Wait, wait, wait...this movie has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes? That doesn't make any sense. Hal Ashby's 8 Million Ways to Die isn't just a good crime thriller, it's a smart one. More and more I've begun to believe that the American crime films of the 1980s emulated the crass materialism of the decade as a means of cultural exorcism. And much like Scarface (1983), 8 Million Ways to Die is a film obsessed with appearances and extreme displays of conspicuous consumption. This hardly comes as a surprise considering that both films were written by Oliver Stone. But whereas Brian De Palma and Al Pacino swung for the fences with over-the-top violence and performances in Scarface, Ashby's film is more constrained and interested in the psychology of its main character, alcoholic ex-Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Matt Scudder. There are still a number of intense action scenes, including an excellent yet brief car chase where Scudder drives a car with busted tires. But the best scene is a tense stand-off near the end of the film where Scudder starts to destroy a stockpile of drugs he stole from a drug dealer when said drug dealer refuses to cooperate while exchanging them for a hooker he has hostage. A gunfight ensues, but it is overshadowed by the chorus of screaming, hollering, and threatening that proceeds it as Scudder almost nonchalantly starts to burn the packages of cocaine while one of the drug dealer's thugs (who has his hand duct-taped to a shotgun duct-taped to the hooker's neck) struggles to decide what to do. Andy Garcia is absolutely mesmerizing as the drug dealer Angel Moldonado. We get the sense that he may never have been as wealthy as Scarface, but he would have had the good sense (i.e. sanity) to survive longer than he did...if he had been smart enough not to kill one of his subordinates right in front of Scudder.
8/10
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