Scott LeBrun Jeff Bridges portrays author Lawrence Blocks' character Matt Scudder in this picture, and his able performance is one of its few virtues. Matt is a detective for the L.A. Sheriffs' Department who is also an alcoholic. Ultimately, his drinking costs him his marriage and his job. However, he is soon approached by a hooker named Sunny (Alexandra Paul) to remove her from her unhappy life, and when he gets involved, he incurs the wrath of a smug drug kingpin (Andy Garcia) and a powerful pimp (Randy Brooks).Sadly, this was the final theatrical credit for editor turned director Hal Ashby. A recovering substance abuser himself, he had little to no creative control over the final product. He wanted something grittier and closer to the novel (which this movie barely resembles), the producers wanted a feature film version of 'Miami Vice'. But what really hurts it is the poor script (credited to Oliver Stone and R. Lance Hill (a.k.a. "David Lee Henry"), which moves at a snails' pace and doesn't encourage us to really care about the characters.The lack of success is not for lack of effort on Bridges' part. He, the intense Brooks, and the amusingly slimy Garcia entertain the viewer sufficiently. But Paul is miscast, and Rosanna Arquette, as one of Sunny's co-workers, looks like she couldn't care less. Familiar faces in supporting roles and bits include Vyto Ruginis, James Avery, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Rosalind Allen, and Loyd Catlett.Absolutely gorgeous photography, good use of locations, an atmospheric score by James Newton Howard (one of his earliest), stunning helicopter shots, and some jarring violence work in the films' favor. But it goes on too long (especially that climactic confrontation in the warehouse, which becomes unbearable rather than tense), and has too much inane dialogue.The man who made "Harold and Maude", "Coming Home", and "Being There" deserved a better theatrical swan song than this.Five out of 10.

Rodrigo Amaro Sorry, but I'm gonna have to give a Thumbs Down to "8 Million Ways To Die" despite so many big names involved in it. Hal Ashby's last film had a great beginning, jumbled up in the middle and it was out of salvation at the annoying and louder ending. This film is like sex without orgasm, doesn't have action, doesn't have much excitement, promises a lot and delivers too little and it disappoints a lot.The story involving a ex-cop (Jeff Bridges), his drinking problems and a investigation on the death of a prostitute (Alexandra Paul) is not news in film history and it was good until the middle when he mets Rosanna Arquette, from this point it's all downhill. It lacks interest, it goes in too many talks and almost no action, reaching an ending without any kind of climax. If the performances are quite good (specially Bridges and Andy Garcia playing the villain), the screenplay didn't helped this film at all with too many crime slang's, recycled clichés and obviously a love story that, at my view, shouldn't be there, the connections between characters comes out of the blue and it's too much easy to find out what happened. Worst of all, the villain has a huge lack of evilness, we're never able to see him doing something wrong or menacing.And to think that I was almost thinking that this could be something like "To Live and Die in L.A." (this is a perfect action film), since some obtuse viewers tended to compare with it. And the confusion is not only on screen, there's some controversies between the responsible of this. One of the writers of this film was Oliver Stone, whose original screenplay was changed drastically throughout the filming, and after seeing the final result he wanted his name out of the credits, which was impossible because the credits were already made up. Robert Towne changed the screenplay, and Ashby himself made countless changes and improvisations, and at the end this is what you get: a boring film with nothing much to say. And the last confusion of all, not trying to blame one of my favorite directors of all time, but the producers fired him after finishing the filming, and they kept the whole control over editing and things like that, the final word. It is difficult to say who ruined this movie but all I can say is that the actors cannot be blamed, and neither James Newton Howard's good musical score. The rest is up to you, if you want to see it or not. One of the most unnoticed (with justice) and disappointing films of the 80's. Ashby deserved a better ending in his filmography but we're talking about one of the most underrated directors of all time, who brought us preciosity's like "Harold and Maude" and "Being There" among others. 5/10

Robert J. Maxwell Actually, a minor but diverting film about marginally alcoholic ex-cop Jeff Bridges, now a private investigator, who is hired by hooker Alexandra Paul to protect her. He fails. She dies.He spends the rest of the film tracking down her killers with the reluctant help of Paul's pimp, Randy Brooks, and one of Paul's stable mates, Roseanna Arquette. He soon links the killing to Latino drug boss Andy Garcia, who killed Paul in an attempt to protect his means of smuggling cocaine into the country. The plot's a bit complicated but that's about all you need to know, going in.Bridges is an interesting actor. He usually brings something extra to each of his roles, but here, with his dark mustache and the chronic temptation to booze it up again, he seems to hold back. Not that he does a poor job, just that he's been more inventive in other roles.Alexandra Paul doesn't last long. Too bad because there's an engaging scene in which she gets stoned on coke and examines her pudendum in the light from a refrigerator. She's not a bravura actress. Neither is Roseanna Arquette, with her little-girl's voice, but Arquette exhibits some over-sized features of face and figure. She has a bosom with authority, for one thing, and large lips and incisors that are at the same time inviting and frightening. Andy Garcia is always a presence on screen. He's terribly slick. But Randy Brooks as the pimp is stuck with a one-dimensional part. There are several subordinate thugs and assorted goons who are mainly around to gin up the body count.Hal Ashby has directed some interesting stuff before, but here he allows -- or seems to allow -- his actors to improvise long talky scenes, mainly arguments. Garcia really picks up the ball and runs with it. Everybody is addressed as "man" or "baby." Sometimes the calumny reaches majestic proportions just before it all explodes. At other time, like near a stadium or in Garcia's flamboyant, Gaudi-designed house, it leads only to anti-climax. The final shoot out in an unusual location is de rigueur.It's not insulting. Nothing blows up, No heads are wrenched off. Blood is minimal. It's absorbing in its own way since it pretends to be nothing more than what it is -- no "Chinatown," just another routine private-eye thriller.

Milan I've seen this fine film many times. First back in the 80's when it came out, on copied VHS, with water colored screen, it looked better than your usual crime flick of that era. The story and the script are pretty usual but the acting and the feel was great. Jeff Bridges was in top form circa 1985, and by that I mean his acting form, although the movies he appeared in weren't that great. But he was, and Andy Garcia, who I first saw in this film, was no ordinary villain. He was evil incarnate behind the boy's face. Those two made the movie, their interaction and friction made sparks that lifted the story above ground and supporting cast held it together,(above all Rosanna Arquette and Randy Brooks), and it never looked like once great director Hal Ashby was in his heyday, was loosing it on the set. The movie delivered. It's no "Body Heat", but it's far better than most of silly, superficial, with "plot holes you can lead elephants through", popular movies of that decade. That's why I never understood it's poor rating. There are movies like this one, that are more than decent and they wallow in mediocrity while others, that didn't even deserve to be released, have been on DVD and even Blue-ray, long ago.Years later, I had to dispose of my old battle weary VHS copy of this film, haven't seen it for almost 15 years,and than had a good chance to catch it on satellite. The years went by, but I still had the same emotions watching it, as I did more than 20 years ago. That's when you know that something is gotta be good. Give it a chance, you won't regret it.