SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: WEEK 113: Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man

[europe1]

NOTE to NON-MEMBERS: Interested in joining the SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB? Shoot me a PM for more info.

Here's a quick list of all movies watched by the SMC. Or if you prefer, here's a more detailed examination.

A movie in which the two main characters do neither of that!

Our Director

Ruggero Deodato

Ruggero Deodato was born on May 7, 1939, in Potenza, Italy, and grew up outside Rome. One of his close friends at the time was Renzo Rossellini, the son of famed Italian director Roberto Rossellini. Knowing Ruggerio's love for the movies, Renzo persuaded him to work as a second unit director on some of his father's productions. From 1958-67 Deodato worked as a second unit director for several cult film directors such as Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti), Riccardo Freda and Joseph Losey. Deodato's directorial debut was the action-fantasy Ursus, il terrore dei kirghisi (1964), replacing Margheriti who quit the production. Deodato's claim to fame was the spaghetti western Django(1966). His career took off in 1968 when he directed a number of films based on comic-book characters and musicals. It was while shooting one of these films that Deodato met, and later married, Silvia Dionisio.

From 1971-75 Deodato worked in television, directing the series All'ultimo minuto (1971) as well as TV commercials, including ones for Esso Oil, Band-Aid and Fanta. Deodato returned to filmmaking with an erotic melodrama and a police thriller. At the same time his marriage fell apart. In 1977 Deodato directed the notorious Jungle Holocaust (1977) and later Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Deodato traveled to New York City and directed the disturbing thriller La casa sperduta nel parco (1980), a semi-follow-up to Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972). Deodato made La casa sperduta nel parco(1980) in just 19 days on a tiny budget. He then returned to directing action and horror flicks.

Deodato lives in Rome with his current partner, Micaela Rocco, and still works in movies and occasional TV series. He is rumored to be planning a sequel to "Cannibal Holocaust".

Our Stars

Marc Porel

Ray Lovelock

​

Film Overview

Fred and Tony are members of an elite 'special squad' of police in Rome, Italy whom are licensed-to-kill, undercover cops whom thrive on living dangerously.



Budget: Not a Lot considering those special effects
Box Office: ₤741 million

Trivia
(courtesy of IMDB)
​

* This was given a major TV advertising campaign when released in the UK, which was very unusual at the time.

* A sequel was originally planned, but ended up being scraped due to Marc Porel and Ray Lovelock not getting along.


Members: @europe1 @MusterX @Scott Parker 27 @the muntjac @Cubo de Sangre @sickc0d3r @chickenluver @FrontNakedChoke @AndersonsFoot @Tufts @Coolthulu @Yotsuya @Lights Out 101 @jei @Moretti @LHWBelt

 

[europe1]

I've long suspected that the Italian race is the most callous-humored, evil-hearted and lewd-minded species of humanity that has ever existed. Now, because of Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man, I know that to be the truth.

Like, WTF film? You have a buddy-cop movie were one of the policemen is Marc Porel the child-killing priest from Don't Torture a Duckling, with his partner Ray Lovelock is the hippie-gigolo from Queens of Evil, and their boss is Adolfo Celi the freaking James Bond villain from Thunderball!

These people certainly don't Live like Cops -- and they don't Die like Men either! It's like the title was invented just so that they could screw with it! They commit more crimes than the criminals themselves for Christ sake! The police chief even says that both of them displayed every trait of a criminal on their tests so he doesn't understand why they joined the fuzz in the first place. I guess this is the idea of policework that you have when your movie is directed by a guy famous for making Cannibal movies.

Man purse-snatchers in Italy are freaking brutal. Real Murder-Death-Kill situation right there. True horrorshow, I say!

Luckily, Calvin Klein models are on the scene! That motorcycle chase was pretty darn good, actually (and considering Deodato is the director, I'm 99% certain that he didn't have permission to shoot that scene). They drive into a freaking kiosk and then run over a blind man's guide-dog, leaving him lamenting how helpless he is without his dog (remember what I said about Italians?) Then when they finally arrest the robbers, they kill the surviving one and pretend that he died in the crash! Our heros ladies and gentlemen! Talk about a character-establishing moment.

