Rating: 
Summary: James and Arnold, a daring duo
Review: A fun shoot-im-up with lots of good chase scenes and a few good plot twists. One of the things that make the movie is Arnold going around strait faced and like the terminator without the metal endoskeleton.
Thoroughly rotten bad guy and drug dealer Viktor Rostavile `Rosta' (Ed O'Toss) flees the USSR after encountering Capt. Ivan Danko `USSR State Police'. We find that he has big plans in Chicago where he plans to do a deal with Abdul Elijah `incarcerated Revolutionary political leader' (Brent Jennings). Abdul has an agenda of his own. Everyone's plans must be adjusted as Danko turns up in Chicago and teams up with Det. Sgt. Art Ridzik `Chicago Police Dept.' (James Belushi) to track down and retrieve Rosta.
In the process of tracking we meet all kinds of dangerous criminals and beautiful women. Ridzik almost gets killed because of his instant affinity with a blond wayward nurse; he is in for a surprise. We also have the obligatory vehicle chase scene with a different twist.
Aside from the main players there are quite a few recognizable character actors which add significantly the movie.
Rating:
Summary: US-USSR humor before the fall of the Wall
Review: A Soviet police officer is sent to Chicago to arrest and repatriate a Georgian criminal wanted in the Soviet Union of old. The meeting of this police officer with Chicago police forces and Chicago's crime world, is the source of an ever-present humor. This humor is absolutely hilarious, in a way, showing how the American world and the Soviet world can meet and lead to some kind of understanding, provided each one of the protagonists has a good sense of humor. This humor is developed in language, cultures, situations, actions, personalities and general behaviours. Every sequence has its humorous touch. This film does not lead to any deep reflexion or thinking, even if it is obvious it advocates for opposed cultures to meet and to cooperate in spite of all the wide differences between and among them. It is also obvious it is a film coming from the Soviet times, the end of the Cold War, and aging makes it even better for those of us who have known that period.
Rating:
Summary: Red Heat
Review: A stone-faced and disiplined Russian officer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) searches for a dangerous Russian drug-dealer who eluded him in a crackdown shootout (leaving his brother dead) and escaped to Chicago. He is forced to team up with a foul-mouthed and incompetant yet fearless Chicago cop (James Belushi) in order to find him.Although highly enjoyable and funny as the team is ridicoulously mismatched, there isn't quite enough action. If this doesn't bother you, you'll love "Red Heat". If you like this film, I would also recommend "48 Hours" Overall rating: 4 stars Rated R for violence, language, and nudity.
Rating: 
Summary: But it's a FUN 'Heat'...
Review: AAARRGH!!! I just bought the bare-bones DVD of this movie a couple months ago, and only in the last couple days did I discover that they put out a Special Edition platter! Okay, so I bought the bare-bones DVD at the local flea market for two bucks; I'm STILL a bit miffed over the whole sad affair. Especially when I take pride my ability to anticipate potential/upcoming DVD double-dip ploys (see my SYLT guide on this annoying phenomenon at www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/guides/guide-display/-/3CVFIEG84F2PF/ref=cm_aya_av.sylt_sylt/002-4146420-7131215). But this one just came outta left field, ya know? Who'd have ever thought they'd even bother to make an SE version of 'Red Heat' in the first place? 'Course, I never expected 'em to do a Special Edition release of 'The Running Man', either. I WAS expecting an SE version of `Predator', however. Not that that has to do with anything, mind you...
Unfortunately, for the most part I found this edition less than "special". The behind-the-scenes featurette wasn't particularly exciting, nor was the interview with the guy who played the main heavy in the film. And I almost dozed off halfway into the tribute to the movie's stunt coordinator. The theatrical trailer is your standard show-you-the-exciting-parts-and-clever-dialogue-without-giving-too-much-of-the-movie-away type deal. Fortunately, the TV promo spots-- which featured Arnie's and Jim Belushi's characters breakin' down the fourth wall-- had a nice touch of humor to `em. But the best piece was the retrospective on the movie's two producers, Carolco founders Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. They shared a couple anecdotes and memories that I found fairly interesting, the most notable part being their thoughts on the shoot in Moscow for the opening part of the movie.
On the upside, the improved picture clarity and sound separation is a bit better than what I experienced with the bare-bones DVD release. And the English subtitles are easier to read. Too bad they couldn't get someone-- the director, producers, principal actors, what-have-you-- to cut a feature-length commentary track for this.
