There may be eight million stories in New York's “Naked City,” but pound for pound, it's Los Angeles that's always played host to the best pulp fiction. The wonderfully hardboiled 1950s-style film noir “L.A. Confidential” is filled with clench-fisted policemen in fedoras, millionaires with shady connections and sassy back-talking dames.

Now that “L.A. Confidential” has just been reissued in a two-disk special edition, evil has never looked so inviting since 1974's “Chinatown.”

Viewers are sucked in from the opening scene, in which sleazy gossip columnist Danny DeVito dishes that beneath Hollywood's sun-kissed exterior of palm trees and bathing beauties lays a tawdry, secret world of corruption "off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush."

The tour guides through this seedy side of town in the wake of a grisly murder are three L.A. policemen. Bud White is the tightly-coiled brute played by Russell Crowe in his breakout role, Ed Exley is the opportunistic rookie played by Guy Pearce and Jack Vincennes is the glory-hungry veteran on the take and the make played by Kevin Spacey.

Sultry call girl Lynn Bracken is a Veronica Lake look-alike, and Kim Bassinger won an Oscar in the role.

Following how all four characters' subplots and sneaky motives interweave isn't always easy, but trying to keep up and snap all of the puzzle pieces into place is half the fun.

Nominated for nine Oscars when it came out in 1997, “L.A. Confidential” was robbed in the Best Picture race, losing to “Titanic.” But a decade later we still have the movie, now looking better than ever, stripping Tinseltown of its tinsel and showing noir lovers a glimpse of the real naked city.

Now for a look at what else is new on DVD: in “Sex and the City,” Carrie Bradshaw and company get dolled up for the big screen; in “High School Musical 2,” the tweenage phenomenon comes to disk; and in “$$$ (Dollars),” Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn star in a 1970s heist caper.