By itself, this would probably make a decent and memorable film. The actors in it would probably feel proud to have been a part of it. And NBC would likely look back on it with some fondness.
But, strangely, starting in 1995 this film began to take shape as a truly shoddy piece of filmmaking.
I'll bet Scott Plank and Alex McArthur have been cursing DeNiro and Pacino for nearly 20 years now.
There's no doubt Heat was a superior film, but i still think the actors who appeared in L.A. Takedown should feel proud. I reckon it's on a par with that other great underrated 80's movie To Live and Die In L.A. Both look really dated now, but I think that's part of their charm.
"Fear is not what you owe me. You owe me awe."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcIkqSNZ_qg
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/la-takedown-michael-manns-heat-before-heat.3712233/
https://www.fudsonfilm.com/heat-la-takedown/
https://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2056122942
https://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/882-the-long-warm-up-to-heat/
http://www.johntrafton.com/heat/
http://rawstudios.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=1181
http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/archive/2006/la_takedown/la_takedown.php
https://jalopnik.com/5803466/the-shootout-from-heat-with-a-buick-grand-national
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh5Rz65hAco
If anything, Plank and McArthur had a great tribute paid to their work by having De Niro and Pacino reprise their roles.
These underrated characters were resurrected more than 15 years later with aplomb.
By itself it was a decent and memorable film, I agree, but it was made great and virtually peerless with Heat. I don't think many can cite a top 10 heist movie without mentioning Heat, and the requisite nod to L.A. Takedown.
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Michael Mann decided it. As for Pacino and DeNiro, they both brought a completely fresh approach to the roles. They can't be faulted for being superior actors.
BTW, I really enjoyed L.A. TAKEDOWN despite the flaws in the acting.
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Pacino and De niro elevated the material. As did the increased budget and supporting actors like Kilmer and Sizemore.
Damn, this Scott Plank guy was terrible!!! Yikes. Macarthur was ok as a poor man's heist leader.
Proof what great actors bring to a script
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/a7evpi/proof_what_great_actors_bring_to_a_script/
good links to youtube clips of the cafe scene of each film.
Pachino overacting like a mf
I might be of a small minority but I really thought Plank and MacArthur fit the characters a lot better than Pacino and DeNiro. TAKEDOWN suffers from inferior cinematography, less violence, and smaller scope (pun intended) but I think it's a little leaner and meaner than HEAT, which is almost more of a mood piece at times than a crime thriller. I don't feel like the Natalie Portman subplot added that much to HEAT, plus all the stuff with VAN ZANT just muddied the waters and took the film a little off course. Both films have good casts overall littered with A-movie and B-movie actors with Xander Berkeley in both films (though much smaller role in HEAT in an added scene that ripped off an episode of "Crime Story" line-for-line). I loved how he played Waingro and a sniveling idiotic coward as opposed to the guy in HEAT who was an actual scary tough guy.
Pacino and DeNiro are better actors and play the characters both as seasoned professionals. Plank and MacArthur both feel like up and coming nobodies out to prove themselves, both as actors and within the confines of the narrative. It sets it up to be a little more tense, at least in terms of both characters having a little more to lose. The Drama in HEAT was a little overplayed too at times, like when Pacino has that extended scene hugging the dead prostitute's mom for an extended period of time. It seemed to me like an excessively emotional moment over the death of an inconsequential character.