Simply Perfect

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Yeah I know every review will inevitably compare this film to its far bigger budget remake. Upon watching the two films back-to-back though I have to say that there are a few things I do enjoy better about this slimmer and more streamlined film than the more bloated HEAT.For one, although I'm a huge fan of De Niro and Pacino, I found Scott Plank and Alex MacArthur much more serious and believable in their roles as far younger up-and-comers with something to prove. MacArthur especially exudes a calm intensity with a little more (albeit tactically restrained) fire under the collar than you'd usually see in a character like this.Secondly, I love the supporting cast here. Instead of the likes of Danny Trejo, Jeremy Piven, and Hank Azaria, we get a little more of a B-crew with some solid work from character actors Juan Fernandez (SALVADOR), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and FLASH GORDON himself Sam J. Jones as some jerk at the bar. Instead of Wes Studi and Ted Levene, we get Richard Chaves (PREDATOR) and Daniel Baldwin. Perennial "that guy" character actor Xander Berkeley plays Waingrow much more as a sniveling wannabe than an actual tough-guy, but I think it actually works better and gives more menace to the character.Oddly enough this film crosses over a lot with the cheeseball Spanish ABYSS knockoff ENDLESS DESCENT in that both movies feature Ely Pouget (who turns in some great work) as the leading lady and open with a shot of the protagonist coming out of a hangover with one foot sticking out from under the sheets. They were both made the same year too! Go figure.TAKEDOWN sorely misses the violence, class, and action of HEAT but still has some pretty heavy stuff considering the budget and the time in which it was made. Mann handles the bank robbery as well as anything you would have seen on "Crime Story" and doesn't skimp on the weaponry in the big set-piece shootouts. I was actually delighted to see them cut out much of the romance and needless character development that HEAT got so wrapped up in (especially in terms of the cook/getaway driver, here played by an extra as opposed to the distractingly Allstate-ed up Dennis Haysbert).There's a few plot differences, but not many as several scenes are line-by-line the same. The ending's a bit of a delight though and much more of a surprise than what we got in HEAT. My only beef with this film has to do with the bad sound and flat TV cinematography. Worth tracking down if you can find a decent copy.

As a preliminary draft to "Heat", Mann's made-for-TV crime drama about a gung-ho cop and a professional criminal works. It lays the foundation for the bigger-budget film in which Pacino and De Niro hone their chops, but as a stand alone film – "LA Takedown" (or as I watched it "Made in LA") is a dated, censored look at a bigger picture. Having watched "Heat" first, and several times over, it is difficult not to make comparisons between the two films. It is reminiscent of watching the original "Gaslight" and the remake produced just four years later – while in that case the original is better – one cannot help but compare the differences. That is the case with Mann's TV outing. While it is impressive to see that Mann stuck with his original story, it is the characters that fail to live up to the "Heat" hype. Scott Plank and Alex McArthur are good actors, but they are no icons. Their squabble between each other seems staged, less emotional, and not quite as tense as seen in the later film. McArthur isn't as smart, Plank isn't as gruff, and what makes it work in "Heat" is the back story Mann creates. The world surrounding our characters in "Heat" makes them believable, more than just characters on a page – while in this film, running at just an hour and a half, it is difficult to believe each character's squabbles. Both films are a character driven film, with two intense scenes of action, but without the characters, we couldn't have created the moments. I believe Mann realized that with "LA Takedown", and it is why "Heat" seems to focus more intently on our players.Again, I am not one that likes to say one is obviously better than the other, but when looked out separately, "LA Takedown" would feel dated, tired, and confusing. It isn't a film to be remembered, which is why it probably hasn't been transferred to DVD yet, and perhaps forgotten for good. "Heat" takes every lacking element in this original draft and powerfully re-masters it using stronger actors, other plot lines, and a clear definition of "why".Overall, I liked this original film merely for the idea. The concept that was finally redefined as "Heat" is perhaps not quiet as welcomed in 1989, but "LA Takedown" could not be watched again. In the catalogue of Mann films, it is important to see, but it is not as emotionally powerful or kinetically charged as "Heat". With an unfocused story and minimal character development (with plenty of yelling – a classic 80s answer to building tension), "LA Takedown" doesn't give hope for the early made-for-TV movie, but it does showcase Mann's ideas. As a teacher, I would ask Mann to rewrite and develop further, and with his answer as being "Heat", the project would then be complete.Watch this film once, but upgrade yourself accordingly.Grade: ** out of *****

It's impossible to talk about this film in isolation from Mann's second, more successful attempt. They are almost identical films by virtue of the script, although there is different emphasis at given moments. Heat is a better film; it has the all the administrative advantages of coming after this one as well as better actors and a larger budget.Yet L.A. Takedown stands up well. Scott Plank (Hanna/Pacino) and Alex Arthur (Patrick McClaren/de Niro) are well cast, even adopting the same mania/iceberg opposed mannerisms as the more famous incumbents of the role. The raw existential despair that is the undoing of the two characters stays in the script but hasn't translated quite as well onto the screen - Laura Harrington's Eady says 'lonely' but doesn't look it, like Amy Brenneman does. Ely Pouget is an honest, worldly woman like Diane Venore though.There's one minor loose end but that's it really. We still get the trademark bleached look, set piece authenticity and soulful, LA-by-night shots that Mann likes. A fairly good thriller in its own right but a deeply fascinating one to watch in tandem with Heat. 5/10

I loved L.A. Takedown and would give it a 9 or 10 but I grade tough ... Heat was a fine remake with much more accomplished actors; itself a tribute to Alex Mc Arthur & Hanna ... Deniro and Pacino copied them, imagine how that feels for 2 good actors ... I saw the original as a repeat and Heat many years after it was shot ... never saw either one again by happenstance ... I prefer the original for being more realistic although it did feature a team of designer detectives who matched their glasses and ties with their suits as if they were pharmaceutical salesmen calling on plastic surgeons instead of cops rousting thugs all day ... Heat was even more fashion runway conscious which took it down a peg for me but it remains a good action cops & robbers yarn ... I see where some posters rap Alex for being too wooden but I found that realistic ... playing it flat is correct for guys who can look right through you and spend their days planning ways to blast apart steel and concrete barriers to O.P.M... they tend to be as dry and cold as ice and not very colorful or expressive ... I did a fair amount of police reporting and cops always told me that many true professional criminals will fool you in the sense that they look and comport themselves as if they were the assistant manager of the local Burger King ... LA Takedown had some dialogue that still rings in my ears and reflects the intensely selfish and myopic perspective of the true habitual career criminal such as Alex explaining his accidental victims to his girlfriend that "it rains, people get wet" and the renegade member of the heist team exclaiming to himself as he spins to plunge a hunting knife into a prostitute that "I'm a stone cold, sky blue killer" .. I thank other posters for pointing out the many similarities but I saw no reference to the very different endings ... we have the drama of the airport shootout in Heat to Alex getting blasted by the psycho through a hotel door in LA Takedown and telling Hanna "they just don't make doors like they used to" as he dies in his arms ... perfect last words for an exceptionally practical, emotionless man