Then we come to the funniest character in the film -- Miss Moneypenny with balls! I certainly want to have seen more of her. So we get a 5-minute conversation with her about how male sexuality sucks and females are beast-gods in the sack in comparison, hence she would only accept a threeway between them to compensate for their inadequacies. Considering what happened to the Crime Bosses sister later in the film, I guess the film validates the secrateries claim? I guess this is the idea of feminism that you have when your movie is directed by a guy famous for making Cannibal movies.


Got to love how they are a top-secret branch of the police force with license to kill that virtually no-one knows about... yet their college is assassinated right as he steps out of the front door!

This is when I realized that this movie operates by Road Warrior logic of killing. It isn't enough to simply shoot the crook that assassinated their college, said crooks run his motorcycle into a car, flips over its top, and then gets crushed by another car that runs him over!

(top-quality special effects right there folks. I especially liked the minature boat they blew up at the end.)

And then they go to the Crime Bosses gambling joint and torch every car that belongs to his clientele -- because police work! And they even accidentally burn down their own car and then procced to laugh about it! And in the next scene they're sleeping in the same room (because of course they are).

Like... half the scenes in this movie don't even have anything to do with the storyline about the Crime Boss. This is just a film about two male models who drift around on their motorbike and do outrageous stuff. We get thumbing out someone's eyeball (and the cops making fun of him for it), some WTF target practice, beating up the crime bosses sister (to which she demands to have sex in response, naturally), some really violent radicals abusing a woman (and the cops shooting surrendering men, right before saying that they've already killed 3 hostages so what would be one more?). And then in the end, it's revealed that Emilio Largo just sent them on their quest so that he could stalk them and thus find the bad guy that was trailing the two of them! (all while they were having sex with a woman on the boat, of course).




So yeah, I really liked this movie! It's one of those movies that doesn't really have a climactic ending, it just sort of peters out. But as a movie about two ultra-callous, cop-models that go around assassinating criminals in outrageous situations, it was pretty fun! There's probably not much to say about it -- it sorts of lives and dies on it's outrageousness and absolute lack of a moral center what so ever.

 

[the muntjac]

Honestly, I kept spacing out during this because it was hard for me to care what the jagoff twins were up to. Amidst their frat boy personas of, “I like girls, and like to have sex with girls! High five!” and their other corny buffoonery, apparently there was a story involving some shady behind-the-scenes crime boss trying to kill them. But before he can do that, we follow them in an episodic formula of them going rogue and killing criminals rather than arresting them. Why? I don’t know. Who cares, right? But look, they’re slapping, shoving, and sexually harassing women, and it doesn’t matter how they’re treating them because these women still want to blow them. Ain’t that cool?! Banging chicks, bro! Yeah!

...ugh...

The title of the film suggested to me that these two asshats would wind up dead by film’s end, but nope, I was robbed of that. Instead after some police chief ex machina, these two knuckleheads blow up a toy boat. Oh, you boys!

Can’t say I cared for this one. Not even Mario and Luigi can clean up this shitfest.

And perhaps I should ask our Swedish overlord this, but does the Swedish title of this film really translate to Ice Cold Guys On Hot Bikes, or something like that? If so, a bad title like that would be more appropriate for a bad movie like this.

 

[europe1]

Ice Cold Guys On Hot Bikes,

Literally translated, Ice Cold Types on Hot Rods

we follow them in an episodic formula of them going rogue and killing criminals rather than arresting them. Why? I don’t know

Well, technically, they never went rogue in the first place. They were in a special-unit whose supervises always looked between their fingers when they killed someone (it was an accident, chief, I swear!)

I sort of think that the joke of this movie is that the cops are as callous and seedy as the criminals -- and have even less respect for the law.

As I quoted in the Battle Royale voting thread.

"It's either a dark, nasty pastiche of American crime films and cop show, or it's an attempt to replicate the genre by people who don't quite seem to understand it and lack ANY kind of moral center what so ever."

So, it's either a hyperbolic satire or a replica by some thoroughly immoral human beings.

