The 25 best films set in Los Angeles

Sure, most of “Die Hard” takes place in a building. However, Nakatomi Plaza is in Los Angeles, and that’s a key part of the plot. John McClane is a New York cop who has flown across the country to be in L.A. for Christmas. “Die Hard” is thus an iconic Christmas film, but also an iconic Los Angeles film.

“Repo Man” is a great film to see parts of Los Angeles you don’t see in a lot of movies. It’s an all-time cult classic that features a young Emilio Estevez and the legendary Harry Dean Stanton. The punk rock film has a memorable aesthetic and a great L.A. vibe.

Quentin Tarantino made a concerted effort to replicate the Los Angeles of 1969. The film looks great, and from what we can tell he did a pretty accurate job of bringing classic Hollywood back. That’s not just the set design, either. There’s also the recreation of movie stars, and the TV and film of the era.

The crux of “The Long Goodbye” is Robert Altman taking the character of Phillip Marlowe out of the hardboiled Los Angeles of the 1940s and plopping him into 1970s Los Angeles. Elliott Gould plays Marlowe as a man out of time surrounding by wealthy Malibu types and health nuts. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition that makes for a fine noir film.

There are a lot of successful people in the movie industry in Los Angeles, but there are also screenwriters just trying to get by and former stars fading into the background. In “Sunset Boulevard,” these two types run into each other with disastrous results. The movie begins with William Holden’s screenwriter character dead in a pool, and we then go back to find out how he got there.

Speaking of Marlowe, like we said he traditionally is a hard-boiled private eye doing his thing in Los Angeles. That’s the case in “The Big Sleep,” where Humphrey Bogart plays Marlowe. “The Big Sleep” famously has a dense, almost impenetrable plot, but it’s still considered one of the best noir films ever.

Yes, the title – and some of the plot – of “The Big Lebowski” is a riff on “The Big Sleep.” However, it’s a decidedly different movie. The beloved Coen Brothers classic is also quintessentially a Los Angeles film. It begins with The Dude, an Angeleno if there ever was one, shopping at a Ralph’s. Just don’t mess with the man’s rug, please. It really ties the room together.

Since we’re talking about Los Angeles, needless to say, we had to include a few Hollywood films. The movie industry and LA are synonymous. “Singin’ in the Rain” is a classic musical about the end of the silent film era and the rise of talkies. It’s mostly an excuse for Gene Kelly and company to sing and dance and has a grand old time.

“Heaven Can Wait” is about an NFL quarterback who is inadvertently taken to Heaven by an overzealous guardian angel and then gets a chance to return to Earth in another person’s body. That body ends up being that of a wealthy businessman, but that doesn’t stop Warren Beatty’s character from trying to be an NFL quarterback again. The team he plays for? Why the Los Angeles Rams of course.

The Los Angeles River has been the source of many movie scenes. Most of the year there is barely any water flowing in the river, which leaves a lot of concrete and open space for filming. You’ve definitely seen the basin that the LA River runs through in films, including “Grease” and, of course, “Terminator 2.” You know that big car chase scene in that movie? It’s taking place down by the Los Angeles River.

We’ve got a second Tarantino movie on this list, in part because we think “Jackie Brown” is the most underrated of the director’s film. It’s a really good movie starring Pam Grier and Robert Forster that got a little overlooked in the wake of “Pulp Fiction.” It’s a different take on LA, though, as Jackie and Max Cherry aren’t rolling in dough or working in showbiz. They are just a couple of people trying to make ends meet in the big city.

There’s more than one kind of movie that is made in Los Angeles. The city, specifically the San Fernando Valley, is known for its part in the pornography industry. Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakout film focuses on the Valley, and the porn industry, in the 1970s heading into the 1980s. Anderson grew up in the city, and he has an eye for the details that make it feel lived in.

OK, so we are stretching just a smidge. Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan live in San Dimas. However, San Dimas is in Los Angeles Country. It’s only about 20 to 25 miles from Los Angeles proper. That’s close enough for us in this case. Mostly we wanted to shout out the three “Bill & Ted” movies, which definitely have Southern California vibes. Plus, they had a machine that could fly through space and time. They could have gone to Los Angeles any time they wanted.

