To Live and Die in L.A. (4KUHD) [Blu-ray]

Great quality scan for the 4k edition of an amazing movie.Defoe gives an engrossing performance as an artist turned criminal in this neo noir masterpiece by the amazing William Friedkin.A must watch for fans of movies shot in LA or crime movie fans.

Intense, gritty film with surprises that catches you off guard! It’s a wild ride! And, a quintessential chase seen you won’t soon forget! That alone set a new standard in chase scenes rivalling those in “Bullit”, and “French Connection” !

Friedken outdid himself with this one - a car chase the wrong way on a 6 lane highway.Film noir plot with modern techniques.Plus that most difficult of acting roles: the charismatic villain.Plus... you get to see a young Willem Dafoe utterly steal the show with his enigmatic portrayal of counterfeiter Rick Masters.It was the most serious crime committed in that film.

Good quality, will watch it more than once

Coming in the wake of Michael Mann’s “Thief” and “Miami Vice”, “To Live and Die in L.A.” may borrow some of those stylistic flourishes but it remains a William Friedkin film through and through. In many respects one can see this as an 80’s update of “The French Connection” except, this time, it’s about counterfeiting rather than heroin.In a star making turn Willem DaFoe stars as the villain and in another star making turn William Peterson is the agent assigned to catch the guy. The aptly named Chance (Peterson) is a government agent who consistently operates outside the bounds of the law. When his partner is murdered during an investigation into a counterfeiter, chance tells his new assigned partner (who is by the book and played by John Pankow) he will take down the counterfeiter Masters (DaFoe) anyway he can.The cast introduces a number of terrific talent including John Turturro, Jane Leeves, Gary Cole and the late Darlanne Fluegel. Shot on a small budget, Friedkin was determined to try and capture the excitement on an independent production.the soundtrack by Wang Chang became a hit.The 4K looks very nice with color that benefits from HDR and Dolby Vision. As good as the Arrow and Shout Blu-rays were, this is even better than those though the improvements are incremental rather than the huge leap up from the DVD to the blu-ray. There hasn’t been any revisionism that I can see in the color timing or transfer. 9which wasn’t true of “The French Connection” when it initially appeared on Blu-ray).The audio sounds exceptional with the original 2.0 mix as well as a 5.1 (though no revisionist 7.1 or Dolby Atmos track has been added). Most of the activity in the surround speakers are up front rather than in the other speakers.The special features include all of the ones for the original DVD as well as those for the Shout Factory release. Toning new has been added for this release.F

There are a few versions of TLaDiLA available but this version is recommended because the transfer quality is superior; this is a movie worth the extra sheckles.Featuring a pre-NCIS William Peterson as well as a very young - and very good looking - Willem Dafoe in an intriguing story that is beautifully shot with plenty of action in opposition to the more intimate & personal scenes scattered throughout.Technically, it's a very tight and super realistic film which really benefits for Friedkin's attention to detail as well as the technical advisors brought to the set in service of the story.Quite different from his previous films in some ways but William Friedkin's skills behind the camera really shine through on this outing.Extras include a strong director commentary, several making of featurettes and a nice stills gallery.Full Disclosure: I've adored this film from William Friedkin since staying up past bedtime to see it on TMC - F!, I'm old - so it was a foregone conclusion that this disc was going to be a part of my collection eventually.Cheers from Texas, Billy

I was so glad to find this movie. It's so hard to find anywhere (EVEN Amazon Prime) and it's an '80s classic (to me, that is - your opinion may vary slightly).

One of Friedkin's finest, colors and contrast superb, audio too. Ending was totally unexpected.