I don't know which one of it is. One one hand, the very fact that they literally hired two male models to play their cops sort of indicates that they did it with a wink and a nudge satire. And the director -- Deadato -- is sort of known for making sadistic exploitative trash that also has a social message to them (like Cannibal Holocaust). Not to mention the outrageous, hyper-hyperbolic title. And the movie even calls the cops criminal at several points -- saying they took tests that confirmed extreme criminal tendancies. But in the end, if it was a satire, then I don't really think it really matters. If your audience doesn't comprehend that you're satirizing something -- and are just as likely to believe that you're lionizing something, then haven't you failed in your message? (this doesn't apply to Starship Troopers, of course, the greatest satire of all time).

 

[the muntjac]

Sending these out in case you didn’t get @europe1’s.

@MusterX
@Scott Parker 27
@Cubo de Sangre
@sickc0d3r
@chickenluver
@FrontNakedChoke @AndersonsFoot
@Tufts
@Coolthulu
@Yotsuya
@Lights Out 101
@jei
@Moretti
@LHWBelt

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I got pretty ripped for this film and decided to take notes for the sake of discussion. Not sure it worked out, but here they are.

Spoiler: Drunk ass notes.

Into chase too extend for the action.

Nice bit of brutality with the woman getting dragged by cuffed-on valuable.

Breaking the dude’s neck was predictable. Presumable edginess to follow.

Hot talk with all the multiple dudes on one chick, being egged on by the chick. Great flick so far.

Sidenote: Fuck driving in Italy. What a mess.

Twenty minutes in and the sight of a shotgun gives me a little shot of adrenaline. Let's pick the action up here people.

Some shit happened, and a well-mustachioed dude got fucked up. Deservedly so.

They keep talking about Pasquini and I can’t help but imagine he makes a Helluva pizza.

Kung-Fu action with cheesy sound-effect and score is total precursor to Tarantino. The quote about him loving this rings true. There’s even a trunk opening shot. Albeit not from the perspective of being inside the trunk. Mastery elevating craft at work. He even took to new heights having some guy with a tie and black jacket (practically) dousing some tied up prick with tape over his mouth in gasoline.

Way too much time spent showing them spreading the gas on the cars. Move it the fuck along. Starting to think someone has a grudge against cars.

Sidenote: I keep wanting to call them WOP’s in my head, cuz somehow society has trained me that way. Then I use my intelligent brain to remember that supposedly that stood for “without papers” and that relates to immigration. And this is the old country. Duh.

Sink’s low enough to squat to pee in. Must be a European thing. Way too much man undies too.

Naked Gun stole this siren angle. (unlikely prediction #1: watching the rest of this film as satire will reveal the origin of that comic goldmine.)

Sometimes it’s time to be quiet. Broad’s lucky things haven’t gone all Death Wish.

In this film, hats are a thing to be revered.

Love how a dude has to check a full revolver. Buddy, did you skip a chamber when you loaded it before you left the house?

Three bad guys just grouped together behind one hostage while surround by police and they expect to live, let alone escape?

Nice to see a little violence and torture. Can’t say I’m invested in any of the characters involved.

Too much talking. Not enough John Woo in the glory years.

Movie looks like it wishes it could be NY. Or it exposes the fact that NY culture was built by WOP’s.

The old silencer in the newspaper trick. That’s OG.

Love how in the commission of a crime homie with a ski mask on decides to whip it off as soon as shit hits the fan and every bystander is gawking. Practically guarantees nothing to lose and hopefully some gratuitous deaths.

Did the pigs just steal that bike? If so, makes me wanna be a pig. Civil forfeiture where I come from.

Best moment so far is the bitch-slap so hard a titty falls out. A notch in the belt of the choreography. Her subsequent touching of herself (and apparent nymphomania) earns the writers applause as well.

These two fools shooting all trick-shotty at each other is pretty goofy. Pre-Brokeback Mountain.

Greyhounds rule. Looks to be pre-muzzle days. That fake rabbit must have taken a beating at the end of each race. Wonder if some fights broke out too.

Anti-climactic ending featuring mediocre titties and the tease of a sexual assault.

Coffee-level cinematic experience.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

This get stickied by mistake?

