When Heat's casting director credit came on, I felt like standing up and applauding. This movie is LOADED with great actors, even in the smaller parts. Marketed as Al Pacino and Rovbert DeNiro FINALLY acting opposite each other, it also stars Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, John Voight, Ashley Judd, Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, William Fichtner, Dennis Haysbert, Hank Azaria, Danny Trejo, Tone Loc, and kiddie Natalie Portman! I mean geez! Even though it's a three-hour heist-cop picture, director Michael Mann never lets it get boring, and even relishes in showing us his characters' personal lives. A typical film might use one of these as a subplot, but personal lives are used as additional "heat" placed on the main characters. And Pacino-DeNiro going head to head? It seems there was a choice to have them play to type, but even if their characters behave very much like other characters they've played (extrovert and introvert), it's the chess game between the best cop and the best thief that makes Heat exciting. Deserves to be mentioned more when discussing awesome crime dramas.
the scene where pacino and de niro in the restaurant, never thought two people dining together might be more awesome and goosebump inducing than many of the action scenes in other movies
The dialogue was horrendous, made several degrees worse by Pacino delivering one of the most bizarre performances I've ever seen from him. It's not forgivable, especially considering the acting he's proven he can do, and that the character he's playing is little more than the well-trodden, workaholic cop with messy home life.
DeNiro was better, although he created a character so completely incapable of chemistry or romance that his relationship with Edie doesn't make a lick of sense throughout the entire film. Honestly, he doesn't even smile at her, they just fire off questions as if they're in some two-way interrogation–no back and forth–and after they've extracted enough information from each other they decide to start making out. What?
Other than the fact that I didn't find either of the main characters worthy of empathy, which is sort of huge, the film tried to go way too big. There are too many supporting characters and side stories, most of which are unnecessary and jarringly spliced in, and because of it few of the scenes flow at all. It would have been okay if the plot was competent enough to keep track of everything it introduces, but the pacing completely misappropriates its time. The result: the few great stories with some promise, which only needed patience to be masterfully developed, were severely truncated. As another commenter previously mentioned, what the hell happened to Val Kilmer? I guess that one scene was supposed to imply him leaving forever, despite the entire movie insisting that his wife meant everything to him?
Apart from a tiny handful of great scenes and shots that were well composed, Heat doesn't earn that much redemption. The score had the tendency to be both out of place and in your face, all the characters seemed to live in confusingly similar houses, and the movie had two obnoxious cases of "just forcibly embrace the rightfully emotional women until they do what you want."
Ultimately, I don't know how a film could drag so severely and still have such attention deficit, but this poorly executed mess manages to pull it off. Worth watching if you don't like DeNiro having emotions, enjoy Pacino speaking as though he's always on cocaine, and get off on watching male characters assert their dominance by randomly breaking shit in bursts of spontaneous and unprovoked anger.
It's bursting at the seams with star power, but you'd think that a movie with Pacino and De Niro squaring up against each other would be more entertaining than this. At nearly 3 hours long it touts itself like an epic crime drama but there isn't enough to keep interest for its bloated runtime. Pacino's acting is... well, over the top in a lot of ways and involved him shouting out lines that don't match his fiery delivery. De Niro takes a more subdued approach but rarely delves into territory that showcases his immense talent. The restaurant scene is without doubt the best of the bunch, along with one of the most bananas city gunfights in cinema. People working and living around the filming location must have thought that WW3 had broken out.
