To Live And Die In LA

I searched, but could not find. Can't believe it has not been done.

This film is NOT CRAP. A friend and I used to watch this film once a week a few years back. So good. I remember reading on the VHS cassette box that the film included a "humdinger of a car chase" and it surely does.

The main character or hero/anti-hero is gloriously hammed up to perfection. There is that bit where he goes on about free-jumping or something. It's superb.

There is also the line "if you want dough, go fuck a baker".

So many other good things about this film, the non-conventional hollywood climax, the unflinching violent scenes, I could go on.

NOT CRAP

from what i recall, not crap.

chairman_hall wrote:So many other good things about this film, the non-conventional hollywood climax, the unflinching violent scenes, I could go on.

We're all pals here, mate. You can go ahead and mention the Wang Chung soundtrack.

Motorpsycho Irene wrote:

chairman_hall wrote:So many other good things about this film, the non-conventional hollywood climax, the unflinching violent scenes, I could go on.

We're all pals here, mate. You can go ahead and mention the Wang Chung soundtrack.

Good post!

I actually think the Chung fits this film perfectly and I enjoy listening to some of the tracks that are on the soundtrack to the film as I watch. Taken in isolation I wouldn't even consider listening to Wang Chung of my own volition. But, as I said, it's perfect for this film.

There's a scene in this movie when Defoe shoots someone in the face, and it's a POV shot as he points his gun. What got me was the guy getting killed, the way he says, "No, no!" I'm not sure I had ever heard a grown man begging for his life before I saw this, and it has stayed with me now for what.....25 years?

I remember kinda liking the some of the action sequences in this movie..

and the counterfeiting scenes make for a great tutorial...didn't William Friedkin actually get questioned by the FBI due to the accuracy of the process? I thought I'd heard something like that...

Still...I also remember being bored by this film for long stretches. Could be due to a short, adolescent attention span, sure, but there were some things that were a bit problematic looking back on it.

For one...so much of the onscreen sex and violence really was gratuitous. Examples being: The opening scene with the terrorist blowing himself up outside the building had no relation to the rest of the story. The scene with the guy shooting the other guy in the head and saying, "buddy, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time" was empty and pointlessly macho.

The cop who goes after Defoe's character was a void of any sort of persona or charisma. It was hard to empathize with him. It was at least easy enough to be amused by Defoe's villain.

I dunno...all the details are kinda fuzzy so it'd be pretty easy to cut my argument down. There was some fun stuff going on style and actionwise. However, I remember it being out during the heyday of Miami Vice's popularity and, like Miami Vice, I'm willing to bet it hasn't dated so well.

Thing is, I kinda think that of all of Freidken's films (excluding the Exorcist). French Connection hasn't aged well because it suffers from the same lack of continuity. Furthermore, I don't know who actually wrote the scripts, but the tough guy dialogue in both French Connection and To Live and Die in LA just sounds retarded to me as a grown ass man.

Not trying to shit in anybody's oatmeal or anything, but I dunno 'bout all this.

Excellent film. Nowhere even in the vicinity of crap. And Wang Chung blew their creative wad on this (but we get the benefits of their labour).