ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

la_follette Although now 32 years old, this film still packs a wallop. The violence is raw, and very brutal -- even by today's standards. Everyone seems to be getting shot in the face, or in the testicles, and director Friedkin always makes sure to show the gore in full, red detail. The story concerns a corrupt Secret Service agent named Chance out to avenge his partner's killing. He runs into a vicious artist-counterfeiter named Masters who seems to know all of Chance's moves before anyone else. Someone is feeding Masters information, and the film suggests it could be a sleazy lawyer, appropriately named Grimes, or the sleazy woman who Chance is sleeping with. We really don't know though.Mirroring the violence is an equally ugly depiction of Los Angeles. Forget about palm trees, beaches and glamorous people. Friedkin's Los Angeles consists of smog, railroad yards, electrical towers, claustrophobic industrial streets and seedy bars. There's literally nothing redeeming about the place.There are some apparent plot holes. Why don't they just arrest Masters? They know where he is, as he frequents a local health club ("I'm an easy man to find" he boasts). Masters had rented out an industrial warehouse where Chance's partner was killed. Masters drove his sports car and walked all over that property. Was he so careful that he scrubbed every piece of evidence? I would imagine something was left behind -- a tire track, a footprint, something. Either from Masters or his burly co- conspirator. Stupidly, when the Secret Service shows up at the warehouse, they put their fingerprints on every door and dumpster handle in sight.Instead of arresting him, they try a sting operation. It doesn't go well.The dialogue is cynical, dark and very true to life. Certain lines stick with you. "Makin it like very other swinging dick in here." "Enjoy your work Mr. Jessup?" "He doesn't have it. What a guy." "Your taste is in your ass."Nine out of 10.

PimpinAinttEasy Dear William Friedkin, To Live and Die in LA is the kind of movie that the likes of Sanjay Gupta, Rajiv Rai and Abbas Mastan aspires to make but fails.It is sleazy - there is a hardcore sex scene, men casually undressing in each other's company, erotic dancing, strip clubs, a bisexual villain and even a gay kiss.It is a police procedural - while not as gritty as The French Connection, it did have many of the same elements like officers breaking the law to catch criminals and facing heat from superiors.It has loyalty as one of its major themes - loyalty between police officers and even criminals.It has a cheesy 80's score - the background score was a bit of a letdown. There is a heated debate on the film's IMDb message board about this. I found myself warming to the score as the film progressed. But I guess there were better cheesy 80's songs that you could have used. Some of the songs were simply awful.It is a film of place - as the name suggests. There are some beautiful long shots but some of the action takes place in really ugly warehouses and wastelands. It is not a very pretty film to watch on a normal DVD.It has great action scenes - while nowhere as good as the ones in The Sorcerer and The French Connection, the car chase in To Live and Die in LA was quite thrilling.It is peppered with eccentric characters - especially the two protagonists who share a woman and nothing is certain about their sexuality.It has some great performances - by William Petersen, John Turturro and Willem Dafoe.Despite all this, it is not in the same league as some of your 70s films. It is a bit of a let down considering your work in the 70s. But anyway, thanks for making such a sexy and entertaining film.Best Regards, Pimpin.(7/10)

vandelour So much potential, such bad casting. I'm giving this film a 3..no, on second thought make that a 4 only because I generally like Friedkins view on the world (Sorcerer, Fr Connection) and he always gets good camera-work out of his stuff. But this film… my god, the acting of Petersen and Pankow is beyond ridiculous. Everything about those two is ridiculous, dialog, behavior, the way they dress… it absolutely cripples the movie. Turrturo was excellent as was Dafoe. The rest of the cast was fine but when you have two disco-zombies like Petersen and Pankow prancing around in their tight levis, flashing skin, Petersen stumbling along in his high-heel cowboy boots, both of 'em doing some heavy male 'bonding' and then the final scene involving Pankow - - which is so utterly ridiculous (I know I'm using this word a lot here but dammit it fits) that I laughed out loud, well, even a Friedkin fan has to choke on his popcorn.Good chase scene though. And given the latest revelations regarding the 'professionalism' of the Secret Cervix, maybe its not that far off.

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.