City Heat

City Heat casts two of Hollywood's biggest box office draws of the past forty years in the same film as different types. The film is set in Kansas City of 1933 which richly earned the reputation it had back in the day of a wide open town. This was in fact the Kansas City of Tom Pendergast. Clint Eastwood is a by the book and honest city detective, not an easy thing to be in Kansas City of that era. Burt Reynolds is a former cop who's now a roguish private eye. The two of them have a history, they like each other well enough, but they also grate on each other's nerves. As all good private eyes have, Burt has a cool and efficient Effie like secretary in Jane Alexander and a partner in Richard Roundtree. Burt's one of the few back in the day who would even consider going into business with a black person. But Roundtree's playing a lone hand involving a runaway bookkeeper and a war between two rival mobs headed by Rip Torn and Tony LoBianco. For his troubles Roundtree winds up dead and in the same tradition of Sam Spade, when your partner's killed you do something about it. But it's also Eastwood's homicide case and like it or not the two are forced into an alliance of inconvenience, kicking and screaming right up to the end of the picture. The plot also calls for rescuing Alexander who Eastwood fancies, Madeline Kahn who's Burt's girlfriend and chanteuse Irene Cara. City Heat is not at the top of the list of films by Eastwood and Reynolds. But they've got nothing to be ashamed of here. The film glides effortlessly from comedy to drama and both guys get their innings to show why they're the superstars they are. You could do a lot worse than City Heat for your viewing pleasure.

source: City Heat

"City Heat" was released a week before "The Cotton Club" in December, 1984. It's basically a farce version of that film, set in Kansas City. You would think that with Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood this would be a solid gangster comedy, if not great, but you'd be wrong. The opening scene where Reynolds gets in a brawl in a diner while Eastwood coolly sits nearby keys off that "City Heat" is not meant to be taken seriously; in fact, it's downright goofy. It's not a good start and the film never recovers. The movie's only 93 minutes long, but it seems a lot longer. Something about it doesn't click. The characters are cartoons so it's next to impossible to care about them. The problem isn't Reynolds or Eastwood, as they have their usual charisma. The problem is the farcical nature of the material and the convoluted plot. Still, it's amusing at times so it's mildly worthwhile if you're a fan of the stars, just don't expect anything all that good. GRADE: D+ or C-

This movie is part of a 3-for-1 DVD set of Clint Eastwood movies. None of them arise above the "B" movie genre. Set in the 1930s, here Clint Eastwood is Lieutenant Speer, normally very laid back, to the point where he can watch others beating each other up with no involvement, until ... they cause his coffee or drink to spill. Then he becomes a fighting machine. Burt Reynolds is his friend and investigator Mike Murphy, who is constantly the butt of "short" jokes next to Eastwood. Other notables include Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn, and Rip Torn. Plus, the singer Irene Cara of "Flashdance" fame plays a singer Ginny Lee. As a movie, overall, it isn't very good. The story is confusing, almost impossible to figure out who is doing what and for what reason. There are lots of fights and lots of shooting, but hardly anyone gets hit with bullets. But as a dark comedy it works pretty well, for the actors in it.

I laughed the whole time. My father STILL quotes this flick ad infinitum. Mostly the 'You'll always be shorty to me' line. This was like one of the Airplane films played more seriously. The action scenes were done well too. It was difficult seeing classic cars get ruined though. Clint and Burt made a good team. Rip Torn and Madeline Kahn (RIP) in great support. And watch for William Sanderson in a small role. But the lines made this film. And for once Burt's hammy acting and Clint's mumbling worked in its favor. Best line? Clint talks to a guy in a car. 'You shouldn't lay in the street. You might get hit by a train.' 'What train?' 'The next one I hear coming.' And, 'I don't like you're ilk. You know what that is?' 'Yeah, it's a deer.' 'Well if you don't leave, I'm gonna shoot me an ilk.' Groaners all. But I loved it.

I didn't find this movie all that bad. It is merely mediocre. Unfortunately there is nothing in this movie that we haven't seen dozens of times before. Burt is sophomoric and Clint is stereotypical Clint. Good TV movie but not really worth renting unless you have seen everything else.