 |  | Awesome movie, but has some technical issues |  |
This is a great movie, don't get me wrong. The problem is though that I find myself having to constantly change the volume as I am watching it. Some of the dialogue seems practically silent so I turn it up, then they have loud music or a helicopter or something and bam, I think I've blown out my speakers. The movie is easily a five and this might just be me but having to constantly grab for the remote control when watching this movie has always taken away from the experience for me.
June 15, 2008Heat is one of the best movies ever! This special edition is definitely the version to buy because the extra materials like the story of the real Neal McCauley is AWESOME!
June 9, 2008 | | A character-driven masterpiece | |
I don't know I missed seeing this terrific film when it first came out, but somehow I did. It's a brilliantly written, beautifully acted, deeply involving cops and robbers story, starring Al Pacino as police Lt. Vincent Hanna, a loud-mouthed sleuth with an ex-wife (and a not-happy current spouse) who always gets his man, and Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley, extremely skilled professional heist man. Both are rather thoughtful and analytical and there's a great scene where they sit down in a coffee shop and wax philosophical about their antagonistic relationship. The scene in which the good guys are surveiling the bad guys, only to discover that they are being examined through binoculars in turn, is also first rate. Val Kilmer plays a thoroughly scary shooter -- who, quite unexpectedly, appears to escape in the end. There are numerous interpersonal relationships, between Kilmer and his long-suffering wife (Ashley Judd) who warns him away, between Hanna and his wife and his messed-up stepdaughter (Natalie Portman), and between McCauley and a completely innocent bystander whom he comes to care for but whom he is also willing to leave behind on thirty seconds notice. All the numerous supporting roles are also very nicely done.
May 28, 2008| | | A Michael Mann Crime epic | |
This is a great film. It's characters are rich, complex and dark. It's visuals are stunning and modern. And it has both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro churning out amazing performances. This is a crime epic that follows the lives of both the criminals and the cops. It relates the two sides and compares there moral codes, revealing their similarities. Heat is an amazingly complex character study. Every character is three dimensional and that makes the action that much more intense. Speaking of action Heat has several of the best action scenes on film including an amazing bank heist and shootout filmed in downtown L.A. This is a Michael Mann masterpiece I highly recommend it.
May 25, 2008Somebody, maybe Pauline Kael, talked about the pornography of violence. In that sense, Michael Mann makes pornographic films: very hard guys, very lovely women, very little dialog, and lots of automatic weapons fire and spattering blood sacks for the jaded audience. No actual humans need be portrayed, no actual interaction is therefore required; just pretty people banging away. Only Mann's films, pretending to be something other than what they are (not sure what, though), go on forever. At least porn's unpretentious and quick. Honest. Give it a try. Rent something XXX and compare it with "Heat." You'll see.
May 13, 2008More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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