The Informers 2008

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: Gorgeous people and some well written dialogue aren't enough to make this a movie you should see. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: This one's a certifiable soul-sucker, dining out on its characters' venalities while wagging a finger at the horror, the horror. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Ellis' book, though a grim read, had a satirical edge to it that made it darkly enjoyable; the movie is simply dark and dull. And vampireless, more's the pity. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: The Informers should be more aware of its own unsavoryness, and revel in it a little. As it is, the movie is far too weighty, as though it were honestly trying to convey some kind of cautionary message. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The piece had better have something fresh to say. The Informers doesn't, nor does it seem to want to. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: It's a movie with Altmanesque pretensions, but under Gregor Jordan's flat-line direction amounts to flipping through an out-of-date fashion magazine, one that barely spurs the energy to point and laugh. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Repulsive 80s flashback. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Ellis's big notions are less insightful than they pretend to be. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The Informers is such a wretched piece of garbage that there's a certain amount of guilt attached to even writing about it. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's by far the most slack, ho-hum movie ever made from Ellis' material. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Perhaps the film's biggest mistake is that after more than an hour of proving how pointless and vapid these characters are, it leaves us with a parting shot indicating we should care about what happens to them. We don't. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The film is as flat as the Hollywood sign, with beautiful young people, all blonde, mostly naked, trying desperately to get up the energy to order something else from room service. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Gregor Jordan's pointless adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis book is successful only in the sense that it accurately mimics the emptiness of its subject. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The Informers is a movie so seamy it makes you want to take a bath afterward. Rarely has so much sin seemed so boring. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A rancid load of swill called The Informers, from a depraved 1994 book by Bret Easton Ellis, is, like The Soloist, a look at the underbelly of L.A., but the resemblance ends there. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Occasionally, some fool gets the idea that his literary wretched excess would make for a good film. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Informers is the kind of movie that, upon leaving the theater, provokes the urge to take a shower. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: If The Informers doesn't sound to you like a pleasant time at the movies, you are right. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Do some blow. Curse humanity. Convert to nilhilism. Reread American Psycho. But don't for the love of God and cinema see The Informers. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: People sometimes had ordinary, reasonably polite conversations, even in the '80s. Not absolutely all the talking was affectless mumbling, angry recriminations, drug deals or TV news about Ronald Reagan. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Has an air of detachment and sadness, enhanced by the movie's being set a full quarter century ago. Like new cars in an old movie, these people may glow with youth, but we watch them in full awareness of the beaters and wrecks they'll become. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: TMZ with phony gravitas. Ellis' stories had more oomph before drug-crazed screwups like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse became the center of the Internet news cycle. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: An outbreak of '80s nostalgia is the best explanation for The Informers, a worse movie based on a worse Bret Easton Ellis book. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: We may not care about these cokeheads, but only rarely does Jordan fall into knee-jerk retribution. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The dialogue is laughable. Lines are spoken so languidly that the actors seem bored. Shattering revelations are delivered in the same monotone as casual patter. Read more

Rob Nelson, Variety: Rating less than zero on the sophistication scale, The Informers is thus a totally faithful adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel--and an accurate look at early '80s-era Los Angeles. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: There's plenty of incident, but not much plot. As befits a tale of absolute self-absorption and unconscious revelation, The Informers often seems to be telling on itself. Read more

John Anderson, Washington Post: A nihilistic, narcissistic, knuckleheaded move about nihilistic, narcissistic knuckleheads, The Informers might have been an interesting exercise in satire, if it only had a sense of humor. Which it doesn't. Read more