MovieChat Forums > L.A. Takedown (1989) Discussion > What did you think of this one?

What did you think of this one?

posted 3 years ago by TheMan18 (13184)
2 replies | jump to latest

Me? An OK and decent 6/10 early blueprint for Heat, but Heat (1995) 6 years later, despite many identical bits of dialogue and scenes, was overall a much better and technically more accomplished motion picture.

It has dated quite a bit also, unlike Heat, which over 25 years later has literally not aged at all.

Its also not among Michael Mann's best or better movies and even in the 80s he made some better work, with "Thief" (1981) being a perfect masterpiece, "The Keep" (1983) being a surprisingly solid and slightly underrated supernatural WW2 themed horror/thriller worth 7 out of 10 and "Manhunter" (1986) being an excellent film in its own right and also a superb prequel to "Silence of the Lambs" (1991) that I award 9/10 to, L.A. Takedown (1989) overall is just OK both as a film and as a sort of runner-up to the great "Heat" (1995) but sadly, not much more than that.

Still, glad it wasn't a failure overall and it is worth a look, but don't keep those expectations too high.

[–] MikeCable (1915) 3 years ago

Well said, I particularly liked the procedural side of L.A. Takedown with the police terminology and operations. That was very well done and quite a bit technically beyond what Mann established with Miami Vice which was more about slang and culture.

Having seen Heat first when it came out and several times since, and having only seen L.A. Takedown for the first time this week, it felt like Mann polished the best bits from the first film to be a lot more memorable and impact instead of being rushed and not so prominent for TV sake. He probably thought his TV pilot would never really be seen by many so it was logical to re-do it for the big screen. I feel that the two main actors in L.A. were better than Pacino and Deniro, but maybe that's because it was fresh and new to me and I have become used to the more revered actors in Heat several times. Heat was very much a vehicle for them to be together on screen but it had a good ensemble cast while the L.A. actors came and went out of scenes without as much fuss, probably due to the TV nature of the production and that it would be ongoing as a series.

In the end, I'm glad I got to see both and real happy that Mann got to do it all again in a much bigger way for Heat.

[–] Leodicaprio (6426) 3 years ago

it was neat seeing the similarity. glad they got rid of some stuff like the dancing scene lol. the cop actor sounded a lot like Pacino. if I closed my eyes I would have sworn it was him.

hes just a step up in every way. more polished, better shot ect.

its like the kid who does a science project of the solar system, then the next kid who bringing a filly working to scale model of the solar system. thats heat