Heat

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What an awful, awful movie. It is twice as long as it needs to be, for what the actual tired story really is. There are soooo many tangling plot lines that are never tied together, and some are frankly quite interesting. Al Pacino's character has an interesting "relationship" with his 3rd wife, and Natalie Portman's character is having severe problems, but she's only in a few scenes and we don't learn what ultimately happens to her. To invest 3 hours in at least a dozen characters and to come away with nothing.....unreal! Even at such a length there are leaps in the action. And I was quite bored. If I hadn't rented it, I would not have sat through the entire thing. If it were on TV, I would have shut it off after a half-hour. There's no doubt the cast is first-class, but they are wasted in one of the most overrated, predictable and boring films I've ever seen.

Let me start by saying that Heat isn't a terrible movie. In fact, it's not a bad movie at all. I just think that it's incredibly overrated. I'm not a huge fan of Michael Mann's work in general. I find his films to be no more than very long music videos. His movies seem to epitomise style over substance to me, and Heat is no different. DeNiro and Pacino chew through the scenes like they normally do. That's a given. The rest of the cast are as competent and watchable, but the film doesn't feel deep enough for me. Though judging by the way everyone else is rating it, I must be missing something, even after watching it three times. I'm sorry that I don't like this film. It's got all the right ingredients to be special, but, as far as I'm concerned, it's undercooked.

Heat is a masterful cops and robbers tale that shows both sides of the law in exquisite detail. Strong performances by Pacino and DeNiro (the scene of them sitting across the table from each other is possibly 5 of the most memorable minutes in film history). Excellent cinematography and perhaps the best gunfight (if not, one of the most intense) since Hard Boiled. More than worth the 3 or so hours.

Most of the comments I've read here agree that this is a great movie. I have the same opinion. The coffee shop scene tells everything about this film: 10/10. The human side of the characters is perfectly explored, especially concerning De Niro's character (Neil). His personal conflicts are as strong as his determination and skills as a gangster. This is the magic of this film and only two fantastic actors like Pacino and De Niro could represent it so totally. Congratulations to Val Kilmer that shined and performed exceptionally well under the huge shadow of Pacino and De Niro. A must see !

I really believe this is one the great crime movies of all time. It has some drawbacks that wouldn't make me recommend this for family viewing - tons of f- words by Al Pacino and a few bloody scenes, but as far as a fascinating crime story: wow! This movie made modern-day history because it was the first time two of the great actors of this generation - Pacino and Robert De Niro - finally acted together in the same film. Those two didn't disappoint, either. They were great to watch and one of the huge highlights of the film, to me, was when they faced each other in a simple conversation over a cup of coffee. That conversation has always fascinated me, no matter how many times I've heard it. It was such a "landmark" scene that It's even the subject of a short documentary on the special-edition DVD. As with the conversation scene, the shootout segment in the streets of Los Angeles still astounds me no matter how many times I see it. The other action scenes are intense and memorable, too, and the cast in here is deep. This isn't just Pacino and De Niro. It's Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Jon Voight, Diana Venora, Natlie Portman, Tom Sizemore, Amy Brenamann, Wes Studi, Ted Levine, Mykelti Williamson, on and on. Put that fabulous cast under Michael Mann, one of the best directors in business, add a great soundtrack and interesting camera-work and you have a great film. At three hours long, it never bores one and at same time, doesn't overdo the action, either. I read one critic criticize this film because of the time taken to examine the personal lives of the main characters, but you can't have three hours of nothing but action. The only scene I felt went on a bit too long was the ending chase at the airport, but that's nitpicking considering the film as a whole. This is just one of those movies where a great cast and director live up to their billing.

One of the most amazing things about Heat is the scale of the film; it is nearly three hours long and packed to bursting with mind-blowing visuals. It seems one of Michael Mann's main priorities was to make a film with a dreamlike feel to it, to portray LA as a dusty oil-painting on which complex characters could play out their lives. One of the main themes is the similarity of the career criminal and the street-wise cop. It is fascinating to find yourself really feeling for DeNiro's tragic bank-robber, a man of philosophical merit who realises he's stuck in a life of crime he doesn't want to lead. Pacino's cop is less easy to sympathise with, but he too leads an in-escapable life of guns and crime. What really stands out is the climax. On the whole, Heat has to be the best cops n' robbers film ever made, indeed, one of the best films. An epic, wonderful, sad, adrenaline-fuelled exercise in scale and grandeur.