8 Million Ways to Die

1986 "Death comes to all except those who deserve it most."
5.7| 1h55m| R| en| More Info
Released: 25 April 1986 Released
Producted By: PSO
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Scudder is a detective with the Sheriff's Department who is forced to shoot a violent suspect during a narcotics raid. The ensuing psychological aftermath of this shooting worsens his drinking problem and this alcoholism causes him to lose his job, as well as his marriage.

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Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!
Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
PeterMitchell-506-564364 You've had Scarface, now we have it's offspring. If your a Jeff Bridges face, run, not walk, down to the video store and hire this gem. You'll be entertained to the max. The movie throws us right into the action with Bridges and his group of cops from the sheriff's department about to apprehend an hispanic drug dealer. Bridges and his pal too, aren't shy about taking a tot of whatever from a cannister, prior. Forced to shoot this dealer down, as one of Bridge's mate is taking a whacking from one, of those nasty Louisville sluggers, he's questioned along with his friend. That night, him and his friend get sozzled, Bridges, the more drunk of the two, who tends to fall off bar stools. He falls into a guilt drunken phase, the following scene an emotional one between him and his family, over some awlfully sad music. Bridges is so believable in his role here, we really acknowledge what a great actor this guy is. To think he never won an Oscar until 2010's Crazy Heart is criminal. We move a few months down the track to an AA meeting that Bridges is attending. Here, one of the other members, gives him a fat fee, to help this young prostitute, Sunny, (an awesome performance by Alexandra Paul, prior to her Baywatch days) get free of her pimp, Angel (Andy Garcia in probably his best role still). For all we know, this woman stranger could be her mother. His attempt to protect her fails, when Sunny is snatched from Bridges in one blood splashing action scene, worthy of it's R rating. Again Bridges falls into a pit, blacking out. When he comes to, he's the one who must unravel this mystery, with the help of Sunny's hooker friend, Sarah, played by Rossanna Arquette, very good in her role, but not great like the others. You've gotta love Angel's pad. A big castle like building that has been used in a cheap "City lights film" I won't mention. This spread operates as a casino and bordello, where in one scene, we see just how dangerous Angel really is. A small electic tram transports it's customers to it's entrance up top. This film has style, it's valet guys sporting it too. I love the scene where Bridges and Sarah meet Angel and his goons in the big car park outside this big museum, where a lot of angry expletives are exchanged in some good meaty and funny dialogue. Let's face it, this movie doesn't have the best script in the world, but there are some classicly original lines that stick, one involving Sunny, describing her anatomy. Bridges and Garcia share this colorful conversation over sno cones, Angel proudly provides. How cool and original is that. Sarah is snatched back from Bridges who was trying to get answers from her, thus he must get her back as she's in dangerous waters now. This flick uses great L.A. locations and is beautifully shot, Hal Ashby's last film too. The Lawrence Block novel is vastly different, where it's set in New York, and the pimp's name is Chance unlike the Chance character in the film, Angel's silent partner I guess. You'll get this joke if you watch this film. Another scene involving a string of expletives takes place later in a warehouse as we build towards our climax. They were really in need of a script doctor that day. The climax is rewarding, as is it's happy after scene. What we've got here is a good drama, a little disjointed in bits, as in it's dialogue, but it's exciting, involving, and more so, it's different. And those sort of movies, I like. Though slow paced, this really didn't bother me. It works for this movie as we get really get to scratch the surface of Bridges and Arquette's characters. For me, what I loved most about this timeless flick, was it's locations. This is one of those eighties bucket list classics you must see. This was another '86 movie I would of loved to seen at the cinema, but we can't turn back time, can we.
curtis martin That was what I took away from this film. The depiction of alcoholism is stunningly accurate-- thanks in part to Jeff Bridges, of course, but I think the main source of this reality was director Hal Ashby's own experience with drug abuse. This element of the film plays out very well. Unfortunately the actual story is a crime mystery, not a strict character study of an addict. And the crime mystery is very, very weak. After a classic film noir set up in the first third, we are immediately shown who the villain is and what he's up to. Which doesn't really leave us with much of interest for the last two thirds of the film. For example, by the time Bridges reveals the "Big Secret of What's Really Going On" to the other characters we are not surprised at all, even though the scene is played out as a pivotal point in the plot.I think that if the film had been more skillfully edited, we would have had a story that was both artistic as a character study and involving as a crime story. Maybe if Ashby hadn't been so familiar with substance abuse, he wouldn't have been fired from the film after principal shooting and we could have seen the film as he intended.
Michael_Elliott 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Ashby's final theatrical film (which he was also fired from) is part thriller, part crime/drama, part love story but all the way mess. In the film Jeff Bridges plays Matt Scudder, a former cop who was let go from the force due to his drinking problem. He's asked by a prostitute for help but she soon ends up dead so Matt tries to find out who killed her. Everything points to a drug dealer (Andy Garcia) but Matt is able to get the hooker (Rosanna Arquette) that he's in love with in hopes to bringing down the entire racket. In many ways this thing plays out as a modern day noir but if you pick up any film book it's doubtful you're going to find a positive review. In fact, the three books I own each rate this as a BOMB, which I think is a bit unfair. Sure, this movie is a complete mess that at times appears to be three movies rolled into one but this thing is certainly never boring. I'm not sure when Ashby was actually fired but that might have something to do with the overall strange nature of this film. It starts off pretty much as a cop drama but then we get bits and pieces of a love story. We've also got the theme of alcoholism that is constantly being brought up as Bridges is fighting his demons. We then get all sorts of subplots including the drug dealer being in love with the hooker who just happens to have her own demons from her father leaving her as a child. There are all sorts of issues with the screenplay, which is a little surprising since Oliver Stone was one of the writers. I'm not sure how much of his original screenplay actually got filmed but in many ways this thing is a cocaine-warped nuthouse much like SCARFACE. It's funny that both films deal with cocaine and that both have one strange sequence after another. As bad as the screenplay is here you still can't take you eyes off the screen for several reasons. I thought the performances were rather good even if they're constantly being letdown by the material. Bridges was born to play a role like this and manages to turn in a very good performance as the former cop down on his luck and getting in over his head. Garcia is a lot of fun as well and he gets to shout and go off a few times like Pacino did in SCARFACE. We've got Arquette doing a fine job as the hooker with the heart of gold and Randy Brooks is fine as Bridges' friend. The actual mystery of who killed the original hooker is what the film goes on yet it's never really played out in the end as we switch gears to the second hooker. We even get an opening sequence where Bridges gets in trouble for shooting an unarmed man yet the man was beating an officer with a bat but no one ever mentions this as Bridges is getting nailed for it. All of the madness leads up to an even crazier ending with all our main people inside a warehouse full of cocaine, which Bridges keeps setting on fire, one kilo at a time. What falls just continues the crazy ways. I'm not sure if footage was cut out or if some sort of longer version could be put together but while watching the movie it's clear certainly things are either missing or perhaps everything was just thrown together poorly. Either way, this is a mess from start to finish but it's never boring.
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.