ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[southendmd]

Plot:  Now-classic punk fable of Otto, the newly hired repossession man. Off beat film has a little of everything: action, comedy, urban decay, police drama, mystery, governmental conspiracy and even UFO's. Story centers on Otto's search for a mysterious Malibu carrying an odd cargo.

Set in LA.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  The very essence of the relationship between co-joined twins Bob and Walt is tested when Walt convinces them to move to L.A. so he can become an actor. Quickly the twins find fame and fortune by landing a job on Cher's TV show, but the success threatens to drive them apart.

[memento]

From IMDB: In Los Angeles, the secret agent Richard Chance (William L. Petersen) loses his partner and friend Jim Hart (Michael Greene) in an investigation of counterfeit, two days before the retirement of Jim. The agent John Vukovich (John Pankow) is assigned to work with Chance, who is obsessed to capture Eric 'Rick' Masters (Willem Dafoe), the criminal responsible for the death of Jim. Chance risks his partner and his own career, trying to arrest Rick.

[southendmd]

Plot: [Steven] Seagal plays a man with a dark and violent past, who seeks revenge for the murder of his son.

Set in LA.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  The film footage at the beginning and end of Van Nuys Boulevard accurately portrays the action and excitement of what life was like cruising the boulevard. By the time I cruised there in 1981, there were plenty of college and high-school students hanging out, cruising and racing. Car clubs gathered in parking lots. I was 22 attending college and my dad bought me a 1978 Corvette. I cruised there in the summer, and I will never forget the adventure. It truly was just like in the movie and better. You made friends easily, and there were always street races. In the fall of 1981, the LAPD began barricading off the boulevard and closing off traffic. This killed the adventure, and those times are gone forever. Having been there, "Van Nuys Boulevard" is a nostalgic return to the past and a memorable way of remembering a great time of American youth.

[memento]

From IMDB: In LA's Fairfax district, where ethnic groups abound, four households celebrate Thanksgiving amidst family tensions. In the Nguyen family, the children's acculturation and immigrant parents' fears collide. In the Avila family, Isabel's son has invited her estranged husband to their family dinner. Audrey and Ron Williams want to keep their own family's ruptures secret from Ron's visiting mother. In the Seelig household, Herb and Ruth are unwilling to discuss openly their grown daughter's living with her lover, Carla. Around each table, things come to a head. A gun, an affair, a boyfriend, and a pregnancy precipitate crises forcing each family to find its center.

[Lynne]

From Wiki:

The Long Goodbye (1973) is a film adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel The Long Goodbye. Directed by Robert Altman from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett, the film stars Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe, film noir veteran Sterling Hayden as Roger Wade and director Mark Rydell as the gangster Marty Augustine. The Long Goodbye holds up a mirror to the culture of the Hollywood lifestyle in the 1970s. The film is "a study of a moral and decent man cast adrift in a selfish, self-obsessed society where lives can be thrown away without a backward glance...and any notions of friendship and loyalty are meaningless"

Leigh Brackett was also one of the screenwriters on the 1946 film The Big Sleep, also based on a Chandler novel.

Unlike the novel, which is set in the 1950s, the film is set in the 1970s.

[Fran]

This 18-minute film was directed by Del Lord, who is best known for directing Three Stooges films.

From IMDb:  Two goofball private detectives are hired to find a millionaire who has been kidnapped by a mad scientist.

Filming Location:  Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

[southendmd]

IMDb comment:  This work is breathtaking. The ability of Anna Deavere Smith to transform herself convincingly into a myriad of people who talk about their experience of the Los Angeles riots has to be seen to be believed. She makes us listen to and care about what people from a wide range of vantage points have to say. I defy anyone to watch this all the way through and not be moved and challenged. It should be required viewing for all high school and college students, as well as anyone who wants to better understand this tumultuous event in American history.

[southendmd]

LA--Take 2!