That having been said, on to the movie itself:
There's nothin' like an over-the-top Schwarzenegger vehicle to get me over my 80s action flick D.T.s! Sure, 'Red Heat' can be pretty hokey at times-- take Arnie's weird attempt at a Russian accent, for example. Except for switchin' his Vs with Ws like Chekov from 'Star Trek' (bet'cha ten-to-one Walter Koenig actually helped him out with his "accent"), he sounds pretty much the same as he always did... only with more of a monotone, if such a thing is possible. And his emoting of anger (the only emotion most of his characters seem capable of doing) is just as bad as ever. Needless to say, I love every campy moment of it!
Then there's Jim Belushi, the comedic side of this preposterous fish-out-of-water buddy-cop story as he plays the kinda character he does better than almost anybody: a wise-@$$ who's always got some kinda smart-aleck comeback for everything. Ya know, kinda like Bill Murray, except a bit beefier, thereby making him a more suitable action-film sidekick. Not only does he help the main man out by tracking down a Soviet drug dealer through the mean streets of Chicago, he also helps set up the smattering of culture-clash gags going throughout the movie for his stoic partner to knock down... and vice-versa. And just when ya thought all that 'glastnost' and 'perestroika' stuff wasn't gonna work out...
And what's an Arnie flick without a few hilariously implausible action scenes? They save the best for last here as both the bad guy and the good guys do a charter bus chase & game of 'chicken' through a seedy area of the windy city, with one of the buses meetin' up with a train. Warner Bros. would lift the latter part of this action sequence and do it a lot better in "The Fugitive" movie several years later. Which I'm sure was their revenge for 'Red Heat' lifting the infamous 'back-lit Dirty Harry emerging from the shadows to take on the bad guys at the amusement park' climax from "Sudden Impact" and using it as part of Arnie's one-on-one "High Noon"-type shootout with the main heavy. Adding to this amusing development was the fact that our Austrian hero used a .44 Magnum revolver to mete out final justice. Coincidence? I think NOT...
Speakin' of the .44 Magnum: there was one shootout scene where Arnie fired off more than six shots with the gun without reloading once! Even Dirty Harry hadda reload every once in a while! How d'ya think he came up with that "Did I fire six shots... or only five?" routine?! Sheesh-- whatever happened to realism & plausibility in action flicks, huh?! I swear...
'Late
Rating:
Summary: Arny goes East
Review: Actually you can't rate this movie 3 stars, because the fair rating will be 1 or 5 and will depend on how you feel toward trash movies in general. Well it's a Trash film with a capital T. Not a bit of truth but to see Schwartz trying to pronounce russian words is a true delight (especially when you're Russian). Another thing to check out is Savely Kramarov, one of the most popular Soviet comedy stars, who after emigrating hasn't done anything worth. But I would certainly advise to see this film as here Arny shows us the beginning of what we saw later in True lies.
Rating:
Summary: RED HEAT Movie Review!
Review: Ah-nuld and Jim Belushi join forces as buddy cops from two different sides of the world. Schwarzennegger is a stiff cop from Moscow and Belushi is the wise-cracking Chicago cop forced to babysit him as they track down the Russian drug dealer who ironically murdered both of their partners. There's a whole lot of cursing, violence, Gina Gershon as a chain-smoking dance teacher, Peter Boyle as a short-tempered police captain, and Laurence Fishburne as a geeky liuetenant who plays it by the book. There's also that always entertaining "opposites attract" buddy formula that we all love so much. Arnold fans will love, so will buddy cop movie fanatics, but cinematic art critics might want to look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: But it's a FUN "Heat"...
