As a movie accused of nihilism the ideal approval rating should be 0%, so the 10% positive reviews it accumulated indicates failure. What it actually shows is, that it went way above the comprehension level of the audience. Strangely, the other movie based on a Bret Easton Ellis book American Psycho, which describes a character without any redeeming values except the ability to recognize the best in consumption goods, was universally praised. The main differences with the present movie is that the director then was female and the Christian Bale character mutilated dead women. In the present film the Mickey Rourke miscreant abducts a little boy in a foolish plan to ask for ransom, but eventually the child is set free. Maybe the reviews would be more positive if the child was murdered. The film describes the hedonistic society that is about to be upended by the emergence of AIDS. Cinematography is excellent with very good music and first class actors. But people want to watch realistic movies like the Avatar and Avengers sagas.

I love Brett Easton Ellis. I have read three of his novels, but honestly, I have never read a more disjointed book in my life. I have no idea how it even got published. The brutal murders of a child, the vampire vibe thing that makes no sense at all. I couldn't follow it for the life of me. the only chapter that had any heart at all was the college student who was coming back to L.A. from the east on a train. Each chapter of this book, you have to guess who is the protagonist speaking, what is happening and you're in the middle of the chapter before you even know who's speaking and what's happening. I'm surprised he would write this kind of junk.

A majorly misunderstood movie. A lovely dark and disturbing drama about the collapse of honest living.

An absolute despite the cast.

A movie as pretentious and vapid as one of its leading actresses (Amber Heard), you know immediately that it won't be worth watching aside from an otherwise solid cast. This movie is nothing but a mishmash of noncohesive series of events that have no plot or character development.

Where does one begin, when it comes to a film that has no purpose? I kept wondering where all of this was going. Then suddenly the credits appeared. It’s as if it were only half of a movie. Truly awful.

It was depressing to get through this. A collection of boring scenes where very little happens. The cast is solid, but are given almost nothing to work with.

The Informers has a great case to discuss, and I actually liked that, it was just shattered among these unrelated stories! They were trying to discuss a lot of cases in one movie, but they massively failed! The whole movie is full of bad performances, direction and soundtrack! So how can they create a movie with these drops? As a result, it's a shattered movie, but worth watching though! And I think that they could have made it way better, if they focused on one case to discuss, just to make us at least digest what's happening!

Aimless and lifeless. Although, not AS bad as I expected.

not bad but fairly aimless

This movie might have been called "The Pathetic Lives of Hollywood's Rich and Famous." An incredibly dull film that takes place in the 1980s about a group of wealthy young kids and their estranged parents living very shallow lives. The movie doesn't seem to go anywhere. I can't quite figure out what's it about. There's also a side story about the doorman of the building where these people live which doesn't seem to have any relation to what's going on.

Criminally underrated.

Complete waste of time.

Sex drugs infidelity. This is the trashy side of Los Angeles circa the 1980's. Married couples cheating on each other. A young woman have threesomes and doing drugs. An actress losing her way in life. A drug dealer in his early twenties trying to make sense of his life. If you want to see naked girl played by Johnny depp's new wife the sexy Amber heard dancing naked for two guys. Or see young people dancing and snorting cocaine. Or maybe stunned that actors like Winona Ryder, Kevin bacon, billy bob Thornton, Kim basinger, Mickey rourke, singer Chris isaak, British actor Rhys Ifans and late brad rendfro doing in such a bad movie astonishes me. Based on the book by Brett Easton Ellis whose books were made into films like American Psycho and less than zero. An utter waste if talent

Although it eliminates the vampire subplot from the novel, The Informers is still just as idiotic while displaying the same tired tropes of Bret Easton Ellis past works.

Como directa adaptacion de un libro de Brett Easton Ellis, esta historia esta ubicado en los 80s, la era de las Reaganomics, especificamente la de 1983, la era en la que DEMASIADO nunca fue suficiente. y aqui tenemos todo lo que hay en anteriores adaptaciones de libros de BEE, personajes de polos opuestos, lo mas alto de la sociedad representado por gente blanca, rubia y bonita que no los vemos hacer nada mas que dormir, tirar bola, e ir de fiesta por las nooches con todo tipo de excesos (sexo, drogas y lo demas) y el punto bajo, los criminales y exconvictos sin moral. La musica a lo largo de la pelicula es muy buena al oido y rodeando la atmosfera entera de la pelicula filmada con una estetica algo burda e interesante! totalmente 80s! lastima que eso no sea suficiente pues la historia aunque tenga muchos personajes jamas llega al fondo de ellos y solo los muestra sueprficialmente como lo haria un novele ochentera. Espero que cuando salga el DVD tenga un version del Director o algo que le agrege profundidad a la moovie porque para sus 93 minutos se queda muuy muy corta!

Taking into account this L.A. set multi-stranded ensemble piece was a complete flop in America and only got a very limited cinematic release here in the UK (strange considering it arguably has the best cast of any film in 2009), it's not bad at all, the 80's feel is very much like the book and the soundtrack is terrific. The segments range from interesting to pointless; I enjoyed the stuff with Jon Foster, Austin Nichols and Amber Heard (who looks absolutely stunning by the way). The story with Mickey Rourke and the late Brad Renfro is good too but perhaps the most interesting is the one with Lou Taylor Pucci as Tim who struggles to bond with his dad (Chris Isaak) in their trip to Hawaii. The performances between the two are great and this part is very faithful to the book. As for the pointless ones; Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger and Winona Ryder just turn up for their pay cheques while Rhys Ifans is in the film for about 10 seconds. I was disappointed they cancelled the vampire scenes (really clever chapter in the book where a guy fantasizes about being a vampire, with American Psycho-esque humour), it would've been great to see the originally attached Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) play him. I seen an interview with Jon Foster (who plays Graham) and even he was confused to why they dropped the story, the producers must've bottled it. I'm still trying to understand why this film has had such a quiet release and why barely anyone has heard of it. I just think the producers never spent enough on promoting the film after they interfered too much and totally soured writers Nicholas Jarecki and Bret Easton Ellis' vision (who left the project after it drifted too far away from his novel). However, apparently there was a 160 minute cut of the film he was pretty happy with and hopefully we'll see it someday. Despite all the production problems and the general critical mauling I think The Informers is a decent character piece that's worth checking out, especially for the standout performances by Jon Foster and Lou Taylor Pucci. The downbeat ending is also pretty effective and along with many moments in the film, stays with you for a few days.

A compendium of stories which is more Southland Tales than Short Cuts. I'm surprised I could stay awake through it to be honest.

Movies about miserable people in Los Angeles can be great (Robert Altman's "Short Cuts"). This film, adapted from a series of short stories by Bret Easton Ellis ("American Psycho"), is a slog to get through. There's a lot of young pretty things having sex, and some very good actors (Billy Bob Thornton, Rhys Ifans) looking bored. Aside from a few moments at the end, it's a giant bore.

This melancholic tale about ill fated characters living as a lost generation has its good moments. It's a good film, it never leaves you uninterested or bored or angry. It's main difficulty is a script that doesn't dig a little deeper and rarely gives some powerful insights about how troubled was the 1980's even with everything going in your favor like the characters presented here, all rich and beautiful but miserably sad.