Devil in a Blue Dress: Critic Reviews

The role of Easy looks as tailor-made for Mr. Washington as his suit, and it shows off the full effect of this actor's movie-star dazzle.

A hoary Chinatown knock-off wrapped in a seductively novel black-culture veneer, with a dash of Laura added for bad measure.

First-rate American pulp -- fast, absorbing and substantive.

Franklin's picture is effortlessly wise beneath its entertaining surface.

I liked the movie without quite being caught up in it: I liked the period, tone and look more than the story, which I never really cared much about.

Entering the main flow of the story relatively late, Don Cheadle steals all his scenes as a live-wire, trigger-happy old buddy of Easy's from Texas, while Sizemore and Mel Winkler, as colorful underworld figures, make strong impressions.

A bland, workaday detective flick.

While Devil in a Blue Dress never develops the taut momentum of Franklin's previous effort, One False Move, it maintains audience involvement.

The movie simmers with pungent suspense, humor and eroticism.

A fluid, persuasive piece of movie-making graced with the considerable visual sophistication.

Stylish neo-noir.

Invoking social realism more than pulp fiction, Carl Franklin's Devil in a Blue Dress is an innovative genre film on several counts.

In the aftermath of the Oscars, it now seems clear that Devil in a Blue Dress was one of the best films of 1995.

Carl Franklin's unusually creative studio movie, boasting superlative acting from Denzel Washington and particularly newcomer Don Cheadle, reinvents a genre and a bygone era, in this case, Los Angeles circa 1948.

Sheer pleasure.

Great, grand piece of modern noir, with a unique twist that rethinks the genre even as it honors its finest elements. Great performances all around.

A very complex and engrossing mystery, filled with wonderful period details.