The film is based on a series of novels that would later be rebooted on the big screen with Liam Neeson.

Our TV movie pick for tonight is 8 Million Ways to Die (Wednesday, 27 March), the 1986 neo-noir action thriller starring Oscar winner Jeff Bridges.

The film is adapted from author Lawrence Block’s detective novel series revolving around Matthew Scudder, a troubled alcoholic cop.

Bridges plays Scudder in the movie in which the character meets a call girl in LA named Sunny (Alexandra Paul), who is involved with a powerful drug lord named Angel Moldonado (Andy Garcia).

After Sunny comes to Scudder for help, he decides that he wants to help her escape the shady underworld.

“However, Sunny is soon found dead, and Matt tries to win the trust of Angel and his girlfriend, Sarah (Rosanna Arquette), in order to take him down,” the plot synopsis reads.

The final movie from legendary director Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo) and co-written by Oliver Stone (JFK, Platoon, Wall Street), 8 Million Ways to Die reportedly suffered from a turbulent production and was poorly received from critics at the time of its release and was a box office bomb.

In recent years, however, it has developed a bit of a cult following due to Bridges’ portrayal of Scudder, the rest of the talent involved in the film and the movie’s capturing of ’80s LA.

Those who enjoyed the Liam Neeson-starring thriller A Walk Among the Tombstones which we recommended a few weeks ago may also be interested in 8 Million Ways to Die as it is adapted from another of Block’s Scudder books.

8 Million Ways to Die is airing on the TV channel Legend at 10.45pm.

Here are the other movies airing on TV tonight:

Pitch Black – ITV4 – 9pm

Vin Diesel’s fun Alien-style sci-fi horror.

Our Ladies – Film4 – 9pm

This 2019 Scottish coming-of-age comedy-drama about five female friends in school together has a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Odd Thomas – Legend Xtra – 9pm

The late and great Anton Yelchin stars as man who sees dead people who becomes embroiled in a mystery in this quirky flick.

Blind Fury – Legend – 9pm

Rutger Hauer stars as a blind, sword-wielding Vietnam War veteran in this ’80s action comedy.

The Blood on Satan’s Claw – Legend Xtra – 10.55pm

A spectacularly named British horror from the ’70s and another movie we’ve recommended before.

Ghostbusters II – BBC One – 11.10pm

The second one.

The Festival – Film4 – 11.10pm

A young man (The Inbetweeners’ Joe Thomas) tries to get over a breakup by going to a three day festival.

Alex Cross – ITV4 – 11.15pm

As this crime thriller tagline infamously said: “Don’t ever cross Alex Cross.”

Related links:

Viewers are all saying the same thing after binging Netflix’s new sci-fi epic

Here are the best movies leaving Netflix in April

Netflix fans ‘can’t get enough’ of ’10/10′ thriller and are binge watching series in single day