Rating: Summary: Perfection! Review: Simply one of the best movies of all time. Outstanding storyline, brilliant acting, superb cinematograpy and spectacular soundeffects along with the best directed and edited shootout ever caught on film. Every minute worth watching and highly recommended. A must have!
Rating: Summary: A TRULY CLASSY PERFORMANCE FROM 3 AMAZING GUYS Review: If you every get the chance watch this film, do. I got it because Val Kilmer was in it but Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are just so fantastic as the good cop and also good baddie... It is a truly moving film, right to the end when you don't really know what's going to happen, and leaving you with a lump in your throat.. or like me crying. Val puts in a brilliant performance, as usual, complimenting the other two film giants. He can still hold his own even if the long haired ponytail could have been better. Don't be put off with the length of it because it's worth every minute.
Rating: Summary: Great movie.. not terribly great DVD Review: Okay.. now the technical details reviewer gave the picture 5 out of 5 but one of the technical details reviewers gave Highlander 3.5 out of 5 when it is easily worse than a 3rd generation VHS tape. So I don't know what's wrong with the technical details reviews, but they are incorrect. Anyhow.. the movie is fantastic. There are almost no extras (3 trailers), but the picture quality is pretty good except for the really high black level. I can't actually adjust my set low enough that the 'black' doesn't look like dark brown. Other than that, there are no motion artifacts that I could see except for some shimmering in very dark textures (because of that bad black level). otherwise..
Rating: Summary: Pacino, De Niro, Kilmer......need I say more? Review: I love this film. I hate the soundtrack. I can think of so many people who could've made a killer soundtrack to this film instead of whoever they chose. It's a long film but well worth the ride.
Rating: Summary: A very good movie Review: This movie was one of the best films of the ninties! I t had action, drama, and romance. I thad very good action scenes. One of Al Pacino's best. I t's about a cop who's marrige is going down hill is trying to stop a robber. My brother didn't like it but he's a ediot. When they showed it on TV it was bad because they cut out all the action scenes. The director hated it so much that when thy showed on Tv he didn't want to yoose his name on the credits. It was one of the best dramas.
Rating: Summary: One Of The Best Cops-And-Robbers Flick Out There! Review: This is truly a gangbuster cops-and-robbers flick, featuring one of the best shootouts ever filmed. Supposedly, the bank heist shootout was loosely inspired by a real-life North Hollywood shootout between two gunmen and the police. This is one shootout you want wide-screen t.v., and a great sound system for. Heat has a great cast, and the script cleverly parallels the lives and efforts of DeNiro's crew of highly-skilled robbers, and Pacino's crew of detectives. At the same time, though, and despite the similarities between Pacino's Hanna, and DeNiro's McCauly, there is a counterpoint within this parallel that keep them interesting, namely Pacino's witty, flamboyant, and compassionate personality, and DeNiro's dark, quiet, and violent one. Mann manages to make the bad guys somewhat sympathetic characters (at least not one-dimensionally evil) without having to downplay their undeniably abhorrent acts of violence. This is a balance that is always hard to strike, and rarely struck with the perfection it is here. The script is well-layered, with action and drama. Tension doesn't flag. This is a must-see film.
Rating: Summary: Superior thriller with some depth Review: How can a film starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro be bad? It really can't because they would never approve the script or director. By that I mean, they would pass. The fact that neither of them passed says something. At the very least, this is a pretty good film. And it is. In fact I think this will be one of the defining films of the nineties. I suspect it will be viewed in distant eras and scrutinized for clues about the American psyche, circa 1995. Some will see a fantasy glorifying professional criminals and the men who fight them. This will be true. Others will see a morality tale about good and evil played out with women in the background, but actually in the forefront of our consciousness. I wish this part had been more fully developed. Eady, played by Amy Brennaman, chooses the man who excites her (De Niro) and ends up with nothing (but she had an exhilarating ride). Charlene, played by Ashley Judd, swaps her men around, searching for the best deal, the one who will best provide for her and the one she can best manipulate. Justine, played by Diane Venova, cannot help but choose the workaholic super cop (Pacino) because he is so superior to any other man she's ever met, particularly to her first husband, the uncaring father of her adolescent girl. But her life will never be secure because he is always leaving her alone so he can chase criminals because that is what he really loves. Some of this is a mafia-style film without the mafia. We have the same worshipful attitude toward those who thumb their noses at society and give orders that must be obeyed, super macho guys who bond together and follow the code, guys who can out shoot and out fight mere mortals. This is part of the fantasy. We see the expensive cars and the dinners with the beautiful women and the adorable children at fancy restaurants as part of the booty of being men who aren't afraid to take what they want regardless of risk. These men will always have the pick of the herd because, if successful, their