 

[europe1]

Really good excerps from an article on this movies satirical aspects, arguing that it is indeed, basically a satire about police shows and cop movies at the time.

http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/18342/live-like-a-cop-die-like-a-man-film-review/

It would not be that much of a stretch to call this the Starship troopers of buddy cop movies. The contrast between the lighthearted mood with which the cartoony plot unfolds and the brutal violence that goes with it is perverse and intentional, as is the sight of our dreamy-looking heroes behaving like appalling louts. The elements may be formulaic, but it’s hard to ignore that there’s something amiss when injured or surrendering criminals are shot in cold blood and nobody raises a fuss about it. Deodato is cunning enough to never state it explicitly, and the dead giveaway to his stance is the complete absence of sanctimonious speeches justifying police brutality. The function of such righteous crap is to prevent the viewer from examining his thirst for blood, by means of appeasing to his skewed sense of morality. Deodato’s approach is to make it clear that for these guys shit just never, ever gets real, and that happens to be the most honest take on this kind of material.

"Again, this is a movie where the comissioner says, "The Special Squad number one rule is to never put people at risk… even old people.”

EDIT: I think this really gets at what I like about the film, the disconect between the tone and the action. Its sickly humerous, in a morbid way.

Nice bit of brutality with the woman getting dragged by cuffed-on valuable.

Old movies may lack modern special effects. But they more than make-up for it in sheer mean-spiritness.

Hot talk with all the multiple dudes on one chick, being egged on by the chick. Great flick so far.

That actress was the Directors wife, Silvia Dionisio.

Best moment so far is the bitch-slap so hard a titty falls out. A notch in the belt of the choreography. Her subsequent touching of herself (and apparent nymphomania) earns the writers applause as well.

That actress was played by the Directors sister-in-law, Sofia Dionisio... wait, WTF!? That was his sister!? Dear lord! This is almost as bad as when Dario Argento had his daughter play the... Goddamn Italians!

 

[MusterX]

Honestly, I kept spacing out during this because it was hard for me to care what the jagoff twins were up to. Amidst their frat boy personas of, “I like girls, and like to have sex with girls! High five!” and their other corny buffoonery, apparently there was a story involving some shady behind-the-scenes crime boss trying to kill them. But before he can do that, we follow them in an episodic formula of them going rogue and killing criminals rather than arresting them. Why? I don’t know. Who cares, right? But look, they’re slapping, shoving, and sexually harassing women, and it doesn’t matter how they’re treating them because these women still want to blow them. Ain’t that cool?! Banging chicks, bro! Yeah!

...ugh...

The title of the film suggested to me that these two asshats would wind up dead by film’s end, but nope, I was robbed of that. Instead after some police chief ex machina, these two knuckleheads blow up a toy boat. Oh, you boys!

Can’t say I cared for this one. Not even Mario and Luigi can clean up this shitfest.

And perhaps I should ask our Swedish overlord this, but does the Swedish title of this film really translate to Ice Cold Guys On Hot Bikes, or something like that? If so, a bad title like that would be more appropriate for a bad movie like this.

HAHA, its the most politically incorrect movie of all time. Bad cops doing bad things and beating women who still want to bang them anyhow. The entire thing is testosterone nightmare fuel for a SJW or a feminist. The question remains though. Was this film made from a serious standpoint and its just really bad, or was it made to be bad on purpose? We get into "The Room" territory trying to figure out what is actually going on here.

James Bond was known to treat woman poorly, but they all loved the shit out of him. I especially like at 0:37 how he uses a girl as a shield and she gets bonked in the head with a club.

 

[JayPettryMMA]

This get stickied by mistake?

Nope. The SMC has now been upgraded to the stickied movie discussion thread of Mayberry.

The Serious Movie Discussion thread is now going to be a standard Mayberry thread. It's not going away, it's just a changing of the guard.

It was a discussion between several mods and admins, and we thought the best course of action was to move the SMC up. The SMC has been steady for 114 weeks now, that's incredibly impressive.

I love the SMD as much as the next guy but it's not as active as it used to be, sadly.

 

[europe1]

This get stickied by mistake?

Did you get the notification?

http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/sherdog-movie-club-cycle-7-wrap-up-and-information.3790599/

 

[MusterX]

Nope. The SMC has now been upgraded to the stickied movie discussion thread of Mayberry.

