A More Complex and Less Realistic Chinatown

Rating: 8/10 (17 October 2013)

I saw this movie about 16 years ago, but it is pretty memorable. Any movie that can imitate Chinatown is pretty memorable and a "must see".
This movie is a Chinatown rip-off.
But, with a capital B, the movie will introduce several themes, and too many characters before getting to a happier but much more unrealistic and much more violent ending.
As for themes the movie introduces Good Cop/Bad Cop, Racial Issues, Violence against a woman you care about committed by someone who hates violence against women, the ultimate Evil dude behind it all, and veritable war within LA which forces two former enemies to team up.
At the beginning of the movie, I got lost with all of the numerous characters that were brought into the story. You may as well write a movie about the life of every player in the NBA, it was getting that complex. I knew that no one in their right mind would try to make a story about all of these characters, and I was right. Most were killed off.
The movie is really about who is behind all the killings and other wrong doings in LA. When you finally find out, you'll see the ultimate evil guy, kinda like John Houston's - Noah Cross in Chinatown. Then instead of the more real but sad, depressing Chinatown ending, we get...
WAR, being fought by two characters against an Army who fight for the bad dude. When the about one millionth bullet is finally shot (no I didn't try to count them), we get a happy but less real ending than Chinatown.