The best corny movie ever

Besides The Doors and Apocalypse Now Redux, HBO and Cinemax (which is operated by HBO) are also obsessed with 1985’s To Live and Die in LA.

Case in point: it’s on right now, and will probably be on at least once a day over the next month.

To Live and Die in LA is, from what I can tell, widely considered one of the most respected and emblematic LA movies. Angelenos — at least the critics at the LAT — seem to agree it captures the City of Angels’ unique ethos. It’s dirty, gritty, seedy, mean, aggressive, depressed, decayed, unrehearsed, unpredictable, diverse. It’s LA — at least downtown and the harbor area, where many scenes were filmed. If someone ever asked me to characterize LA, I would tell them to watch Valley Girl, Menace II Society, Mulholland Drive, Up in Smoke, and To Live and Die in LA.

However, although To Live is a decent flick — I always watch it when it’s on — it’s not that great. It’s very corny in that ‘80s action-thriller way. In that sense, the movie mimics LA’s unrealistic and formulaic side. At the time it was released, it may have been impressive, raw, and groundbreaking, but now it just looks like ‘80s cheese.

Personally, To Live has a number of strikes against it. There’s an unusual amount of man ass, William Petersen exposes a lot more than I care to see, and Wang Chung composed and performed the entire soundtrack. Yeah — Wang Chung. There is a major and unforgivable oversight regarding the famous chase scene. When Chance and Vukovich enter the freeway going the wrong way, LA seems to have magically become London: all the traffic is left-hand. So wrong.

But somehow To Live remains endearing. Just like LA in its own weird way.