Heat (1995):

Starring:

Al Pacino - Lt. Vincent Hanna

Robert De Niro - Neil McCauley

Val Kilmer - Chris Shiherlis

Jon Voight - Nate

Tom Sizemore - Michael Cheritto

Diane Venore - Justine Hanna

Amy Brenneman - Eady

Ashley Judd - Charlene Shiherlis

Mykelti Williamson - Sergeant Drucker

Wes Studi - Detective Casals

Ted Levine - Bosko

Dennis Haysbert - Donald Breedan

William Fichtner - Roger Van Zant

Natalia Portman - Lauren Gustafson

Director:

Michael Mann (Public Enemies; Last Of The Mohicans; Collateral)

Rotten Tomatoes: 86%

Flixster: 92%

Synopsis:

A successful career criminal considers getting out of the business after one last score, while an obsessive cop desperately tries to put him behind bars in this intelligent thriller written and directed by Michael Mann. Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is a thief who specializes in big, risky jobs, such as banks and armored cars. He's very good at what he does; he's bright, methodical, and has honed his skills as a thief at the expense of his personal life, vowing never to get involved in a relationship from which he couldn't walk away in 30 seconds. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is an L.A.P.D. detective determined to catch McCauley, but while McCauley's personal code has forced him to do without a wife and children, Hanna's dedication has made a wreck of the home he's tried to have; he's been divorced twice, he's all but a stranger to his third wife, and he has no idea how to reach out to his troubled step-daughter. While McCauley has enough money to retire and is planning to move to New Zealand, he loves the thrill of robbery as much as the profit, and is blocking out plans for one more job; meanwhile, he's met a woman, Eady (Amy Brenneman), whom he's not so sure he can walk away from.

Review:

A film that I had made several jokes about for a while but had never actually seen. Well now I have finally seen it. First off you have an incredible cast of leading me & a great supporting cast all the way throughout the film, even featuring some excellent cameos. The plot is well written, it's a great cat & mouse, cops & robbers film. Do I even need to say how great Pacino & De Niro are in it? I mean neither one of them did anything bad before the mid 2000's.... then they did some shit. The supporting cast is led by Jon Voight & Val Kilmer & Tom Sizemore all are good & fill out the main story lines well. You have on the cop side Mykelti Williamson & Buffalo Bill himself Ted Levine & probably one of the most famous Native American actors Wes Studi filling out Pacino's tactical force team. When the film is on, it's fucking ON, but I felt like it was watered down a little too much with all of the outside non cop drama stuff. The relationships between Pacino & his wife & between De Niro & his..... bang maid? definitely slow down the film, which is probably the deciding factor in the run time of it being 2h52mins. Good interactions between De Niro & Pacino are awesome, but at times can be incredibly slow moving. However, no matter how slow moving the first hour plus is, once you get to the incredible Los Angeles street shoot out scene, it's all been well worth it. Some AWESOME action & shoot em up just complete bad assery. But once all that is over with, it does slow down a slight bit, however now Pacino & De Niro are both pissed off, something that is always foresight into some angry, powerful acting from two of the greatest actors of all time. The movie keeps building & building to a climax that is good, but not great. Somewhat ties everything together, but still leaves a few things that were built to earlier in the film open or solved to easily. I had the idea in my head that this is what the ending of the movie would come down to & go in one of two directions. De Niro gets shot down by Pacino, or barely gets away while Pacino watches him get away. Overall had great acting, great action but was slow moving between action sequences. Cameos by Tom Noonan, Kevin Gage, Hank Azaria, Danny Trejo, THE Henry Rollins, Tone Loc & Pre-Fame Jeremy Piven.

87%

Main Acting: 15/15

Supporting Cast: 14/15

Plot: 8/10

Compared To The Genre: 9/10

Cinematography: 15/20

Intrigue: 16/20

Extra: 10/10