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..

mike_cable A cop, played by Jeff Bridges, shoots an unarmed assailant and is taken off the force. From there, his subsequent alcoholism contributes to the failure of his marriage, and he tries to fix things by going to AA. He meets a woman who leads him into a dark world of a drug dealer.This is one of those films I had always wondered about since I first remember seeing video tapes as a child. My father had a VHS copy that sat in the lounge under the VCR. On the cover was a hero with a gun, two women and a cool sports car, and the palm tree suggesting a Miami Vice-style environment.I remember seeing the video case so many times and making a note to watch it. Fast forward 25 years later and I've finally seen it. It was a really cool opening with a helicopter flight over city skyscrapers which, in a single shot, catches up to a police car moving along a freeway. The music is cool and pure 1980s action.The rest of the film, however, is a bit odd. There was just something not right about it. It turns out that the whole script dialog was improvised, which may explain a big, over-the-top swearing and shouting match that has to be seen to be believed.There's a cool but brief car chase and Jeff Bridges moves through the film with a casualness and ease that seems at odds with what's going on around him.Andy Garcia's character is strange, hard to understand. Sometimes he does weird things. But he's the villain and out to get Jeff Bridges.

mojo7777 the first hour of this movie is watchable; the second half continually degenerates and finally launches into a drug exchange scene that is horrifically scripted, directed and is laughably unrealistic; andy garcia tries his best to channel pacino's "scarface" performance but obviously isn't up to the task; randy brooks looks amateurish by overplaying his role as the tough, black gangster complete with stupid, stereotypical verbal assaults; jeff bridges puts in a solid performance and carries the movie --- he continues to be a poor man's kurt russell or kris kristofferson; however, his implied "conversion" of arquette from tough hooker to well behaved girlfriend is too much to take; almost forgot, what happened to all the money "scudder" found in the "po boys" bag??? hmmm, like a good cop, he probably released it into evidence ... not!! just another giant plot hole

tieman64 Hal Ashby, cinema's great wounded heart, directs "8 Million Ways To Die". It's a conventional film, but one must remember that at this stage in his career, Ashby had little or no creative control. He was a recovering alcoholic and drug user, and the studio's lack of faith in him resulted in "8 Million Ways to Die" being taken taken away during post production.Of course when the producers took this film away the moment it reached the cutting room, they effectively shot themselves in the foot. Ashby, who cut his teeth as a film editor, is renowned for his perfectionism in the editing room. He's a master editor. And so no surprise that "8 Million" received a limited release and faded from theatres days later.Still, though conventional, "8 Million" is nevertheless a fine film. A cosy neo-noir, it also features a somewhat autobiographical subplot regarding alcohol abuse. Here Jeff Bridges plays your typical noir detective, but like Ashby, his character is a recovering alcoholic. As a result, there's an honesty to a couple of Bridges' dialogue scenes. One conversation, for example, has Jeff talking to a hooker. He talks about his love for his daughter (whom he hasn't seen in years) and his hatred of being a drunk. The hooker replies that she never knew her father because he was a drunkard who never came home. Ashby shoots the scene to imply that Jeff is looking into his future, our hero a wounded old man looking at both his own daughter and the very outcome of his present alcoholism.There are two or three good scenes like this, but for the most part the film's script has been edited down to your standard cops and bad guys movie. One senses that had Ashby been at the editing desk, a more free-form movie would have resulted.Still, the film begins and ends with two very unique scenes. It's introduction, for example, features a long helicopter shot which tracks across an American super-highway, Ashby's camera framing distant automobiles like elevator carts, watching as they rise bizarrely off into the sky. The film ends, meanwhile, with an unusual three-way Mexican stand off. Ashby draws this scene out to painful lengths, everyone yelling and screaming until their demands reach pathetic proportions. We've seen this scene before in countless other action movies, but none of these flicks have done anything quite like this.7.9/10 - Moments of Ashby's personality and sensibilities shine through, but for the most part, this film has been hacked down by the studios into something slight. For Ashby completists only.