Heat
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Movie Reviews of Heat
Movie Review: Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
The plot of Heat is not new. A smart thief and his crew are trying to pull a major heist and when a master cop gets wind, the film becomes about the chase.
In Heat, watching this chase takes around three hours, but that is a plus. Michael Mann makes a spacious film, recalling 1970s crime drama. This movie is really not about the action--though it is contained here--but about the characters and what leads them to the action they find themselves in
Both Al Picino, detective, and Robert De Niro, thief, are the best at their game. Since they are both brilliant--either could do the other's job--Heat becomes about the slow, meticulous creep to the final bank job. There is a long gunfight: explosive violence at its cinematic best, but this is hardly the point.
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Heat features a thief who pulls his whole crew off a middle-of-the-night job when he hears a small bump no one else does--a careful pro for a careful film. He was right, too, and one guy leaning on a wall in a truck blows the whole stakeout. There is no margin for error and this cuts both ways.
Heat also has a parolee who goes on the bank job after his new boss at a diner tells him 25% of his pay kicks back and he'll violate him if he does not cooperate.
Small details, but in crime, life rises and falls on little details, and what keeps the idiots in jail and the pros out are the choices made in such situations. Mann shows this all with incredible economy--it is at times like those three stroke oriental paintings that say everything by leaving more out than they include.
So you get drawn in just watching both cops and crooks work and live and how this impacts their lives. You are so captivated by the intelligence, anything they do makes you look harder. The length becomes essential.
Great film for snowy days.
Movie Review: Heat is HOT!
Summary: 5 Stars
It is not often that a movie will stay in print for over ten years. The few that do are usually classics from Hollywood's golden age, blockbusters or multiple Oscar films. Heat has none of these credentials. No Oscars, while it did well at the box office it is not a top grosser and it is not from the golden age. What can this film offer that keeps it in print?
First, this is a superior caper movie. The screenplay and dialog are first rate with no false notes.
Second, the casting is wonderful! This is the first pairing of De Niro & Pacino, two excellent actors that are always fun to watch. One possible disappointment is how little time the two are together. After that is an inspired supporting cast. Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Diane Venora, Natalie Portman & Amy Brenneman are uniformly excellent in their roles. Each one is completely believable with no false notes. Add to this a host of faces that you recognize at once and you have one of the most professional move cast ever.
Third, the action sequences are outstanding! The armored car robbery is very well done. The main shootout is one of the best on film. It ranks with Bonnie & Clyde or The Wild Bunch.
Last, you get a lot of move for your money. This is not one of those 88-minute quickies that rush from title to end credits. They take the time to develop characters, make them real, tell the story and add a WOW factor. The subplots work and add to the characters and the main story. However, the movie never drags, your attention never falters as this excellent cast works with an excellent script.
Movie Review: Superlative
Summary: 5 Stars
PLOT
A gang of elite thieves are eventually overcome by elite detectives. Loved ones on both sides are affected by the process, as are various underworld figures and the Los Angeles public.
REVIEW
John Walker, during his turn as sole contributor to Halliwell's Film Guide, docked this film several marks for creating an inappropriate allegory between the lives and minds of criminals and the lives and minds of police. Yet this allegory does not sufficiently taint Michael Mann's intricate, character-driven and highly developed crime thriller.
An epic cast play rugged, cool-headed leading men; their smart, feisty, genuinely attractive women; and a chorus of sleazy, doom-destined underworld figures. In particular, Al Pacino's character displays some hilarious neuroses as the damaged lead detective; while the sleek, understated chemistry of the core criminal gang, played by Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore and Danny Trejo, is superior even to that of the Wild Bunch.
Mann finds time to display his seasoned knowledge of police procedure and criminal code, while acknowledging the inescapable forces of love, retribution and chaos. Above all, however, the film is to be commended for several key action sequences that are guaranteed to greatly excite the vast majority of discerning viewers.
SPECIAL MENTIONS
Michael Mann for writing.
Michael Mann for directing.
Movie Review: going for the cinematic jugular
Summary: 5 Stars
The scene that precedes Neil & Vincent's first meeting--the audacious tracking and interception of Neil's vehicle on an L.A. freeway to the soundtrack of Moby's 'New Dawn Fades'--is utterly superfluous but pure cinematic art. This and other flourishes--like when Neil and Eady drive through the bright tunnel symbolizing a cleansing of the past and a new beginning, if for only a brief moment--defines Michael Mann's movies and sets him apart from other action filmmakers.
The writing is terrific. Neil and his close-knit associates bring into their midst a bad seed (Waingro), whose escape from Neil at the truck stop enables Waingro to deliver Trejo to Van Zant, who then tortures Trejo to learn about the bank robbery. This tip to the police leads to Michael's death in the downtown shootout. Neil, realizing the damage Waingro has wrought on his friends and their families and his own failure to kill Waingro earlier, makes the fateful detour to the Hotel Marquis, which leads to his own death at the hands of Vincent.
My only question, and it's a small one: How did Waingro find Van Zant? Neil doesn't know who the owner of the stolen securities are until Nate tells him, AFTER Waingro has already escaped. I guess Waingro just gets a tip off the street, or maybe I've missed something.
One of my favorite films that has only gotten better with age.
Movie Review: My Favorite Movie !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
THIS MOVIE IS VIOLENT - but, if you can get past that, you will find a truly AWESOME cynematic experience and epic performances by an all-star cast; it is an entirely new genre: it's not the traditional "cop" movie (like Lethal Weapon or Die Hard, where we instinctively root for the law), nor is it the traditional "gangster" movie (like Casino or Goodfellas, where we find ourselves sympathetic to the "bad guys"). Rather, time is split in this film, focusing almost equally on the lives of the "good" and the "bad" guys. So, who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist here? We see "good" guys sometimes doing "bad" things, and we see "bad" guys trying to do what would otherwise be considered the "right" thing. At its essence, Heat is a story about two powerful, determined men on opposite sides of the law: Neil is a career thief, who has never allowed anything/anyone into his life that he couldn't leave behind in an instant, if he felt the heat closing in; and Vincent, a driven detective, whose devotion to his job leaves him no time for his family. The film shows us how each man is the source of the other's misery - but when they collide, neither one is willing back down! An all-star cast + a "signature" Michael Mann ending = a very powerful movie!