Review: Ahh... nothin' like an over-the-top Schwarzenegger vehicle to get me over my 80s action flick D.T.s! And ya gotta admit, 'Red Heat' can be pretty hokey at times. Take Arnie's weird attempt at a Russian accent, for example. Except for switchin' his Vs with Ws like Chekov from 'Star Trek' (bet'cha ten-to-one Walter Koenig actually helped him out with his "accent"), he sounds pretty much the same as he always did... only with more of a monotone, if such a thing is possible. And his emoting of anger (the only emotion most of his characters seem capable of doing) is just as bad as ever. Needless to say, I love every campy moment of it! Then there's Jim Belushi, the comedic side of this preposterous fish-out-of-water buddy-cop story as he plays the kinda character he does better than almost anybody: a wise-@$$ who's always got some kinda smart-aleck comeback for everything. Ya know, kinda like Bill Murray, except a bit beefier, thereby making him a more suitable action-film sidekick. Not only does he help the main man out by tracking down a Soviet drug dealer through the mean streets of Chicago, he also helps set up the smattering of culture-clash gags going throughout the movie for his stoic partner to knock down... and vice-versa. And just when ya thought all that 'glastnost' and 'perestroika' stuff wasn't gonna work out... And what's an Arnie flick without a few hilariously implausible action scenes? They save the best for last here as both the bad guy and the good guys do a charter bus chase & game of 'chicken' through a seedy area of the windy city, with one of the buses meetin' up with a train. Warner Bros. would lift the latter part of this action sequence from this flick and do it a lot better in "The Fugitive" movie several years later. Which I'm sure was their revenge for 'Red Heat' lifting the infamous 'back-lit Dirty Harry emerging from the shadows to take on the bad guys at the amusement park' climax from "Sudden Impact" and using it as part of Arnie's one-on-one "High Noon"-type shootout with the main heavy. Adding to this amusing development was the fact that our Austrian hero used a .44 Magnum revolver to mete out final justice. Coincidence? I think NOT... Speakin' of the .44 Magnum: there was one shootout scene where Arnie fired off more than six shots with the gun without reloading once! Even Dirty Harry hadda reload every once in a while! How d'ya think he came up with that "Did I fire six shots... or only five?" routine?! Sheesh-- whatever happened to realism in action flicks, huh?! I swear... BTW this DVD includes the movie both in widescreen and pan-&-scan aspect ratios. Personally, I could care less whether or not I watch this in one format or the other, but at least the disc's producers had the common courtesy to give you, the Arnie-action-movie-loving DVDphile, a choice in the matter. And if you're deaf or hard of hearing, here's a bit of warning: the subtitles don't always completely match the spoken dialogue. So if ya really wanna know what's bein' said, you'd better have the screenplay handy, or learn to read lips... 'Late
Rating: 
Summary: Arnold at his best!
Review: Arnold does a great job playing a strict, disciplined Russian cop on the trail of a big Russain drug-lord. James Belushi does a good job of playing a fearleas, but undisciplined cop. It has a good plot, Arnold and Belushi should go down as one of the great tag teams of action movies, besides Lethal Weapon.
Rating:
Summary: Mayhem and Carnage and Arnold!
Review: Arnold Schwartzenegger in the role of humorless, ultra-disciplined Soviet police-captain Vanya Danko, teamed with Chicago PD screw-up Art Ritsek (Jim Belushi), to track a Georgean drug kingpin... this is one of Arnold's greatest, but least-appreciated, action-films. The best scenes take place in Russia, in the banya (public bath), over the rooftops around Red Square, in the mafiya cafe. Arnold's Russian, spoken with his Austrian accent, is pretty terrific! What impressed me was the film's close attention to detail: Even Danko's handwriting and numbers were authentically Russian-style. The machismo of the personal battle between Ivan Danko and the smuggler was intensely Russian, as was Danko's unswerving conviction of Soviet superiority. His terse correction of the hotel clerk's question "Is [Viktor] another Russian, like you?" Danko: "Soviet.", is right-on -- Georgeans are not Russians, although many Americans don't know that. The scripting of a Georgean as the loathesome criminal is actually quite revealing, and surely a reflection of the film's "official" Russian input . Despite the grimness of the plot and Arnold's character, there is plenty of dark humor, mainly provided by Belushi's portrayal of undisciplined officer Ritsek. The humor frequently contrasts the strictly indoctrinated Soviet structure with the (to Danko) near-anarchy of American freedom. Much of the mayhem and carnage wrought during the process of Danko's personal war defies credibility; as Ritsek puts it: "Why aren't there any cops around when you need one!" The action genre's obligatory high-speed chase scene was ludicrous, yet appropriately Russian (everything Russian always seems so much "bigger"...). And the protagonists' exchange in the end, in which Vanya gets the better deal, is also typically Russian -- and proves that Danko is not so humorless after all. By the way, this movie (like all of Arnold's action-films) is extremely popular here, where it has been dubbed into the Russian language. Ironically, in the russkiy version, all the obscenities have been deleted from the dialogue.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as 1st release
Review: Don't bother wasting your money if you think you are upgrading like I did. The earlier ARTISAN release is still much better than this special edition. The image is better and ALSO the sound. I don't know what Lions gate thought they were doing, but remastered? no. I compared both several times before writing this even though I only had to compare once. Might as well wait for a HD DVD to come out, this is a waste unless you want the additional features.
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