ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Aleksandar Sarkic I really love William Friedkin movies, i have enjoyed Sorcerer and The French Connection, and especially Cruising which is not so popular among the critics (how are they wrong). So after these three movies i wanted to watch more from Friedkin and have choosed To Live and Die in L.A as next. I suppose i choosed these one because of the title, and because it is from the 80's which is one of my favorite decades. I have expected some good thriller/crime in the vein of magnificent The French Connection but i was totally wrong, these movie is totally cheesy from start to finish. The plot is nothing special, the movie just goes but nothing happens at all till the end. Than we go to the main reason i didn't like these one, it is the acting. Except phenomenal Williem Defoe other cast is just disastrous. Williem Petersen and John Pankow are the pair of your dreams ha-ha i am kidding, they are so out of charisma, unoticable, boring and cheesy, especially the acting of Williem Petersen it is on the level of B-movies actors. Other supportive cast is also not worth mentioning. And on all of that just add the soundtrack of British band Wang Chung, i really like 80s music and soundtracks, but these soundtrack is not going well with the movie and even gives more b-movie atmosphere. I just give this movie 5 from 10 because of great charismatic acting by Williem Defoe, and phenomenal car chase near the end of the movie, but my advice is to skip this one, you will not regret, and you will save your precious time.

rooee "I'm getting too old for this s**t," one character utters early on in this stylish 1985 thriller from the formidable William Friedkin. The veteran director doesn't bring much of his recent black humour to this hard-boiled cop thriller, but the brutal cynicism is present and correct. After the questionable Cruising and the forgotten comedy Deal of the Century, this was Friedkin back on Sorcerer form. William Peterson, who would smoulder even more intensely the following year in Michael Mann's Manhunter, plays Secret Service agent Richard Chance. And boy does he take chances. A thrill-seeker who spends his spare time bungee-jumping off bridges, when his soon- to-retire partner is gunned down he goes after the culprit with reckless abandon. His prey is Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), a completely amoral counterfeiter who slaughters with a smile. Chance is paired with a by-the-book agent named Vukovich (John Pankow), who's dragged deeper into this violent mess thanks to a ruthless code of honour. What ensues is an action thriller somewhere between the rawness of Friedkin's own The French Connection and the glossy buddy thrillers that were soon to become a Hollywood staple. There are shoot outs, intricate car chases, fist fights, and a conspicuous amount of ball-kicking. You can forgive some of the film's flaws for their pay-off. Sure, Chance might blunder into situations with face-palming recklessness, but that's consistent with his character. Similarly, even when the storytelling is stripped down to the point of being nonsensical (characters leap about locations in the space of a jump cut), you accept it for the thrilling briskness and the efficiency of storytelling.You won't be surprised that Peterson excels at glowering and Dafoe revels in his menace. Chance isn't a complex character but he does take us on a journey, from sympathy to something like repulsion. He exploits others and ignores the rule of law to get the job done – so, is he so different from the villain he's preying upon?Par for the genre, women are sidelined as strippers or victims, although in Friedkin's defence the ample nudity is generous to both genders. Plus, in a thematic sense, one could see the film as one big critique of the single-minded alpha male. If there are winners in the end, it's not who you'd expect. On the whole, however, expectations are satisfied more than they are defied. Cliché follows cliché, but it's all done with great energy and style. L.A. is perennially clad in orange sunset, and the saucy 80s rock soundtrack (from British new-wavers Wang Chung) locks the film in time. Mann would remake his own 80s effort with Heat in 1995, providing the final word on the L.A. neo-noir genre. But in To Live and Die we see its overture: a relocated Miami Vice writ large. It's nasty, dated, and fun.

SnoopyStyle Secret service agents Jimmy Hart and Richard Chance (William Petersen) thwart an Islamic terrorist during a Presidential visit. Hart has a few days left before retirement. He tries to investigate and gets killed by counterfeiter Eric Masters (Willem Dafoe). Chance vows to take him down. He gets John Vukovich (John Pankow) as his new partner. They catch Masters' delivery boy Carl Cody (John Turturro). Masters' lawyer Bob Grimes (Dean Stockwell) says Cody has to do 3 years. Chance's C.I. Ruth Lanier (Darlanne Fluegel) directs them to lawyer Max Waxman. Waxman was Cody's last stop and Masters suspects he set them up. Masters and his girlfriend Bianca Torres (Debra Feuer) go to demand repayment and ends up killing him. Chance steals Waxman's black book as he becomes more morally corrupt in order to take down Masters.William Friedkin delivers a slick thriller of amoral cops and immoral everyone else. I love Dafoe's montage of counterfeiting. Friedkin delivers so many great action scenes. The wrong way car chase is the highlight and probably the height of his action work. It is so slick and so stylized that I accept the avant-garde artsy stuff. It fits into the movie. It also has an early bungee jump on film. This is one of the most fun 80s action thriller filled with relatively unknown actors at the time. I can't help but think of Michael Mann who was showrunning Miami Vice TV show at the time.

Guy TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. is like a cocaine rush; from the first beats of Wang Chung's awesome soundtrack and the crisp, colourful images of LA you know you're in for a ride. The plot - based on a novel and co-written by an ex-Secret Service agent - sees two Secret Service men, one of them hurting from the death of his partner, trying to hunt down a slick counterfeiter (with a taste for modern art). Peterson as the hotshot agent captures the darkness of a man determined to do anything to get his man (and if many of his actions are foolish, the man is supposed to be reckless) whilst Dafoe brings all his Weimar-style creepiness to his pseudo-yuppie criminal genius. The images have that brisk, bright feel of the 80s which is combined with the brutal realism of the 70s (when dudes get shot, it ain't pretty); when the film confronts sex or violence or ugly realities it pushes in rather than backing away. There's plenty of hard-boiled cop jargon, sex scenes that manage to be erotic rather than pornographic and an underlying realism to its depiction of criminality. The highlight is of course the car chase, which is simple yet brilliant and will have you holding your breath as the heroes zoom down loading docks, through traffic and along the LA water system. If the film never quite gels - in part because the leads aren't all that sympathetic - it's still a whole lot of fun which is happy to push boundaries.