Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Christopher Smith I've been looking for a copy of 8 Million Ways to Die for probably about twelve years now. Having been a box office flop and one of the rare movies that has never been released on DVD, it's easily the film I've been looking to find longer than any other. Needless to say, when I finally saw this was playing on cable, I couldn't wait to finally watch it. Unfortunately, my years of anticipation built up unrealistic expectations, and as I made my way through the film, I became less interested and more let down as the film went on.On the plus side, 8 Million Ways to Die has a pretty solid first 45 minutes or so. Despite changing Matt Scudder's great origin story from the novel to something more generic and less dramatically interesting, the character is still a somewhat fascinating one, thanks entirely due to a typically entertaining performance from Jeff Bridges in the lead role. While I greatly prefer Liam Neeson's portrayal of Scudder in A Walk Among the Tombstones, Bridges' performance is better than the weak script deserves. Even with co-screen writing credit going to Oliver Stone, every detective story cliché is present and there's nothing particularly surprising about the chain of events as presented in the film, but Bridges carries the film on his shoulders and makes the first half of the movie worth watching. However, 8 Million Ways to Die takes a drastic drop in quality in the second act with Andy Garcia's villain character taking center stage. I love Andy Garcia in everything else I've seen him, but his performance here is simply baffling. Over-the-top to the most extreme degree, its embarrassing to watch, something that I don't think is entirely Garcia's fault. The film was taken away from director Hal Ashby and edited without his input, so who knows who actually is responsible for what ended up in the final cut. Garcia's performance seems like something that could have been shaped into the editing room, as a little bit of his character goes a long way and gets annoying fast. I find it hard to believe that an otherwise solid director like Ashby would have let the second half play out the way it does had he been given final cut. The second half of 8 Million Ways to Die is a mess, tonally inconsistent with the first half and actually mildly painful to watch at times.Despite a not-so-stellar second half, 8 Million Ways to Die is not a complete disaster. It's simply a disappointing film that should have been a lot better. It's a real mystery why the film isn't available on DVD, as there are hundreds of worse and even less profitable films that have been released on DVD and Blu Ray. Maybe it's due to a complicated rights issue, which is probably slightly more interesting than the movie itself. Regardless, fans of Lawrence Block's Scudder novels, not to mention fans of Jeff Bridges, would still love to see this get a proper release. 8 Million Ways to Die is a disappoint for sure, though it's still a decent time waster for those who are into mysteries. 5/10

ma-cortes Violent and exciting movie about narcotics dealers , hotshot prostitutes and an ex-policeman . Scudder (Jeff Bridges) is a cop from the County Department who is forced to abandon his duty , after shooting a violent suspect during a drug raid . The ensuing psychological aftermath of this busting worsens his alcoholic troubles . During his recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous , he meets a suspicious stranger (Randy Brooks) who draws him back into a world of vice and prostitution . Later on , he attempts to rescue a pimp-bound hooker (Alexandra Paul) from a drug lord called Angel Maldonado (Andy Garcia) . Scudder learns his friend has dark business with Angel . Scudder must enter a crime-world of prostitution and drugs to solve a killing , and get knee-deep in a mess of million dollar drug deals . Meanwhile , the ex-cop falls in love for another gorgeous prostitute (Rosanna Arquette).In the picture there is tension , romance , thriller , emotion , intrigue , murders , drug-trafficking and a little bit of violence . A love story between a drunk ex-cop and whore is loosely interwoven with drug dealers and many other things . The movie is fast-moving on the ending but usually results to be slow-moving and being enough amusing as well as compelling but happen many events . The pic obtained moderated success and didn't attain the box office that the producers wanted . The suspense movie is correctly narrated but there're some storyline gaps and the twisted plot makes it a few ridiculous . Famous screenwriter Oliver Stone had little to do with his original script, which subsequently was re-written by Robert Towne and then revised by Hal Ashby in improvisation , he said he only visited the set once, and wanted to have his name taken off the picture but it was too late as the credits were already made up for it . The film is rated ¨R¨ for violence , nudism and some sex . The outcome of this drug and corruption story may not end happily or neatly -just like in real life- , but the characters and ideas explored along the way are compelling . Director takes on a complex subject with a large , uniformly excellent cast . Filmmaker Hal Ashby "threw away the script" and had the actors improvise all their dialog and actions . As nice acting from Jeff Bridges as an ex-cop who hires himself out to rescue a prostitute while resisting the temptation to return to his alcohol abuse . Andy Garcia's fine interpretation as a drug dealer , he is good but plays as Latin stereotypes . And two bombshell women : Rosanna Arquette and Alexandra Paul . Furthermore , Tommy 'Tiny' Lister as Nose Guard and James Avery as Deputy , but both of whom hand roles very secondaries . Catching original musical score composed and performed by James Newton Howard but with excessive use of synthesizer . Colorful and atmospheric cinematography by Stephen Burum , being totally shot in Los Angeles , California . The motion picture was professionally directed by Hal Ashby , though with no originality . It turned out to be his last theatrical film . However , being fired just after principal photography wrapped, and the studio , PSO Entertainment took over creative control . Ashby was firstly film editor , in fact his highlight of his film editing career was winning an Oscar for the landmark ¨In the heat of the night¨ (1967) . As its director, Jewison gave him a script he was too busy to work on called ¨The landlord¨(1970) . It became Ashby's first film as a director . From there he delivered a series of well-acted , intelligent human scaled flicks that included dramas as : ¨The last detail¨ (1973), ¨Bound of glory¨ (76) , ¨The slugger's wife¨ (85) , ¨Coming home (78) ; comedies : ¨Harold and Maud¨ (71) ¨Shampoo (1975) , ¨Lookin' to get out¨(82) and his biggest hit : ¨Being there¨ (79) with Peter Sellers . Great reviews and Oscar nominations became common on Ashby films..

Scarecrow-88 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.

Newsense 4.0 out of 5 stars Release this movie on DVD already!, May 23, 2009 It never ceases to amaze me about how many good movies are only on VHS while some the most crappiest films in recent years get Blu-ray treatment. 8 Million Ways To Die got poor reviews but it was actually pretty good.Jeff Bridges plays Matthew Scudder, a burned out cop whose life goes to shambles after a raid goes wrong. Things in his life don't get any better when he meets a prostitute called Sunny(Alexandra Paul). Sunny ends up getting murdered and Matthew tries to solve the murder.Sure the character development is scant and some of the lines in this movie are howlers(like Sunny exclaiming which part of her anatomy glows in the dark) but the movie is not bad. Jeff Bridges shines as Matthew Scudder and Andy Garcia plays the scummy character of Angel Moldonado well. Rosanna Arquette is pretty good also as the smarmy and snobbish Sarah. These are the performances that keep the movie afloat.Its kind of sad that this underrated drama never got a DVD release. Its like depriving people of seeing a movie that deserves a look of seeing it while shoving crappy films(like anything from Seltzer and Freidberg) down their throats. If you're in the mood for a good drama with a good story and solid acting you cant go wrong with 8 Million Ways To Die.