Reviews & Ratings for
8 Million Ways to Die More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 4:

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Index

32 reviews in total

---

20 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
Underrated Mid-80's detective film, 24 March 2004

Author: JohnQpublic from Basement @ Home

This film is consistently rated at or below the median for it's genre and period. In my opinion, this is an unfair rating... the film is better than it has been portrayed.

Jeff Bridges plays Matt Scudder, a down on his luck detective who is suspended by the LAPD after a violent confrontation with a suspect.

Bridges life spirals down (in something of a preview of the character he would later play in perhaps his best film, 1991's The Fisher King) into chronic alcoholism. He receives an unexpected invitation to a party hosted by Angel Maldonado (Andy Garcia in an early role) and there the story proper begins.

Scudder is drawn into the dark side of LA's party scene by "Sunny", one of Maldonado's erstwhile hangers on. Through this connection, Scudder determines to bring down Maldonado's drug empire - and make off with Maldonado's favourite girl...

All standard hollywood stuff, but reasonably well done. The mid 80's seems to have been a fairly soft time for truly good films, but this one is worth watching. I give it 7/10 on the public scale...

---

19 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
Lost Movie of the 80's, 28 April 2005

Author: Gortch from Montana

Will be recognized as one of the lost classics of the 80's. Bridges gives a great performance and really seems to understand what an alcoholic acts like. has THE best hangover scene of any movie. Andy Garcia made his first impression as the bad guy. Some real off the wall action scenes. This movie got a lot of bad press when it was released. i never understood why as I felt that it was one of Ashby's better later movies. I think Ashby himself will come under a reappraisal in the years to come with his movies being recognized as some coif the best. Some of his stars gave their best performances under his direction, i.e. Jack Nicholson (The Last Detail), Warren Beatty (Shampoo); Jon Voight (Coming Home) and Ruth Gordon.

---

11 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
A lost piece of art from the 80's, 9 February 2002
Author: Mr Cinema from Roselle, IL

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I remember watching 8 Million Ways to Die (1986). There are a bunch of things I like about this film. Jeff Bridges's performance is a great, tactical, and understated. Andy Garcia is a great villain. Psychotic, warm and pathetic. He makes poison sweet like a Jalapeno pepper. This is entertaining film noir. All of the characters are flawed. They all have weaknesses or addictions that are their downfall. Bridges's Scudder is an alcoholic. Rosanna Arquette is addicted to money. Which always makes a good film noir. 2 things, that I usually see in the TV version of 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) that are cut out is (1) Alexandra Paul's Sunny has a bathroom scene with Scudder, which is usually cut out. It's as naked a scene as Isabella Rosellini's scene in Blue Velvet. (2) There is a long drawn out downspell of Bridges's character in the beginning that they. The studios usually cut out. I don't buy the ending with Bridges and Arquette's character going off together, but Arquette does say that her dad was an alcoholic and we usually go for our parent's hardest traits in our mates, so. Maybe. They do get together. Overall, This is underrated and overlooked. This is a Mr. cinema 100 pick.

---

8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
It's very good: don't believe the hype!, 19 April 2000
Author: tseverin from London, England

I saw this film a couple of nights ago. I only bothered as it was a Hal Ashby movie & I'm a big fan. He didn't let me down. Ok it's not a masterpiece or even amongst his best but it's still a powerfully intense thriller. Superficially similar to Scarface it is less showy, more personal & more convincing. Garcia's stylised gangster with his 'Gaudi' affectations almost unsettles the realism but is compulsive. Bridges turns in another superb performance as the hard-boiled, ex-cop battling with alcoholism & other demons. Ashby's Chandleresque take on 80's LA is familiar but beautifully vivid nevertheless. What raises it above the plethora of dark 80's thrillers is it's old-fashioned 70's values like complex character and troubled hero not in control of the narrative over fast-pace, shallow action & irony. To the post-Star Wars generation '8 Million Ways' may look meandering and indulgent but this says more about their limitations as film fans than it does about the film.

---

8 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
the most original and well played police movie ever, 24 July 2007

Author: didier_lds from Israel

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.

---

5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
8 Million Mistakes, 8 August 2010

Author: shark-43 from L.A. CA

I am a huge Hal Ashby fan - he was a brilliant editor (Oscar winner for In The Heat Of The Night) and an even better director (Being There, Coming Home, Shampoo, to name a few) but this film is a mess. I just read a book on Ashby's life and here was a lot of trouble on this film - the studio wanted a sleek Miami Vice type film and of course Ashby wanted a gritty movie closer to the author Laurence Block's books. You can tell there's huge chunks missing - the film is disjointed - Bridges does a nice job playing the damaged cop but in one of the worst pieces of miscasting - Alexandra Paul plays the sultry hooker who is supposed to lure Bridges and she is awful - about all she can play is flirty sorority girl and their scenes are dull and boring. Rosanna Arquette has nothing to play - a one dimensional another hooker with a heart of gold. Garcia does his best with what he has to play and there are some good scenes btwn him and Bridges. But overall, a schlocky mess with a terrible 80's synth score.

---

6 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
8 Million Ways to ruin a good story, 15 July 2001

Author: Booze (gonzotrev@aol.com) from London, England

I hate it when people slag off a perfectly good film just because it dared to stray slightly away from the book it was based on. However, Lawrence Block, the author of the novel "Eight Million Ways To Die", has said that they seemed to make up the script for this as they went along and it certainly seems that way. Anyone who has read the Matt Scudder books will be disappointed that Hollywood chose to take the detective out of Manhattan and transplant him in their own back yard, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a bad film. After all, we've still got the great Jeff Bridges and Andy Garcia. Unfortunately, even they can't redeem this dog's dinner. Bridges is reportedly going to star as another one of Block's characters (Keller from Hit Man) if all goes to plan. Perhaps he still feels guilty. Don't let this film put you off of the books.

---

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
8 Million Ways to Die, 27 August 2010

Author: Scarecrow-88 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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.

---

11 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Tragically, this dud was a great director's final film, 27 April 1999

Author: meebly from Denver, CO

Sadly, this was Hal Ashby's final bow as a director.

The man who gave us "The Last Detail", "Coming Home" and "Being There" seemingly threw together this agonizing-to-sit-through hodgepodge of alcoholics, drug addicts and hookers that seems to work only as mind-numbing montage of film noir cliches. What makes it even more painful is that it's both very loud and very dull, and nothing makes any sense until the film reaches a conclusion so inevitable, you wish they would've gotten to it about 75 minutes sooner.

---

Lack of a good story, lack of action and some problems ahead in a forgettable film, 8 February 2011

Author: Rodrigo Amaro (rodrigo882008@hotmail.com) from São Paulo, Brazil

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

---

---

Page 1 of 4:

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Add another review

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Amazon.com summary	Ratings
Awards	External reviews	Plot keywords
Main details	Your user reviews	Your vote history