{"id":3813,"date":"2024-09-04T04:22:20","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T04:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3813"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:23:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:23:55","slug":"8-million-ways-to-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/04\/8-million-ways-to-die\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Million Ways to Die"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"8 Million Ways to Die<\/strong> (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, nudity, sexual content, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Hal Ashby\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Oliver Stone and David Lee Henry (pseudonym for Robert Towne)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: James Newton Howard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 23, 1986 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, Alexandra Paul, Andy Garcia, Randy Brooks, Vyto Ruginis, Tom \u201cTiny\u201d Lister Jr., Lisa Sloan, Christa Denton, James Avery.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $1.3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a08 Million Ways to Die<\/strong>, the final film from director Hal Ashby, is a strange movie. It\u2019s a noirish piece about an alcoholic ex-cop investigating the murder of a prostitute who hired him to protect her from some sleazy criminal types. Dumped by its studio into a late April release date, it was universally panned by critics and ignored by audiences.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It made its way to my neck of the woods on Memorial Day weekend. It didn\u2019t stand a chance opening as it did against two major league heavy-hitters- the Sylvester Stallone actioner Cobra and the horror sequel Poltergeist II: The Other Side. I went to see it that Sunday afternoon at a theater where I usually got in for free courtesy of classmates that worked there. At the time, I liked it. I didn\u2019t yet have the knowledge or resources to examine the so-called bigger picture.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I recently came across a copy of\u00a08 Million Ways to Die<\/strong>\u00a0and decided to view it again to see what I think of it now. I still like it, but there is something off about the movie. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the fault of the director who was fired after filming was completed. It was reportedly edited without his input which could account for the schizophrenic nature of the picture. It\u2019s based on a series of novels by Lawrence Block, but since I never read any of them, I can\u2019t comment on whether or not the movie gets it right.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Los Angeles County Sherriff Matt Scudder (Bridges, Jagged Edge) goes into a downward spiral after fatally shooting a suspect in front of his wife and children. His drunken binge results in the end of his career and marriage. It also jeopardizes his relationship with his teenage daughter. Six months later, a sober Matt appears to be getting his act together. He\u2019s approached by Sunny (Paul, Christine), a high-end prostitute who pays him to accompany her to a party at the home of reformed drug dealer Chance (Brooks, Reservoir Dogs). Looking to get out of the life, she claims to be in fear for her life from her employers. Sadly, there\u2019s only one way out for Sunny.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Long story short, Sunny gets murdered right in front of Matt, an act that sends him on another bender. When he comes around, he\u2019s determined to uncover the identity of her killer. It\u2019s really no secret who did it. It’s the slick, sleazy drug dealer Angel (Garcia, The Untouchables) who Matt met at Chance\u2019s party. He recruits another prostitute, the tough, no-nonsense Sarah (Arquette, Desperately Seeking Susan), to aid him in his efforts. Along the way, the two make a connection, but who didn\u2019t see that coming?<\/p>\n

\u00a0All in all, I don\u2019t think\u00a08 Million Ways to Die<\/strong>\u00a0is all that bad a picture. It\u2019s certainly not the colossal stinker everybody makes it out to be anyway. It\u2019s a deeply flawed movie, that\u2019s for sure. But I like what Ashby appears to be going for. It has the mood and tone of a 70s movie. It favors character development over action. It has the building blocks of a much better film. It\u2019s sad that it serves as his swan song (Ashby died in \u201988), especially since his filmography includes several great titles- e.g. Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Bound for Glory, Coming Home and Being There. It\u2019s a big step down from these classics, but like I said it\u2019s not his fault. It would have been interesting to see how the movie would have turned out had he been allowed to see it through to completion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0However, Ashby nailed it in terms of casting the lead role. You can never go wrong with Jeff Bridges. This guy is an amazing actor; it\u2019s criminal that Hollywood didn\u2019t give him his proper dues until much later in his career. Again, I don\u2019t know if Bridges\u2019 take on Matt Scudder is anything like the books, but he does a great job in\u00a08 Million Ways to Die.\u00a0<\/strong>He convincingly plays a recovering alcoholic who overestimates his readiness to handle the job of protecting somebody from violent criminals. Arquette, while talented, is miscast as the bitter, tough-talking Sarah. She\u2019s just not believable in this role. It feels forced and artificial. Paul is a rather one-note actress, but she does okay here. Garcia underplays his part to little effect. I never felt a sense of danger or menace exuding from his sharply-dressed character.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The screenplay was written by Oliver Stone and Robert Towne (using the pseudonym \u201cDavid Lee Henry\u201d). Reportedly, Stone wanted his name removed from the credits after seeing the final version of the film. It bore little resemblance to his original script. Given Ashby\u2019s predilection for improvising dialogue with the actors, it doesn\u2019t come as any surprise this is the case.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Taken as a whole,\u00a08 Million Ways to Die<\/strong>\u00a0is uneven. It doesn\u2019t know whether it wants to be a violent cop movie, character study or love story. It\u2019s an uneasy mixture at best, but it\u2019s not unwatchable. I got a real kick out of the bad dialogue. I\u2019ll give you a few samples:<\/p>\n

Sarah (to Matt): \u201cYou\u2019re just an opportunistic prick who\u2019d f*** mud if it\u2019d move a little and not argue too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunny: \u201cThe street light makes my pussy hair glow in the dark- cotton candy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt: \u201cYeah, there are eight millions stories in the naked city. Remember that old TV show? What we have in this town is eight million ways to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you do remember the old TV show Naked City, you\u2019ll have a good laugh with that last line.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can see why critics and audiences didn\u2019t like\u00a08 Million Ways to Die<\/strong>. As usual, I stand firmly in the minority. It\u2019s by no means a great picture. It has pacing issues, miscasting and a general sense of unevenness. It\u2019s all over the map. I’ll list this one under Bad Movies I Like.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 Million Ways to Die (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, nudity, sexual content, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Hal Ashby\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Oliver Stone and David Lee Henry (pseudonym for Robert Towne)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: James Newton Howard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 23, 1986 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, Alexandra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/8-Million-Ways-to-Die-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4380,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813\/revisions\/4380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}