To Live and Die in L.A.

Day 173 - 6/22/09 - Movie #172

BEFORE: Cop Week rolls on with a film featuring William Petersen, before he played Grissom on C.S.I., as an L.A. cop. No wait, my bad, he's a Secret Service agent - but that's a type of cop, right? The great Willem Dafoe plays the counterfeiter that he's trying to bust.

THE PLOT: A fearless Secret Service agent will stop at nothing to bring down the counterfeiter who killed his partner.

AFTER: Petersen (in only his 2nd film role) plays a pretty slick customer - busting perps isn't enough of a thrill for him, he's also a BASE jumper on the side - but Dafoe's counterfeiter is even slicker. There's no shortage of cliches here - the veteran 3 days from retirement (gee, I hope he makes it...), the desperate agent who'll bend the rules to take down his nemesis, and the jittery mule (John Turturro) who takes the rap and won't flip on his boss. There's a high-speed chase through L.A.'s warehouse district that (together with "Scarface" and "Miami Vice") probably inspired a major part of the "Grand Theft Auto" video-game...and there's a lot of Wang Chung music as a bonus (I guess...).

RATING: 7 out of 10 printing presses (for being unconventional when it counted)

I could watch "Manhunter" next, since that also features Petersen, but since that movie also was the first appearance of Hannibal Lecter, I'm saving that for Halloween.