8 Million Ways to Die (1986)

I love this movie so much

Fresh and Exciting

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

You've had Scarface, now we have it's offspring. If your a Jeff Bridges face, run, not walk, down to the video store and hire this gem. You'll be entertained to the max. The movie throws us right into the action with Bridges and his group of cops from the sheriff's department about to apprehend an hispanic drug dealer. Bridges and his pal too, aren't shy about taking a tot of whatever from a cannister, prior. Forced to shoot this dealer down, as one of Bridge's mate is taking a whacking from one, of those nasty Louisville sluggers, he's questioned along with his friend. That night, him and his friend get sozzled, Bridges, the more drunk of the two, who tends to fall off bar stools. He falls into a guilt drunken phase, the following scene an emotional one between him and his family, over some awlfully sad music. Bridges is so believable in his role here, we really acknowledge what a great actor this guy is. To think he never won an Oscar until 2010's Crazy Heart is criminal. We move a few months down the track to an AA meeting that Bridges is attending. Here, one of the other members, gives him a fat fee, to help this young prostitute, Sunny, (an awesome performance by Alexandra Paul, prior to her Baywatch days) get free of her pimp, Angel (Andy Garcia in probably his best role still). For all we know, this woman stranger could be her mother. His attempt to protect her fails, when Sunny is snatched from Bridges in one blood splashing action scene, worthy of it's R rating. Again Bridges falls into a pit, blacking out. When he comes to, he's the one who must unravel this mystery, with the help of Sunny's hooker friend, Sarah, played by Rossanna Arquette, very good in her role, but not great like the others. You've gotta love Angel's pad. A big castle like building that has been used in a cheap "City lights film" I won't mention. This spread operates as a casino and bordello, where in one scene, we see just how dangerous Angel really is. A small electic tram transports it's customers to it's entrance up top. This film has style, it's valet guys sporting it too. I love the scene where Bridges and Sarah meet Angel and his goons in the big car park outside this big museum, where a lot of angry expletives are exchanged in some good meaty and funny dialogue. Let's face it, this movie doesn't have the best script in the world, but there are some classicly original lines that stick, one involving Sunny, describing her anatomy. Bridges and Garcia share this colorful conversation over sno cones, Angel proudly provides. How cool and original is that. Sarah is snatched back from Bridges who was trying to get answers from her, thus he must get her back as she's in dangerous waters now. This flick uses great L.A. locations and is beautifully shot, Hal Ashby's last film too. The Lawrence Block novel is vastly different, where it's set in New York, and the pimp's name is Chance unlike the Chance character in the film, Angel's silent partner I guess. You'll get this joke if you watch this film. Another scene involving a string of expletives takes place later in a warehouse as we build towards our climax. They were really in need of a script doctor that day. The climax is rewarding, as is it's happy after scene. What we've got here is a good drama, a little disjointed in bits, as in it's dialogue, but it's exciting, involving, and more so, it's different. And those sort of movies, I like. Though slow paced, this really didn't bother me. It works for this movie as we get really get to scratch the surface of Bridges and Arquette's characters. For me, what I loved most about this timeless flick, was it's locations. This is one of those eighties bucket list classics you must see. This was another '86 movie I would of loved to seen at the cinema, but we can't turn back time, can we.

Alcoholic former LA sheriff, Matt Scudder(Jeff Bridges)gets embroiled in the middle of a dope smuggling operation after a hooker, Sunny(Alexandra Paul, actually going full frontal in one scene!) is killed while under his watch. A Hispanic drug-lord, Angel Moldonado(Andy Garcia), is the one who had Sunny murdered(she knew too much because she's a major reason Angel was able to move his product)and Scudder wants to bring his empire down. Angel was using a pimp named Chance(Randy Brooks)to traffic by using his "box boys", hiding the coke in logs. Chance, trying to go straight(well, not dope dealing as he once did in the past), running legitimate supermarkets(and allowing girls to pimp at his mansion), is plenty upset to find out, through Scudder's detective work, that Angel was using his places of business to move coke. This sets off a war between Scudder and Angel, with Chance wanting a piece of the action after it is truly acknowledged that Sunny was killed by Moldonado. A bargaining chip in all this is a high priced hooker named Sarah(Rosanna Arquette)who Angel is obsessive over and Scudder falls in love with. Scudder "confiscates", with Chance's help, the logs of cocaine and is willing to trade the product for Sarah..sufficed to say, this exchange doesn't go according to plan, as Scudder involves the police and Chance wishes to get revenge for Angel's actions.Well, 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE is a redemption story in that it follows a struggling boozing detective who has lost his marriage and recked his career by drinking on the job, including shooting a Hispanic drug dealer(who pulled a Louisville Slugger baseball bat to attack cops under Scudder's command)in front of his family when an arrest goes awry. What's interesting is how Scudder is rather inadvertently pulled into his dilemma through the pleas of a hooker wanting to get out of the life and away from a dangerous criminal using her to help him traffic his cocaine. Arquette is the hooker who is around the LA crowd due to her working at Chance's palace, and this is where she was introduced to Angel. It's only when Scudder discovers lots of green and other valuables left by Sunny in his trunk, that he goes to Sarah for answers regarding a fellow call girl, and who might want her dead.Garcia's oily, temperamental gangster(he, at first, seems to want a piece of a club which Chance runs)has several heated exchanges with the seemingly fearless Scudder, where both men size each other up, this lit fuse eventually exploding at the end as Scudder and Angel finally square off with Sarah their desired prize. With unsavory characters and foul language(not to mention, we spend an entire film with these people), 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE won't exactly ingratiate itself to everyone. I must admit that I enjoyed the "sno-cone" confrontation where Scudder initiates a meeting between he and Angel, forward about knowing that Moldonado killed Sunny, and instigating a potential "partnership"(in actuality, Scudder wants to find a way to shake him down, to no avail)where money and coke would be of major emphasis. It's one of those instances where two actors of the caliber of Bridges and Garcia have opposing characters who meet nose to nose and measure each other's dicks with Arquette's nervous Sarah looking on. They just go at each other, while sucking on their sno-cones, profane remarks passed back and forth, Sunny's death a frequent topic which stirs the pot. Bridges uses his outward ability to express the effects of alcoholism while we also see that he's still a pretty damn good cop who snuffs out Angel and joins forces with an incensed Chance which doesn't exactly bode well with the police(whose reputation is tainted because of Scudder's associations with Chance, a known criminal and his ongoing battle with booze). I must admit that the dialogue had me wincing at times, it was rather hard to listen to. The cast does what it can with the material. I had read that the film was taken from the director and cut by the studio which might explain some of the film's problems in it's overall plot and characters. Particularly glaring is the moment in the movie where Sunny is killed, Scudder looks over the bridge in despair due to his inability to save her, and the movie seems to leave us in the dark over a period of two days, Matt awakening to find himself in a hospital. It's said that he got drunk and blacked out, but he appeared to have been beaten(even hobbling on the leg with bruises throughout). This foggy portion of the film is an example of probable tampering which effects the quality of the movie(not to mention an excessively long conclusion, after Bridges' overlapping dialogue, regarding his promising future, with Scudder and Sarah walking in embrace on a beach, going on and on). And, I'm simply amazed that Scudder can seemingly walk around in broad daylight without a care in the world and remain safe, especially with a hothead like Angel in the city, having the resources to eliminate such an obvious threat.