mates know they will get a lot of the goodies of this world, and if unsuccessful, there's always the next risk taker who might succeed. This is a complex film and I would have to view it twice to make sure it all fits. Being a thriller, I know off hand that it won't. Thrillers unravel. But life is too short to view this twice, so I will say I wasn't offended by the unlikely events: the fact that the touted bank robbery scene was like a war scene filmed with surround sound effects and jittery camera immersions and bullets flying everywhere-semi-plausible even if nobody seemed to run out of ammunition. The robbery of the armored truck was nicely done except that the tire-puncturing chain strewn across the street for the pursuing cop cars seemed a bit stagy, and the whole thing required the most exquisite timing. In the uncompleted break-in there was a familiar "Mission Impossible" tension-filled race against the clock that seemed authentic, but probably wasn't. The Los Angeles environs, especially the final scene at LAX, provided atmospheric locales that made everything seem real and immediate. Where I think director Michael Mann went astray was his insistence on giving the audience the expected confrontation between the two big stars, a subplot that reached its low point with the phony bonding scene with De Niro the bad guy and Pacino the good guy having coffee together and exchanging dreams like blood brothers. This mutual admiration society was right out of some WWII film in which the American general admires the courage and cunning of his Nazi counter part and vice versa. De Niro's final line was a little corny, but Pacino's squeezing his hand reminded me of the way a big cat lovingly licks its prey after killing it. Bottom line though, Pacino and De Niro made us believe, or at least suspend judgment for awhile, and that is what Hollywood is all about.
Rating: Summary: An acting tour de force in Michael Mann's Morality Play Review: The movie directed by Micheal Mann is an epic masterpiece. The understated direction seemed to enhance the DeNiro and Pacino performances. The movie seemed very real and gritty. DeNiro played a character that you may find oddly compelling. He was at times no different than a tough Wall Street executive - except he settled business with a gun - sometimes. And Pacino played a character that the only real difference between him and DeNiro was that Al's character wore a badge. Both were men of honor. One of them choose a path that conflicted with the values of society. Does that make him (DeNiro) any less honorable? The acting and dialogue were believable. The action scenes were intensely dramatic. The bottom line: the movie is only for those who like their protagonists/antagonists real. If you're expecting to see heroic feats performed by one dimensional people then skip this movie. Also fair warning: the movie clocks in at almost 3 hours! Lucky your VCR/DVD player has a pause button. However the movie so involves you, I'll doubt you'll need it.
Rating: Summary: One Star Short Of A Classic Review: What a cracker of a movie. Well done to Michael Mann. De Niro & Pacino are outstanding in this top class movie with support players Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Jon Voight, Michael Madsen et al merely adding their considerable talents to a great action thriller. Previous reviewers have laready drawn attention to the bank robbery scene as being one of the most impressive on film. I can only recall the station scene from 'The Untouchables' as being equally memorable. The interplay between De Niro & Pacino in the now famous 'coffee scene' is a collision of two major modern talents and equally impressive for totally different reasons - the grudging respect shines through. Professional is a largely overworked term but it applies throughout this movie - both from a sorytelling as well as an acting and production point of view. It misses 5 stars only because of the director's introduction of a 'neat, tucked away' ending with the pre-requisite corpse. Throughout the movie De Niro remains steadfast to his philosophy that he would walk away without looking back if the heat were on. I believe we should have rolled credits immediately after the 'unspken realisation' where he and his newly acquired lover/companion realise the heat is truly on and that it is over for them by quirk of circumstance. Was it really necessary to add anything else - least of all a tedious chase onto the runway of the airport? It had all been said with great subtlety and impact already.
Rating: Summary: Awsome! best film of the 90's Review: Ignore all moans and groans about Heat being too long, because in all honesty i couldn't get enough of it. Michael Mann has to be one of the most underated directors of our time, his visual style, themes and atmosphere in all his films are incredible, he got snubbed at this years oscars, though Heat still has to be his untouched masterpiece. Al Pacino and Robert Deniro are both tremendous as the two leeds, two of the greatest actors both one on one in a classic ying and yang structured crime thriller, Heat being the only film since the godfather part 2 with them cast together, though it doesn't stop there! Some great supporting performances from val kilmer, ashley judd, tom sizemore, jon voight etc, etc. I can't actually find a negative aspect of this movie, the dialogue, the music, the sub-plots, the camera work, all briliant. The shoot-out alone is worth the cost of the dvd. Both sound and picture quality are top notch on the disc, shame there wern't any extra features besides a couple of trailers. This film ranks among my favourates, a awsome powerhouse ride of a movie, soooo worth buying....see it and love it.
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