Wednesday, September 9, 2009

To Live and Die in LA


I had always seen this in my local video store when I was a kid and always wanted to see it. Finally got to seeing it and it was pretty damn good. 

The Good: William Petersen plays our "hero," who is a secret service agent cracking down on counter fitting. Being a Friedkin  flick the main character is a hard ass who knows how to do his job, but is a complete dick(see Hackman in French Connection). Petersen uses a stripper for information and sex. Then when she butts heads with him, he threatens to revoke her parole if she doesn't do what he says.


The Bad: DAFOE!  I mean if you split up his last name it is Da Foe, so he was born to play a bad guy. He doesn't disappoint as an eccentric LA artist who has a knack for printing money and killing secret service agents. 

The Ugly: Weird 80's sex scene between DAFOE and some theatre chick... So modern and vogue... oh and disgusting. 

The Badass: Petersen's verbal ownage of his new partner who keeps bitching out on taking down DAFOE. "You ain't my partner! You ain't even my fucking friend. In fact, let me give you a little piece of advice: you better get your ass into protection, baby! Because you ain't shit on the streets! You understand that? You ain't got the nuts! Kiss my ass! Pussy motherfucker!" After the new asshole he receives, he gladly helps.

The violence is sparse in this film, but when it goes down it is raw and real. They did some great shotgun make up effects and head shots. 

The Food: Get some mexicali food for this like some chalupas or nacho's with all the fixins (jalapeno, Monterey jack, black olives, beans, corn and some carne asada.

I recommend this movie if you liked the French Connection and badass 80's technotronic soundtracks.

5 comments:

  1. Haha, what did we actually eat when we watched this? Popcorn and trail mix? Lol, but your suggestion would have been better.

    The Da Foe thing is brilliant. I knew I married you for a reason.

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  2. I like this film. A friend brought it over for me some years back when I lived in FL, but I was in no mood to watch it. After forcing me to sit down and watch it, I wound up really enjoying the film.

    That is so funny you brought up the love scene. As soon as I saw you were reviewing it, I went scanned down to see if you mentioned it before going back to read the review.

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  3. Lol yes filled with a whole buncha awkward

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  4. This movie was very different from what comes out these days, but I loved it. I agree Dafoe's sex scene was very awkward, but the scene where William Petersen was *completely* naked was very hot ;-)
    Overall, I thought it was great because it wasn't all "Hollywood." It was entertaining, but also seemed to be a bit more realistic than movies just made to be on the big screen (another good example: "Manhunter" being way better than "Red Dragon").

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  5. Yes oh yes! William Petersen is not only brilliant and bold in his portrayal of FBI agent Richard Chance, he's absolutely smokin' hot too!
    He's still a very sexy guy even if he is in his fifties. yum! ;-)

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