a special unit of four police detective be dispense justice in their own unique way in 1950s los angeles . nick nolte play max hoover and the unit lead officer and his partner be play by michael madsen and chazz palminteri and chris penn . also star be melanie griffith and jennifer connelly and john malkovich among others . quite an impressive list of name . unfortunately that be the only thing even remotely impressive about this film . our story begin when young allison pond and play by connelly and turn up dead in a remote area of town currently under development . our band of four detective be call in and it be immediately obvious that nolte max hoover be go to be take a very personal interest in this case . we will soon find out that allison and in addition to know hoover quite well and be also involve with some rather important military and government type who may have have reason to want her dead . but who exactly be involve and why exactly would they want this seemingly harmless woman dead . hoover and crew set out to find out . sound like an interesting premise but unfortunately it go nowhere . despite the impressive array of name and the acting here leave much to be desire . nolte be overact and madsen seem incredibly bore and palminteri and malkovich come off a caricature and penn have hardly anything to do and griffith be dull a can be . by far the best performance be connelly in all too fleeting flashback sequence . the dialogue throughout the film be force and wooden . the sense of drama you would expect from a mystery of this type be miss altogether . nothing dramatic really happen . in fact nothing at all seem to happen for the bulk of the picture . instead we just slog along towards a rather ludicrous and incredibly disappointing climax . when the mystery be solve you may find yourself say and oh come on now and be that all there be . but it get bad a after the mystery be solve we get a completely ridiculous and utterly unbelievable action sequence . and even then we be make to suffer far a another awful and badly act and completely unnecessary scene be tack on at the end . and then mercifully it be over . and not a moment too soon .