If only the entire film had the intensity and unpredictability that's it's last, roughly, 15min had. It's a fairly decent thriller in its own rights, but really I never felt it reached the manic, near non-stop adrenaline rush, levels of that one other little known thriller Friedkin made, The French Connection. William Petersen is no Gene Hackman and the character Richard Chance is no Popeye Doyle. Maybe it's unfair of me to be making such comparisons but really the films feel near identical in what they're are trying to achieve so it's really hard to not do. Both have rather inconsequential plots with the only key difference being that one's about heroin and ones about counterfeiting & both are far more concerned about what the main character is willing to do to achieve their end goal (i.e. catching the bad dude) - which is where the films differ greatly. Doyle was driven by what I can only describe as utter insanity, so manic, so self-absorbed, so obsessed that it became more then just a job, it became so all consuming that Doyle was willing to do just about anything in order to win (and I say win because it became more then just a job) - which is best represented in the films iconic chase sequence. On the other hand Petersen's character is driven by revenge and it's just no where near as compelling. Both have excellent chase sequences though of course the one in The French Connection is far superior, though that doesn't take away from the one Friedkin shoots here. It involves going down the wrong way of the freeway and I'm not sure how Friedkin was able to pull it off so well, I cannot imagine just how hard it was to set it all up. Again though it doesn't generate near the amount of intensity in comparison to the one in The French Connection - which again I think is largely due to the fact that Hackman in his prime can easily out act Petersen, it's not even close.

All in all, To Live and Die in L.A. feels like a watered down version of The French Connection set in the 80's with a more sunny background. While It final moments are fantastic, they are not enough to make up for what was a rather a mundane to slightly above average experience up until that point. If only the feeling I had gotten from the ending was present throughout the entire film.