Chinatown was mostly very good. It was a bit too slow-moving, but everything was very deliberate and intentional, and by extension always at least a little engaging. However, while the screenplay was mostly well-crafted, the ending just sucked, thanks Polanski.

"Forget it Jake, It's Chinatown."

One of the best noir/detective movie with a great story and Jack Nicholson doing his thing.

Chinatown is one of the best detective movies available. The story keeps a lot of mystery until the finale but the ride is smooth and the twist in the final act is big. This isn't Jack Nicholson's best performance but it is memorable all the way. I suggest checking this out if you enjoy classic cinema.

This movie is amazing but fuck that ending. Roman "Pedophile" Polanski was rooting for the Father the entire time

A gripping film, with a unique, engaging plot and stylishly-aesthetic cinematography.

I had wanted to watch this since reading Story. It did not live up to the hype for me. I was never hooked.

This boring film is now a resident in my Never Watch Again Bin.

Polanski's classics didn't age too well, but "Chinatown" is still a pleasure to watch. It stinks of the trademark bleakness and cynicism of the seventies while still evoking the smoky atmosphere of old noir films. It might be amongst his most conservative, but it goes along well with Robert Towne's captivating script, which continuously plays with the genre's conventions and cliches to lead both the characters and the viewer down the wrong track.

Very good. It’s an intriguing story with great characters, solid acting and some challenging subtext. It’s very much a classic noir without any bells and whistles, but when the execution is this good, why would you add anything?
The cinematography in particular feels very far ahead of the curve, most of this looks like it could be released in the 90s without looking dated. I like the very consistent colour palette and precise, dramatic lighting, reminding me of films like _L.A. Confidential_.
My gripes with it are pretty minor. There’s an exposition recap that I thought was unnecessary, and maybe I would’ve liked to hear more of the score (which is surprisingly dissonant), but this is still a great film that deserves to be talked about more often nowadays. Very much deserving of its classic status IMO.

8/10

I am ambivalent on this. On one hand, the plot is good, and the ending really well written. On the other, Polansky is too slow in carrying over the plot development (as in other of his movies), and Nicholson's acting not that much different than the character performed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest.

cool detective movie. nicholson is really good this was the first time ive seen him as a lead actor. faye dunaway was really good too actually the firat time i saw her was in barfly, thisntime did not even realized that she is the leading actress anyway the movie was good.

Embarrassed to say I watched this all the way through for the first time recently. Really good movie that feels like it could have been made in the last few years not in the early 70s.

A classy detective for a case no less classy.

There's only one thing I don't get: why good meaningful movies get such bomb reviews in this website and crappy comercial movies get so hyped? This movie, for instance, why 7,9 score while spider man gets more than this?

Recently I have been watching Faye Dunaway's films, for no reason. I heard Chinatown is one of the best films she took part in so I was really looking forward to watching it. After two hours and ten minutes, I found myself looking at the screen and thinking, what is so special about this film? Why does it have stellar reviews across the board? Why is it one of the films I must watch before I die? I have no idea. It was average at most. Yes, the unexpected story line in the end regarding the father and the daughter was, interesting, but it had nothing to do with the main murder.

I really feel I missed something important to like this film. But I watched it carefully. I didn't drift away. I was wide awake, focused and not tired.

It is the two hours and ten minutes I will never get back in my life. I did not like it and I am not ashamed to say it.

Please change my view on this and tell me what I have missed.

Jack was great but the movie not really. I think I liked it more out of nostalgia then anything else. I only had time to watch it because of the quarantine.

this movie is just perfect!

As coolly intense and exceptionally-staged as any detective story/film-noir of the 40's & 50's.

almost at the end of the movie I'm still wondered why the movie title is "chinatown" but when I watched the ending it doesn't matter anymore, great noir movie by polanski with unforgettable intro musci by goldsmith, excellent acting especially that slapping "sister daughter scene" most people say the ending is bad, but just like they say "forget it, its chinatown" no happy ending needed