I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Absolutely brilliant

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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.

OK so I'd probably have given this a 9 but felt the rating was disproportionately low and no doubt reflects Heat fans deliberately rating this down to show partisan support for their beloved Heat, rather than because they actually disliked this movie that much. Just a hunch! It's amazing to me how easily people will be polarised on a trivial issue. It's the same director FFS! What's the point of blindly hating one and adoring the other. It's not a football match.Forgetting about the bloody remake for a minute, you've got try to imagine this movie framed in the context of 1989. It was re-inventing an extremely tired genre with a brand new style. Rather than lazily re-hashing the hackneyed cops good/crooks evil template, it attempted to give a believable account of how a specialist team of cops and a serious crew of crooks operated on different sides of the same coin. It tries to make you sympathise with both sides which was *incredibly* rare back then. It introduced shockingly believable and cold violence which was even rarer.Whatever you make of this now, you need to at least acknowledge that it would've been ground breaking and original when it came out, and lets face it, that there would have been no Heat if it weren't for this.When I bought this on DVD 10 years or so ago I noticed a couple of things that may have contributed to the bad reviews.First of all there was the appalling quality of the DVD recording - that really takes a lot away from the style of the movie and that's just unfortunate. Maybe down to bad storage or just a cheap pressing of the DVD.Secondly was how dated it looked. OK so Michael Mann's original batch of 80s movies/TV series were never going to age well because they whole-heartedly celebrated 80s fashion, design, architecture, language and style. This worked so well on screen back then. The zeitgeist of the 80s was brutally different to what had preceded it - a bold industrial/chic/sanitised re-imagining of a stale flower power, earthy world. Some rejected it, others embraced it. Among those who embraced it were movie directors like Michael Mann, and John Hughes. Sure, 5 or 6 fashion fads later and it looks dated and ridiculous. Well guess what, that's exactly what those guys made of the 60s/70s fashions that they were rejecting and that's what the next batch will make of fashion now and so on and so on. That's no reason to close the door on art produced in a particular era. You've got to think bigger than that or you're going to miss out on some amazing old movies.There's a hell of a lot in the very well written dialogue which beautifully captures the values of the time it was made, e.g. "I'm a heavy hitter, I travel in circles, you know, like strata, strata at the top see? Cos I have access to some of the most precious commodity on Earth - information, data." If it sounds corny now, well remember it sounded sharp back then.Very few people agree with this but I honestly preferred the original Scott Plank and Alex McArthur as the cop/crook. I thought they were much more believable in those roles than the aging DeNiro and Pacino. DeNiro gave it his best but if I had to guess which out of him and McArthur had been inside serving time, I'd go with McArthur every time - he comes over as a very convincing psychopath who could kick off at any moment. As for Pacino, I think he was having a bit of laugh with his character in Heat to be honest - "...great ass" etc. Scott Plank was actually convincing as an ex marine turned cop capable of sprinting down the street hauling an assault rifle and after a crew that had taken down a bank.I also prefer Vincent Guastaferro to Sizemore as the driver, and Xander Berkeley has to be better as the weaselly, desperate, wannabe tough guy Waingro. The guy in Heat was way too tough and mean looking to play that part.Sure so more money's going to lead to tighter production, better music, better effects etc. No brainer. But in terms of capturing the spirit of the story, the locations, the characters & the interplay between them, LA Takedown wins for me.I do like Heat in its own right, but I will always prefer LA Takedown because it was the original and it is steeped in the time it was intended for. Just like I'll always infinitely prefer the 1964 Ford Mustang to the current remake even though it should always lose on paper. It's about originality, class, and the spirit of the era that went into it.

This is simply an awesome movie and I saw no reason to make a "remake" of this movie (HEAT). The original is great even though the remake is great to. This has been one of my favorites since it was released in 1989. The Coffey shop seen is just incredible. This is much better than HEAT, even though HEAT by itself is a great movie and has a very impressive shoot out seen. I do not understand why this movie didn't become a huge success and why lead actor Scott Plank didn't end up a star.BTW The Swedish title for this movie was "Made in LA"

... but not a patch on 'Heat' (1995).'L.A. Takedown' shows what a top-drawer director like Mann can do within the confines of TV production.However, I prefer to see it now as a blueprint for the far superior 'Heat'. The fact that the remake was made by the same director means he feels the same. 'Heat' may be shot-for-shot but 'Psycho' (1998) it sure ain't.spudmurt