Heat
Heat
R | 15 December 1995 (USA)
Heat Trailers

Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent Hanna pursues him without rest. Each man recognizes and respects the ability and the dedication of the other even though they are aware their cat-and-mouse game may end in violence.

Reviews
BootDigest

Such a frustrating disappointment

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YouHeart

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

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MoPoshy

Absolutely brilliant

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PiraBit

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

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parkerrodney

With Robert Dinero, Al Pachino, Jon Voight and Val Kilmer headlining this movie, Heat is an intense police crime drama which capitalizes on its great screenplay, acting, production and directing. Many police dramas, particularly those of this era, have well developed story lines which fully engage the viewer in the main plot as well as the lives of the main characters. Although, at its core, Heat is a cops and robbers movie, what makes it special is the intensity of the dysfunctional personal relationships which Pachino, Dinero and Kilmer have with the women in their lives, and the cat and mouse game play between Pachino, the L.A. Police Lieutenant brining the "heat" to Dinero and his team of technically proficient and professional bank robbers. The movie starts, not with a bank heist, but with the heist of bearer bonds from an armored car which results in the death of three guards raising the stakes of the crime from that of armed robbery to homicide for all parties concerned and putting Pachino on their trail. But less about bank robbing and more about the lives of Dinero and Pachino, one of the movies high drama points is when their cat and mouse game results in their meeting over a cup of coffee in a diner. During this meetin Pachino recounts Dinero's criminal resume and stays in the penitentiary, to which Dinero states that he's, "not going back." The two also speak candidly about what they each do in terms of chosen professions and how neither of them lives the regular life of "barbeques and ball games," and healthy relationship, and that this is the life they prefer. During this meeting the men share common perspectives on how they feel about what they do, and what they will have to do, even to each other, if it comes to that point. And we know, this point is coming. This scene demonstrates just how good these actors have perfected their crafts, as they convince the viewer that adversaries can have mutual respect for one another. Heat follows the same pattern of many movies of this type, where we know how this is going to end - in the game of cops and robbers, the cops always win, and the robbers always make mistakes, errors in judgement and betray each other for any number of reasons. In the law and order aspect of the film there are casualties on both sides. But it is the casualties, drama and betrayal in the personal lives of the characters which keeps us glued to our seats. As the movie reaches a climax, we see the wreckage coming. Pachino is in pursuit, even as his wife cheats on him and his step daughter attempts to commit suicide. Kilmer's wife seeks to sell him out to the LAPD, and changes her mind, and Dinero who in the process of escaping with his love interest must make a detour to kill one last person who betrayed him. This unplanned, undisciplined reckless and impulsive act we know will lead to Dinero's undoing, as his execution results in police, fire descending upon his location and him leaving the scene of foot with his love interest watching him take off. The closing scene is a foot chase between cop and robber as Dinero attempts to get to the airport to make meet his connection and make his getaway. The airport scene is unremarkable, as the chase ends with Pachino shooting Dinero. As Dinero lay dying on the ground, Pachino grabs Dinero's hand as Dinero tells him, "I told you I'm not going back," to which Pachino replies, "yeah." If you like classic crime dramas, without all the special effects, shiny objects, stunts and computer graphics, "Heat" is for you. Make no mistake about it. As entertaining as "Heat" is it is a film of human tragedy. It is the wreckage of human relationships where women pay a significant price for loving the men that they love. It is hard not to feel a women's pain as it front and center in almost every interaction.

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wisneskilife

Movies aren't made like this anymore. Between an all-star cast, incredible character development, and dialogue you'll always remember, Heat is a movie you'll rank as one of the greatest. Heat is not a movie about the battle between cops and robbers; it's a movie about how virtually the same two people can find themselves struggling to maintain success at different ends of the spectrum. You won't be disappointed. Go ahead and buy two copies.

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damonlaycox

Reminded me a lot of Armored Car Robbery: extremely well done. This color noir ranks up there with the classic black and whites!! Furthermore, what a cast to implement Michael Mann's vision.

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Lars Lendale

This is probably one of the most far-fetched movies and wasted casts of all time. It starts with a heavy heist, spectacular but right from the beginning, you can tell that this picture is going to out-smart itself, with cheesy soundtrack and ridiculous slow pace. The whole theme of the movie, is let's make these vilains so damn smart, let's show how intelligent they are and let's make sure the cops repeat it 15 times so that the viewer gets it....BORING ! Why would a team of gangsters hire somebody off the street they never worked with until the last moment ? And why wouldn't McCauley just gun down the other thief in the van and get rid of him, instead of trying to pay him his share TO THEN kill him in the middle of a parking lot ??? Where is the sense in that ! Why give him a meeting in a cafe, give him his money but then plan to kill him ? Oh my goodness this makes no sense at all. For a gang of pros they really know how to screw up like amateurs if this is going to be the theme. And then the cops, they start off as a team of tools, who can't get any information by their own department but need cons on parole or ex jail birds and check this out, Vincent schedules a meeting with Albert an informant who for some reason has his brother coming into town (why would Vincent agree to visit his brother anyway?) from Phoenix and he holds some really special information about the current case he's investigating. Wow, just like that, an outsider from Phoenix knows exactly the authors of a big heist by lucky fortune because he once met an ex-jail bird in custody, right in the middle of some street. Who wrote this script ? This is bad, this is far fetched, this is a draft, this is not a script. How can the police or the FBI not have a list of cons working in a perimeter instead of going through informants who's dialogues make no sense ! Man this is the way to make Police look absolutely useless. So just like that by recognizing the word "slick", the LAPD then manages to identify several gang members without really revealing it to us, considering how appalling they are we have our doubts. But even with a team spying on them the gangsters still manage to outsmart the cops by spying on them as well !But there are too many shortcuts in this movie, I don't understand how the Police suddenly gets the bank heist information at the last minute, gets there in time and then not just fire one gun shot but at least a thousand of them in the middle of the street (lucky pedestrians) from some narcotic agent who turned heel, makes no sense to me, and they still lose out on the two criminals. Never understood the diner scene and the confrontation, especially to talk about nothing and a cop trying to convince a criminal not to commit a crime like that makes sense. Why does the gang who seemed so determined to kill Waingro forget him for so long and how the hell does he get Trejo's adresse ?But the shooting is the most outrageous scene of all, there is no way that the police can risk flying bullets and crossfiring kill pedestrians in the middle of a gun-shooting -- just let the criminals go and sacked them in a turn or whatever but don't stand there stray fire impulsively, this is absolutely ill-advised. This scene is completely nuts. If you did not secure the perimeter before it is impossible to get into this kind of a shooting, this is cowboy stuff, not to mention the moment where Vincent shoots Cerrito holding a little girl hostage in the head. And even after that scene, there's still a good 45 min, the movie is way too long, doesn't move fast enough, lingers too much on useless dialogues that get the story nowhere, the scene with the new-boyfriend watching the TV and the suicide girl I mean who cares when you're 2hrs30min in the movie just get it going ! The structuration of the script is completely wrong, these scenes do not add anything to the picture and especially not at the climax of the script !And the ending ends exactly like the whole movie is, far-fetched, a final chase where Pacino has legs of a 30 year old in the body of a 55 year old and shares a fraternal truce with McCauley, it's just not good at all. This whole theme of outsmarting vilains and making them look more glamor than they are is quite lame and uninteresting. Too bad, a lot of good actors, could have projected something so much better.

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