8 Million Ways to Die
Tags: neo noir, murder

Plot synopsis:
An alcoholic Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy, Matt Scudder (Bridges), takes part in a drug bust that results in his fatal shooting of a small-time dealer in front of the man's wife and kids. Scudder ends up in a drunk ward, suffering from booze and blackouts, ending his career, his marriage, and jeopardizing his relationship with his daughter.
After an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, a woman hands Scudder a note, which invites him to a private gambling club on a hill, accessible only by a funicular, owned by Chance Walker (Randy Brooks). At the club, Scudder is greeted by a call girl named Sunny (Alexandra Paul) who pretends that he is her boyfriend. He also meets Angel Moldonado (Garcia), who places large wagers with Chance and is infatuated with another call girl there, Sarah (Arquette).
Bewildered by Sunny's behavior, Scudder ends up back at his place, where after a failed attempt to seduce him, Sunny explains that she is frightened and needs help. After she pays him $5,000, Scudder offers Chance $2,500 to allow Sunny to quit prostitution. An insulted Chance insists that all he does is run the club, paying the girls a flat salary to attend his parties. Any prostitution they do is up to them.
Sunny is kidnapped in front of Scudder and, during a chase, is murdered and thrown off a bridge. Scudder goes on a binge and wakes up in a drunk ward several days later. It transpires that he gave statements to detectives before getting drunk that have implicated himself and Chance in the murder. At the club, Moldonado wears a ring with an emerald that matched the missing jewel in a necklace that Sunny owned. Convinced now that Moldonado is her killer, Scudder persuades Sarah to leave the club with him, as a jealous Moldonado looks on. Sarah fails to get Scudder to drink with her, then tries to initiate sex but is too drunk and vomits on his bed.
Scudder pieces together that Moldonado is running a drug ring through Chance's legitimate businesses. Setting up a meeting where he pretends to set up a drug buy, Scudder has a confrontation with Moldonado, who forces Sarah to leave with him. Chance is furious that Moldonado has been using him and that he killed Sunny, but Scudder convinces him to go along with the drug deal, in order to trap Moldonado.
At Moldonado's house, a unique one designed by Antoni Gaudí, a suspicious Moldonado puts off any talk of drugs. He taunts Scudder about Sunny's death and carefully implies she was killed to scare off others who would cross him. Moldonado knows that Scudder is or was a cop, so is wary of being trapped in a sting. Scudder notices a package from a supermarket Chance owns. Deducing that the drugs were stashed there, Scudder and Chance go to the grocery store and find the hidden cocaine. Scudder offers to return them in exchange for Sarah.
At an empty warehouse, Moldonado arrives with Sarah duct-taped to a shotgun that one of his underlings is holding. Scudder in turn has booby-trapped the drugs and threatens to destroy them if Sarah is harmed. After seeing some of his cocaine burned, Moldonado agrees to cut Sarah loose, but before he can secure his drugs, a shootout erupts between Moldonado's men and undercover drug agents who have accompanied Scudder to the scene. Moldonado manages to escape in the chaos, but Chance is killed.
Sarah and Scudder head back to Chance's club, and as they ride the funicular up to the house, they see Moldonado standing at the top, waiting for them. Scudder manages to kill him in a tense gunfight. Scudder is later seen attending an AA meeting, then strolling happily with Sarah on a beach.

Review: 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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Garcia does his best with what he has to play and there are some good scenes btwn him and Bridges.
Barge In, Stumble Out. Los Angeles police detective Jeff Bridges (as Matthew "Matt" Scudder) drinks on the job and use excessive force.
After speaking at an "Alcoholics Anonymous" meeting, Mr. Bridges receives a mysterious note requesting he help hooker Alexandra Paul (as Sunny) pull out of the sex trade...
Bridges becomes even more acquainted with prostitute Rosanna Arquette (as Sarah) and her head customer Andy Garcia (as Angel Moldonado)...
"8 Million Ways to Die" is interesting as the last feature film directed by Hal Ashby, a great "actor's director" who lets this story get away.
Something is wrong.**** 8 Million Ways to Die (4/25/86) Hal Ashby ~ Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, Andy Garcia, Alexandra Paul.
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.
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.
"8 Million Ways to Die" is a perfect example of why Jeff Bridges is one of my favorite actors.
The acting overcomes everything else, and a scene outside of the LA Coliseum between Jeff Bridges and a young Andy Garcia still makes me smile.
Jeff Bridges is a movie star, and here he uses his gifts to pull this film from the 80's swamp.
It's a decent flick with both Jeff Bridges and Rosanna Arquette giving very good performances.
The worst part of the movie is probably the direction by Hal Ashby, while a great director it just seems like he wasn't sure about what sort of movie he was making.
After some low-budget comedies- and a less than great Rolling Stones movie- he took on this neo-noir co-scripted by Oliver Stone, and had a good cast in place with Jeff Bridges playing the on-off lush ex-detective, Rosanna Arquette as the call girl entrapped by cold, grinning/vicious pimp/pusher played by newcomer Andy Garcia.