The Serious Movie Discussion thread is now going to be a standard Mayberry thread. It's not going away, it's just a changing of the guard.

It was a discussion between several mods and admins, and we thought the best course of action was to move the SMC up. The SMC has been steady for 114 weeks now, that's incredibly impressive.

I love the SMD as much as the next guy but it's not as active as it used to be, sadly.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Did you get the notification?

http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/sherdog-movie-club-cycle-7-wrap-up-and-information.3790599/

Nope. Got zero of them today. Except from @the muntjac.

 

[europe1]

Nope. Got zero of them today. Except from @the muntjac.

I rebooted my PC before posting that thread. Still didn't work.

Could one of you guys send out the bat-signal instead?

 

[MusterX]

Breaking the dude’s neck was predictable. Presumable edginess to follow.

Some shit happened, and a well-mustachioed dude got fucked up. Deservedly so.

Sometimes it’s time to be quiet. Broad’s lucky things haven’t gone all Death Wish.

 

[Tufts]

Like... half the scenes in this movie don't even have anything to do with the storyline about the Crime Boss. This is just a film about two male models who drift around on their motorbike and do outrageous stuff. We get thumbing out someone's eyeball (and the cops making fun of him for it), some WTF target practice, beating up the crime bosses sister (to which she demands to have sex in response, naturally), some really violent radicals abusing a woman (and the cops shooting surrendering men, right before saying that they've already killed 3 hostages so what would be one more?). And then in the end, it's revealed that Emilio Largo just sent them on their quest so that he could stalk them and thus find the bad guy that was trailing the two of them! (all while they were having sex with a woman on the boat, of course).

Good summary. This movie was clearly written and made by men. I don’t have much more to add.

I did the enjoy the eye candy for about a minute. It had an interesting Starsky and Hutch / CHIPS vibe for about two minutes but I found none of the characters to be at all compelling.

I get the director thought he was making his wife be a cool feminist type, when in fact a real woman would have found those guys beyond tiresome.

It annoyed the fuck out of me that they killed the dog and it pissed me off that the mob sister’s part was written the way it was. And they burned a Porsche. That is never ok!

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

It annoyed the fuck out of me that they killed the dog...

Shoulda been a cat.

 

[Tufts]

Honestly, I kept spacing out during this because it was hard for me to care what the jagoff twins were up to. Amidst their frat boy personas of, “I like girls, and like to have sex with girls! High five!” and their other corny buffoonery, apparently there was a story involving some shady behind-the-scenes crime boss trying to kill them. But before he can do that, we follow them in an episodic formula of them going rogue and killing criminals rather than arresting them. Why? I don’t know. Who cares, right? But look, they’re slapping, shoving, and sexually harassing women, and it doesn’t matter how they’re treating them because these women still want to blow them. Ain’t that cool?! Banging chicks, bro! Yeah!

...ugh...

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Honestly, I kept spacing out during this because it was hard for me to care what the jagoff twins were up to. Amidst their frat boy personas of, “I like girls, and like to have sex with girls! High five!” and their other corny buffoonery, apparently there was a story involving some shady behind-the-scenes crime boss trying to kill them. But before he can do that, we follow them in an episodic formula of them going rogue and killing criminals rather than arresting them. Why? I don’t know. Who cares, right? But look, they’re slapping, shoving, and sexually harassing women, and it doesn’t matter how they’re treating them because these women still want to blow them. Ain’t that cool?! Banging chicks, bro! Yeah!

...ugh...

The title of the film suggested to me that these two asshats would wind up dead by film’s end, but nope, I was robbed of that. Instead after some police chief ex machina, these two knuckleheads blow up a toy boat. Oh, you boys!

Can’t say I cared for this one. Not even Mario and Luigi can clean up this shitfest.

And perhaps I should ask our Swedish overlord this, but does the Swedish title of this film really translate to Ice Cold Guys On Hot Bikes, or something like that? If so, a bad title like that would be more appropriate for a bad movie like this.

I totally agree with your review and somehow it makes me like the film more.

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

Anybody else have a hard time enjoying movies that are over dubbed?

Some interesting scenes, but overall I didn't care about the characters so I failed to get into it.

I did enjoy @europe1 's commentary on the Italians in the OP though.