Dead Heat

It's a shame but "Dead Heat" doesn't work. It has a likable cast but the material is weak. The action is okay but jokes aren't that funny. The special effects are hit and miss. The rest of the production has a cheapness to it that hurts the movie. I've seen "Dead Heat" a couple of times. It scratches an '80s itch but I wish it was better.

Dead Heat is over-the-top, but unmemorable. Lacking the requisite laughs or having any of the perks that would usually come with. I don't mind the premise and I wouldn't mind it being silly, if it was funny. Treat Williams and Darren McGavin are proven actors, so I see this as a wasted opportunity.

I attended a test screening of this film at UC San Diego. Every couple months a film would be test screened, and a bunch of marketing mooks from the studio, armed with clipboards, would hand out questionnaires after the film. Well, after most films. This was one of the worst films I'd ever seen. The gags are pathetic and unfunny. Who knows what they were smoking when they made this turkey, but it is a very, very bad movie with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. There's really no kind way to put it. About halfway through the screening somebody shouted "This movie sucks!" which got a huge laugh and applause. It went downhill from there. Catcalls left and right, I've never seen an audience turn on a film so harshly before. The studio guys didn't bother polling people at the end. I'm assuming it went straight to video because I don't recall seeing a theatrical run.

Well that's around 90 minutes I'm never getting back. Seriously, don't waste your time.

This is a pretty terrible movie, but it's a must-see for two wonderful scenes. Joe Piscopo almost single-handedly ruins the film with his annoying non-acting and his unfunny comedy. It's like he never got the memo that he was in a movie, not another SNL sketch. And it's sad to see Treat Wiliiams, a talented actor, in what must be the low point of his career. However, there are two scenes in the film that make it worth your time. One, when the meat in a butcher's shop comes to life, and another when two nearly indestructible zombies square off for a shootout, only they're standing about ten feet apart and using automatic weapons. Hilarious.

Just want to offer another opinion on this movie for fans of zombies, buddy cop movies, schlock & the like. And don't miss Vincent Price. OK, Dead Heat will never be listed alongside OscarT winners, big deal. There're plenty of award-winning movies that I don't like, but fans of cult movies are missing something here: Funny kitch. The pitch meeting must've been hilarious: Picture Lethal Weapon meets Return of the Living Dead meets ReAnimator. C'mon, the genre mix alone is worth the look. It may not be saying much, but this is Piscopo's best movie. I've been waiting for the DVD release to add it to my cult favorites.

Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo are two, now get his, mismatched cops. Joe Piscopo is Bigelow, a macho, insensitive lug who only cares about himself...maybe. Treat Williams is Mortis, a kind, intuitive detective with a promising career ahead of him...until his latest case lands him on a slab. Fortunately, the case provides them with a means to bring Mortis back. Now, Bigelow and an undead Mortis race to find Mortis' killer before it's too late...(or perhaps it already is) The film tries hard to be funny, and it is, in certain moments. The two lead actors have a kind of chemistry and the cast of character actors are dynamite (including Darren McGavin, Vincent Price, Robert Picardo, and Key Luke) but it is the genre-mixing which steals the show. The butcher shop scene is hilarious and sick, a good indication of where the movie would have went if more freedom had been extended toward the filmmakers. But it remains a neat little flick for the horror lovers and the action buffs everywhere. Hopefully more and more people will discover this title, but until then, it has a small cult audience. Don't let that stop ya, seek it out. It won't change your life, but it ought to give you a diverting way to spend an hour and a half.

This movie is really, really bad. Bad acting, bad writing, bad writing, bad exposition. But regardless, it's a lot of fun to watch. It's one of those things that come on television around 4 in the morning and you watch it cuz there is nothing else on. The dialogue and jokes are atrocious. For example, there is the line where Joe Piscapo tells a joke: "If you take the square miles in Rhode Island and multiply it by my ex girlfriend's weight." That's it. That's the entire joke. No punchline, no closure, no nothing. It's so bad it's hilarious. There are some pretty decent special effects though, do not miss the scene in the butcher's shop where all the meat comes to life. The scene where the chick from the chemical company decomposes in the bathroom in about 30 seconds is pretty cool.

It seems like only in the 80's did they make such seriously strange hybrid films. Films like DEAD HEAT or perhaps BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA just don't get made anymore, and if they are out there, hopefully someone will turn me on to them. This one is a fun and original film with some truly "great" moments. Piscopo and Williams (neither of whom I'm all that fond of normally...) play this one up perfectly - but understand that this is basically a "turn your brain off and be entertained" kinda film... Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo are LAPD cops trying' to bust a ring of jewel thieves - problem is, is that the thieves were dead BEFORE they committed the robberies. Turns out, some shady chemical company is bringin' the dead back to life to do their dirty-work. When Williams is killed while investigating the chemical company, Piscopo (with the help of their Medical Examiner friend...) bring Williams back to life using the same machine that the chemical company used to re-animate the dead...catch is - Williams only has 12 hours to find out the truth behind the chemical company and their plans... DEAD HEAT is a great way to blow some time. Some decent violence, a bit of gore, and some really good make-up and special FX for the time. Piscopo and Williams play really well off of each other, doin' the "buddy cop" thing - with Piscopo as the "joker" and Williams as the "straight arrow". Definitely one of the more enjoyable and well pulled-off of these types of hybrid films...give it a look...8/10

Who told Joe Piscopo he could act? He's not much of a comic, and he's a dreadful actor. Treat Williams has talent, but he's utterly wasted here, stumbling from one bad scene to another, with Piscopo following like a loyal dog, barking bad dialogue. As with the dreadful Forest Whitiker/Anthony Edwards cop flop Downtown, this movie suffers from exceptionally poor dialogue, and even worse direction. There are moments where you think the actors weren't even aware the camera was rolling, and other scenes where the actors are just waiting for their lines, as though the director was out to lunch or something. What could have been Lethal Weapon meets Dawn of the Dead becomes a series of predictable incidents that are more or less rehashes of previous buddy cop films. Lethal Weapon and 48hrs and Running Scared worked not because of gimmicks, but because of the characters. Dead Heat fails on every level because there was zero attention paid to script and character.