8 Million Ways to Die (1986) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Ashby's final theatrical film (which he was also fired from) is part thriller, part crime/drama, part love story but all the way mess. In the film Jeff Bridges plays Matt Scudder, a former cop who was let go from the force due to his drinking problem. He's asked by a prostitute for help but she soon ends up dead so Matt tries to find out who killed her. Everything points to a drug dealer (Andy Garcia) but Matt is able to get the hooker (Rosanna Arquette) that he's in love with in hopes to bringing down the entire racket. In many ways this thing plays out as a modern day noir but if you pick up any film book it's doubtful you're going to find a positive review. In fact, the three books I own each rate this as a BOMB, which I think is a bit unfair. Sure, this movie is a complete mess that at times appears to be three movies rolled into one but this thing is certainly never boring. I'm not sure when Ashby was actually fired but that might have something to do with the overall strange nature of this film. It starts off pretty much as a cop drama but then we get bits and pieces of a love story. We've also got the theme of alcoholism that is constantly being brought up as Bridges is fighting his demons. We then get all sorts of subplots including the drug dealer being in love with the hooker who just happens to have her own demons from her father leaving her as a child. There are all sorts of issues with the screenplay, which is a little surprising since Oliver Stone was one of the writers. I'm not sure how much of his original screenplay actually got filmed but in many ways this thing is a cocaine-warped nuthouse much like SCARFACE. It's funny that both films deal with cocaine and that both have one strange sequence after another. As bad as the screenplay is here you still can't take you eyes off the screen for several reasons. I thought the performances were rather good even if they're constantly being letdown by the material. Bridges was born to play a role like this and manages to turn in a very good performance as the former cop down on his luck and getting in over his head. Garcia is a lot of fun as well and he gets to shout and go off a few times like Pacino did in SCARFACE. We've got Arquette doing a fine job as the hooker with the heart of gold and Randy Brooks is fine as Bridges' friend. The actual mystery of who killed the original hooker is what the film goes on yet it's never really played out in the end as we switch gears to the second hooker. We even get an opening sequence where Bridges gets in trouble for shooting an unarmed man yet the man was beating an officer with a bat but no one ever mentions this as Bridges is getting nailed for it. All of the madness leads up to an even crazier ending with all our main people inside a warehouse full of cocaine, which Bridges keeps setting on fire, one kilo at a time. What falls just continues the crazy ways. I'm not sure if footage was cut out or if some sort of longer version could be put together but while watching the movie it's clear certainly things are either missing or perhaps everything was just thrown together poorly. Either way, this is a mess from start to finish but it's never boring.

OK. this is my first comment on this site so I'll try to make it good.Eight million ways to die is simply an AMAZING movie. since the first time I saw it - i think it was in 91 - I bought the original VHS video and saw it many times again, especially during harsh times. This is The movie to see when you are down, and shows you how a man who has been at the bottom can gather himself, and bring on his best.May be what i write seems to be intellectual stuff but actually the film is a great police movie with a perfect direction, and the message simply comes out of its own after watching it.the cast is brilliant, this movie made me a Jeff Bridges fan, he is the best (4 times award nominee). Alexandra Paul, Andy Garcia, and Randy Brooks are excellent. Rosanna Arquette is a bit "weaker" than the others. she can't really compete with Paul and the male cast. She is a good actress but I am not sure she fits the hooker-junkie type.What more can I say - my favorite movie ever.Ho! yes: an unforgettable soundtrack by James Newton-Howard. one of his earlier works (may be its best !!). The soundtrack together with the opening scene showing the police car from the air is a master-piece.