Add your comment
Comments 1 - 15 of 48
Siskoid
When Heat's casting director credit came on, I felt like standing up and applauding. This movie is LOADED with great actors, even in the smaller parts. Marketed as Al Pacino and Rovbert DeNiro FINALLY acting opposite each other, it also stars Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, John Voight, Ashley Judd, Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, William Fichtner, Dennis Haysbert, Hank Azaria, Danny Trejo, Tone Loc, and kiddie Natalie Portman! I mean geez! Even though it's a three-hour heist-cop picture, director Michael Mann never lets it get boring, and even relishes in showing us his characters' personal lives. A typical film might use one of these as a subplot, but personal lives are used as additional "heat" placed on the main characters. And Pacino-DeNiro going head to head? It seems there was a choice to have them play to type, but even if their characters behave very much like other characters they've played (extrovert and introvert), it's the chess game between the best cop and the best thief that makes Heat exciting. Deserves to be mentioned more when discussing awesome crime dramas.fkos
I agree with the masterpiece sentiments. I think that people will look back upon this film in decades to come and acknowledge it as a cinema great -.-soypinguinita
why the hate on this film? it's a masterpiecemysteryfan
freaking awesome movie, just WOWthe scene where pacino and de niro in the restaurant, never thought two people dining together might be more awesome and goosebump inducing than many of the action scenes in other movies
John Milton
One of my Greatest Movies EverFlicker
Uh, yeah. Very little of this film worked for me.The dialogue was horrendous, made several degrees worse by Pacino delivering one of the most bizarre performances I've ever seen from him. It's not forgivable, especially considering the acting he's proven he can do, and that the character he's playing is little more than the well-trodden, workaholic cop with messy home life.
DeNiro was better, although he created a character so completely incapable of chemistry or romance that his relationship with Edie doesn't make a lick of sense throughout the entire film. Honestly, he doesn't even smile at her, they just fire off questions as if they're in some two-way interrogation–no back and forth–and after they've extracted enough information from each other they decide to start making out. What?
Other than the fact that I didn't find either of the main characters worthy of empathy, which is sort of huge, the film tried to go way too big. There are too many supporting characters and side stories, most of which are unnecessary and jarringly spliced in, and because of it few of the scenes flow at all. It would have been okay if the plot was competent enough to keep track of everything it introduces, but the pacing completely misappropriates its time. The result: the few great stories with some promise, which only needed patience to be masterfully developed, were severely truncated. As another commenter previously mentioned, what the hell happened to Val Kilmer? I guess that one scene was supposed to imply him leaving forever, despite the entire movie insisting that his wife meant everything to him?
Apart from a tiny handful of great scenes and shots that were well composed, Heat doesn't earn that much redemption. The score had the tendency to be both out of place and in your face, all the characters seemed to live in confusingly similar houses, and the movie had two obnoxious cases of "just forcibly embrace the rightfully emotional women until they do what you want."
Ultimately, I don't know how a film could drag so severely and still have such attention deficit, but this poorly executed mess manages to pull it off. Worth watching if you don't like DeNiro having emotions, enjoy Pacino speaking as though he's always on cocaine, and get off on watching male characters assert their dominance by randomly breaking shit in bursts of spontaneous and unprovoked anger.
Pallium Invisibilitatem
A beautifully executed chess game....Cassiodoro
Michael Mann is a great directoransver
Marvelous sample of action&crime movie. Pacino and De Niro were perfect together with Michael Mann's directing. Definitely worth to watch...RockHopper92
Instant favorite. I was on the edge of my seat till the end.Oneironaut
Good movie, but I felt that the length could have been cut down a bit.Olli
awesome. 3 hours, and not one minute of it was boring.great acting. pacino and de niro are great together!
sybje999
One of the best movies ever mademartinkopperudandersen
Amazing movie! I went up cheering for De Niros character.DisneyStitch
It's bursting at the seams with star power, but you'd think that a movie with Pacino and De Niro squaring up against each other would be more entertaining than this. At nearly 3 hours long it touts itself like an epic crime drama but there isn't enough to keep interest for its bloated runtime. Pacino's acting is... well, over the top in a lot of ways and involved him shouting out lines that don't match his fiery delivery. De Niro takes a more subdued approach but rarely delves into territory that showcases his immense talent. The restaurant scene is without doubt the best of the bunch, along with one of the most bananas city gunfights in cinema. People working and living around the filming location must have thought that WW3 had broken out.Showing items 1 – 15 of 48