PS3; PSP; Wii; Xbox; Xbox 360

Collections: 100 Wild Westerns; 100 Most Wanted; 100 Hot Hits; 100 must-see movies; 100 Big Adventures; 100 Horror Films; 100 Cops & Robbers; 100 Rom-Coms; 100 Swords and Sandals Films

Hi-Def: Blu-ray; HD DVD

The Informers (2009)

Average rating

(40%)

Starring:	Billy Bob Thornton \| Kim Basinger \| Winona Ryder \| Mickey Rourke \| Jon Foster \| Amber Heard \| Rhys Ifans \| Chris Isaak \| Lou Taylor Pucci \| Mel Raido \| Brad Renfro
Director:	Gregor Jordan
Studio:	ENTERTAINMENT IN VIDEO
Run time:	98 mins
Genres:	Drama \| Thriller
Languages:	English
Released:	November 09, 2009

Focusing on the Los Angeles of the early 1980s, "The Informers" balances a vast array of characters that represent both the top of the heap (a Hollywood dream merchant, a dissolute rock star, an aging newscaster) and the bottom (a voyeuristic doorman, an amoral ex-con). Connecting all these intertwining strands are the quintessential Brett Easton Ellis protagonists--a group of beautiful, blonde young men and women who sleep all day and party all night, doing drugs--and one another--with abandon, never realizing that they are dancing on the edge of a volcano.

Screenshots

Rating of 3 stars out of 5
Time Out

Vapid, pretty things flounce around a Roman-style mansion; Simple Minds croon about new gold dreams. Almost...

Highest rated reviews

15 out of 16 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 4.0 stars
No vampire

A Customer from Bridgend, 3rd October, 2009

This film is really good, and benefits from the fact that it had all of the vampires cut from it. When a film is adapted from a book, and the plot is religiously adhered to, then a lot gets lost in translation. The film, for me, is a great depiction of what life is probably like for spoilt, debauched L.A. rich-kids, and it is hard not to think 'good' when it all starts going pear-shaped. The young actors do well to portray their characters as the charmless and otiose sybarites that they are assumedly meant to be: that they are in the book. I enjoyed this film a lot, and was a bit shocked when I found that it was given a rough ride when it came out.

Read all highest rated reviews

6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 1.0 stars
Claptrap

Al80 from , 9th December, 2009

The Informers really is an unusual kind of terrible, but there is actually a very real possibility that it is a misunderstood work of unparalleled directorial ingenuity. The off-kilter overdubbing, the soft focus camerawork, the trite youth-gone-wild bullsh*t dialogue, the nihilistic soft-core group sex - its all exactly like a DTV Zalman King production, and nothing quite sums up the rank, dilapidated sleaziness of the early 1980s than a DTV Zalman King. If Gregor Jordan's career ends up warranting serious critical reappraisals in the future, then this is going to be the gleaming, once-misinterpreted jewel in some chancer's festival retrospective. But from here, its just appalling. The good actors involved are coasting (Billy Bob Thornton in particular looks as if he's performing from the vantage point of a prozac coma) and the bad actors are left to use their questionable skills to turn every other scene into full-tilt soap opera. The screenplay (co-authored, surprisingly, by Brett Easton Ellis himself) is completely unaware of itself, and so tiresomely arch and condescending that it feels, again, like a product of the 1980's rather than some kind of commentary of it. Reeling off a plot synopsis would be beyond pointless, as it consists of little more than a series of unconnected, uninteresting things happening to some deeply unlikeable people. Everyone appears to be operating under the assumption that this is a satire, but the funniest thing about it is the sheer inappropriateness of the supposedly suckerpunch coda. No prizes. American Psycho aside, if you want a to see Ellis' rather one-note universe rendered shrewdly onscreen, you should really check out Roger Avary's severely underrated Rules Of Attraction.

Read all highest rated reviews

Most recent reviews

*** May contain spoilers ***

Rated 2.0 stars
Not quite less than zero...

A Customer from London, 16th March, 2010

If you are a fan of Bret Easton Ellis based films - great. If you are a fan of Bret Easton Ellis - bad.

I am the latter. American Psycho, and some of Rules of Attraction aside, directors/scripwriters torture the material. However in this case Ellis had a hand in the script so I have no clue why this is probably the worst yet.
AND a great cast!
I did watch it all. The kidnapping storyline is very badly handled (apart from Renfro who is very good) and boring.
Best performance is Basinger.
yes the characters are generally meant to be vacuous, but this film is an empty watching experience in itself. For fans only.

Read all recent reviews

Rated 2.0 stars
B A D R I N G

Stuart L Badring from Surrey, 3rd March, 2010

Thats bad and boring, a title i thought up while watching this film, I was so bored i started thinking up names for the fictional band in the film i came up with Badring. I knew it was dull when even the gorgeous Amber Heard writhing naked across the screen couldn't make me take my eyes of my mobile where i deleted old texts. The film is not without merit there is an element of self deprecating glamor about these poor little rich 09ers, now i never felt any sympathy but i might of done if it been directed well instead of it careering into the OC lite drama Kim Basinger and BB Thornton phone in there appearances and the story strand with Brand Renfro RIP and Mickey Rorke could have been its own film. What a Badring mess.

Read all recent reviews