It seemed like a solid genre picture, one that could hopefully make a few bucks among the crowds looking for another fix of action and crime and romance and what-have-you.As far as I know, I'm not sure why Ashby was then fired midway through by the producers.
Hell, there's even a compelling undercurrent of redemption that's to be had with Bridges's Matthew coming back from bad alcoholic blackouts to track down the killer of the call girl Sonny.But, and this is the crucial part, the film often has the feel as though it was seriously meddled with by the producers.
It would've been one thing if this was just another in a series of damned efforts from the director (apparently another film he made also had this happen to him), but given that it's also his final directed feature, albeit after the fact, adds to the shamefulness.Does 8 Million Ways to Die deserve a director's cut?
I became a fan of Jeff Bridges before the movie was released and consider his acting as a alcoholic very realistic to an addicted alcoholic hangover.
It never seems to get anywhere and you have a hard time believing that the slick drug dealer is up to no good, or that the lush private eye wants to do anything to stop him.This is the story of an alcoholic cop (Jeff Bridges) who got kicked off the force after a sting operation went wrong and he shot an unarmed assailant.
He also employs the help of the woman's "pimp," a pretty decent guy for a fellow who runs a prostitution business, and he's willing to help out because he knows the drug dealer (Andy Garcia) that the investigator suspects is responsible for the girl's death, is really a vicious fellow, even though he never really shows it.There is not really enough solid character development, everyone appears a little too "off" to be those kind of characters, and the movie tends to drag on at points, especially in feeling obligated to develop some sort of relationship between the cop and the hooker's friend, but, if you're willing to forgive that much, then you might at least have a little lazy day entertainment with a semi-decent action movie.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A Complete Mess but an Entertaining One. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Jeff Bridges portrays author Lawrence Blocks' character Matt Scudder in this picture, and his able performance is one of its few virtues.
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.
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.
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.
It has all the great elements: cocaine, pimps, drug-lords, world-weary ex-cops, car chases and of course, all shot in sun-drenched L.A.It would make a perfect companian piece to similar 80's movies: SALVADOR, TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA and SCARFACE.
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.
The plot is not new, very much used in other films of crime, but it is interesting to see good acting of Jeff Bridges as an alcoholic trying to quit this bad habit.
Overall, this is a dreary but sometimes suspenseful film that wasted a good performance by Bridges and a new guy named Andy Garcia.
Hal Ashby was once the wonderful director of "Harold and Maude"."Bound for Glory" did not do Woody Guthrie justice,the choice of the main actor being disastrous,and "coming home " has been overtaken by other movies dealing with the topic ,"born on the fourth of July" for instance.This last movie is a complete loss.It's really a pity that Alexandra Paul should disappear in the first third because her character was the only endearing one.Not a line without a swearword!I hardly exaggerate.Some parts of dialogue between Garcia and Bridges consist only of "F.....
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.
Later on , he attempts to rescue a pimp-bound hooker (Alexandra Paul) from a drug lord called Angel Maldonado (Andy Garcia) .
So if you're smart (not like me) you'll get annoyed enough right at this point and turn the piece of trash film off (GOOD CHOICE!).Then we have Det. Matt Scudder (Bridges) and his posse from the sheriff's dept.
Scudder, Sunny's hooker pal Sarah (Rosanna Arquette), and scummy drug lord Angel (Andy Garcia) argue using the F-word and threaten to kill each other a lot.
Scudder wisely shoots Angel in the head before he can reload his gun.Scudder and Sarah live happily ever after as members of AA.The end.There!I saved you having to watch the worst film ever to star Jeff Bridges.You're welcome!.
Hal Ashby, cinema's great wounded heart, directs "8 Million Ways To Die".
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.
Here Jeff Bridges plays your typical noir detective, but like Ashby, his character is a recovering alcoholic.
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.
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.
8 Million Ways To Die got poor reviews but it was actually pretty good.Jeff Bridges plays Matthew Scudder, a burned out cop whose life goes to shambles after a raid goes wrong.
Jeff Bridges shines as Matthew Scudder and Andy Garcia plays the scummy character of Angel Moldonado well.
8 Million Ways to Die. 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.
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.
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).
Despite changing Matt Scudder's great origin story from the novel to something more generic and less dramatically interesting, the character is still a somewhat fascinating one, thanks entirely due to a typically entertaining performance from Jeff Bridges in the lead role.
However, 8 Million Ways to Die takes a drastic drop in quality in the second act with Andy Garcia's villain character taking center stage.
The film was taken away from director Hal Ashby and edited without his input, so who knows who actually is responsible for what ended up in the final cut.
Garcia's performance seems like something that could have been shaped into the editing room, as a little bit of his character goes a long way and gets annoying fast.
I find it hard to believe that an otherwise solid director like Ashby would have let the second half play out the way it does had he been given final cut.
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???
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.