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To Live and Die in L.A. 1985

Two years before Lethal Weapon, this film introduced the "I'm too old for this shit" line. To Live and Die in L.A. is pretty much Heat meets Lethal Weapon, The Departed and an episode of Miami Vice.

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An excellent crime movie that's one of the best in the genre with a terrific car chase and some great performances.

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Any movie that can transport me back to my childhood playing GTA: Vice City in 2002... well, what can I say, it's a 10 all day in the play.

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Very much carried by the filmmaking. The cinematography and vibe are easily its greatest asset. The score is incredibly dated, but also the thing that gives the film its unique flavour. The set-up and characters are generic and lacking in interesting detail, but it does go to places you don’t expect as the film goes along. The acting and dialogue are suitably cheesy, which is exactly what the film’s going for. It could’ve gone a little more over the top perhaps, because I think this is not as memorable as say Lethal Weapon. The action, while very impressive when it’s on, feels like it’s directed with the same vision in mind as The French Connection, which doesn’t entirely fit with the tone of this movie. Moreover, some of the (sound) editing is not that well done, for a film with such a simple premise it can get quite messy at times.

6/10

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Interesting film but not one I'd look to recommend these days.

Points of interest. The acting has that over earnest jerkiness to it that categorises a late 70s/early 80s film... Yet the plot is the kind of thing that LA Takedown owes a lot to - and we know how that was reconstituted to become the almost flawless work of art that is Heat.

There's some strange goings on, a lot of practical stunts (with a car chase that perhaps betters the director's own French Connection one), some strange but brave plot twists. Yet it all reeks of early 80s surface level depth.

5/10

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I definitely want to own this on digital, too bad it’s not available!

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Amazing movie that has pretty much everything you want and doesn't bore one second. It has fight-scenes, sexy women, manly (but not overly manly) men
The filming is great, the score is epic, the action good and the plot to sit on the edge of your seat for. It's like playing an epic GTA game but without all the nuissances.

And man does it pack a punch

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One of the wildest car chases on film. So many fearlessly stupid decisions with devastating consequences.

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The movie that got me to enroll in a commercial printing program at the local tech-voc school when I was 17. True story. Neither graduated nor counterfeited. Anyway, definitely one of the best crime flicks to come out of the 80's. Oh, and one of the best all time car chases in cinema. Right up there with The French Connection or Bullitt.

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This is a lesser known Freidkin gem that I've been meaning to revisit for some time. Got a little shafted on the Blu-ray purchase because it doesn't come with the DVD with the special features, but I have the old DVD and I was planning on figuring out a way to make a digital copy (of a Blu-ray I own, it's cool it's cool) so I can add the commentary track to the HD. God forbid the studios include that super small, super easy to add audio track on the Blu-ray but don't get me started on that.

It's interesting to look at this cast and know that back then, most were unknowns but now are not. Willem Dafoe and John Turturro are big time in movies and both Peterson and Pankow were a part of huge long running TV shows (CSI and Mad About You).

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