“Point Blank” is a nasty, no-frills movie starring Lee Marvin as a relentless criminal who wants the money he was screwed out of, and he’ll kill anybody who stands in his way. While there are a couple of set pieces at Alcatraz, most of the movie takes place in Los Angeles, including another trip to the Los Angeles River bed.

Los Angeles is more than Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It’s a diverse city, but a lot of the minority neighborhoods are poorer and disenfranchised. “Boyz n the Hood” was John Singleton’s directorial debut, and he showed his skills right out of the gate. The film is a coming-of-age story set in South Central, specifically the neighborhood of Crenshaw. It’s about young men trying to rise out of the lot in life they have been dealt in a world awash in gangs and gang violence. It’s an important aspect of the city that shouldn’t be swept under the rug.

The teenagers of “Clueless” couldn’t have a life any more different from the teenagers in “Boyz n the Hood.” While this is a much frothier film, it’s also a favorite of many as well. “Clueless” spawned many a catchphrase and made Alicia Silverstone a star. It also introduced a lot of people to Paul Rudd, which is a love affair that has lasted for decades at this point. A list of LA movies without “Clueless?” As if.

There are a lot of movies about police officers, especially the LAPD. “Training Day” is a film about two LAPD officers, including one played by Denzel Washington. Washington won Best Actor for his tremendous work in “Training Day,” and it really is a performance that stands out even among Denzel’s impressive career.

Speaking of Paul Rudd, he stars in “I Love You, Man” as a Los Angeles real estate agent. That gives us a look at a few different LA neighborhoods, not to mention some fancy Los Angeles houses. Also, Lou Ferrigno plays himself, which is the kind of thing that only really happens in movies and TV shows set in New York and Los Angeles.

“Nightcrawler” is a different look at the news, as well as a different look at Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal plays an amoral striver who shoots grisly footage for news stations to use. This means a lot of snooping around the city in the middle of the night. There’s no sunshine and beaches in “Nightcrawler.” It’s all much grimier than that.

“Inherent Vice” feels like an amalgam of a few films on this list already. Take “The Long Goodbye” and mix in some “The Big Lebowski” with a hint of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” and you get this film. Based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, it’s a little dense, but it’s still funny and sharp and it looks absolutely beautiful. Joaquin Phoenix was apparently born to play a stoner private eye.

“The Nice Guys” is also about a private eye in 1970s Los Angeles, but also a guy who just works as an enforcer, roughing people up when they need to be roughed up. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe star as a mismatched pair working the same case, which takes them to some lavish parties and some massive skyscrapers. If you didn’t catch “The Nice Guys” we highly recommend it, as the movie is great and has that Los Angeles feel you’re looking for.

Hey, the movie has “L.A.” right in its name. How could it not be on this list? Steve Martin stars in this mildly supernatural romantic comedy, but there’s a lot of satire of the city, and of Hollywood, in the film as well. Some of it is a little facile, but a lot of it is fun and funny. If you’ve spent time in Los Angeles, you’ll appreciate the humor.

Beverly Hills is the second-most-famous neighborhood in Los Angeles. It’s the place where rich folks live. Axel Foley is not one of them. He’s a cop from Detroit. Fortunately, he’s played by Eddie Murphy, who has the charm and determination to handle himself despite being a fish out of water. The two sequels aren’t so great, but “Beverly Hills Cops” is a quintessential 1980s action-comedy.

Most old-school noir films focus on a private eye, especially the Los Angeles-based ones. “Double Indemnity” is a little different, but it still makes use of 1940s Los Angeles for the purposes of telling the story. This tale of murder and betrayal is considered an all-time noir movie, even though the hero of the film is a claims adjuster.

Chevy Chase found perhaps the perfect character for himself in “Fletch.” He plays an investigative journalist who plays by his own rules and always has a quip at the ready. Fletch also happens to be a massive Los Angeles Lakers fan, and we even get a dream sequence of him playing in the purple and gold.