They Can Smell Each Other

If you are like me and have liked every Al Pacino movie you ever saw and asked for more, liked every Robert De Niro movie you ever saw and asked for more, and have liked Val Kilmer in many a performance, you are on the road-kill with this one.

Cusker: "...and come to the decisions that they love their jobs so much they couldn't do anything else..."

This movie is the celluloid version of the novel Crime and Punishment ... let me step back right there and eat my words: this movie is the celluloid version of the famous Dostoyevsky novel Crime and Punishment, perhaps less brooding. Al Pacino is your detective and Robert De Niro his brother, oops, his alter ego, the reflection in the mirror, the one who reigns in the world of crime. Pacino has his troops, De Niro his. One is intent on getting away with sophisticated acts of burglary, the other equally intent on tracking him down, and all the way praising his counterpart: "You are good, m____f_____ !"

JackFoley: "Michael Mann has quickly become one of my top five favorite directors."

De Niro reaches out for Pacino's hand before he draws in his last breath. He knows Pacino will not let him down. Pacino does not. First he shoots him down in a dramatic twist of a scene when the airport lights go on in full galore to let a plane take off - the good guy has to be seen winning I guess, or there really was no way telling who would go down and who would walk/run away - and then he becomes his brother's keeper. There is this intense male bonding in that very final scene that might prompt many to say this is but a guy movie and I would agree.

splitsurround: "...it was the same winter when "Casino" came out...Five years and five additional viewings later, I consider it one of my favorite movies of all time."

All throughout the movie the chase is on. And Pacino always seems to prefer to smell the air - literally, watch him lift his head up, just slightly - rather than his departmental intelligence to make pronouncements like "He is here, I know he is here," or "He is gone" - "How do you know that?" - "I just know. He is gone."

JackSommersby: "Mann the director has been tripped up by Mann the writer here..."

Now that I have revealed the plot, that De Niro dies at the end - the ultimate crime in movie reviews - I will spare you the details of the De Niro gang's exploits, his high wire acts of thefts and robbery and bank robs. Towards the end there is this shootout in downtown that you will not miss even if you might want to. It comes forth in your face like a dance sequence. These fellas are good on their feet, you can tell.

moonmoods_52: "(I had deleted this review earlier and am now posting it again.)"

De Niro leaves by the maxim he will not possess anything that he can not leave behind within 30 seconds' notice if he feels the heat round the corner. Little do you realize that he might apply also to his woman ... that might prompt many to say this is but a guy movie and I would agree.

vinniesuarez: "With all of these films, Heat shares stunning cinematography (Dante Spinotte) and a rousing, pulsing score (Elliot Goldenthal, gracing a Mann film with its best score since his collaboration with Tangerine Dream), but it is far from merely derivative of Mann’s previous work; Heat is, rather, the culmination of Mann’s artistic and thematic impulses in a work which clearly stands on its own."

And it is not like he loses because it is not Pacino who ends up dead: "I told you I am not going back in." And I guess this was fair game since De Niro had told Al Pacino over coffee - yes, they get together for coffee in my absolute favorite scene sequence in the movie - that he would not hesitate one second to snuff the life out of him. Not one second.

CJCraft: "Cons: I don't like the robber leader's girlfriend..."

They get together for coffee. Pacino has been following his car, first in a police chopper and then in a car: "How you doin'? Care for some coffee?" Someone else besides De Niro might have thought he was about to get a speeding ticket. And you just know it is Pacino, the way he says "doin'." Only Pacino says doin' that way, onscreen or off. Or when he shouts full volume, "Don't be wasting my m_____f_____g time!"

aubdaddy: "This movie is so good, it is addictive."

When they get together for coffee, these are two guys who would really like to get to know each other. Pacino is a detective who does not have much of a family. This is his third marriage. His wife brings home another man/jerk. They say people give out warning signals before they commit suicide. It is the daughter (from the wife's previous marriage) who ends up attempting suicide. And Pacino gives out this blurb which I found comical. He tells the guy no problem he may bang his wife, sit on her couch, stay put in her former husband's big house, "but don't you f____g watch my TV!" That is the only thing this fella has in the name of worldly possession, a freaking small screen television set!

George_Chabot: "The supporting cast is excellent, with Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, and John Voight on the robbers' side and Wes Studi on the cops'. There are women in the cast, but they do not provide much more than window dressing."

His wife accuses him of living in the world of dead bodies. Pacino and De Niro are men without families living in the world of those who live on the edge among the dying and the dead/killed, perhaps even long-lost brothers constantly looking for each other, unable to escape from each other's grips even if they tried, only you don't get the impression they are trying. They are matter and anti-matter waiting to annihilate each other in the ultimate act of bonding: death.

Robtran: "Al Pacino - Our Greatest Film Actor, and Heat is the proof."

4-1-1: "Rootin’ Tootin’ Shootin’"

eharri3: "The Action thriller Heat is actually a better movie than many of the supposedly poignant dramas, dark comedies, and love sagas that have received so many accolades in the 90's."

alexico: "Pros: story, acting, dialogues, action, visual expression, soundtrack..."

Kobayashi, LadyChristian, EVERMAN, BCross, briscoebaxter, cootie.