Kevin's Watch

I'm currently re-watching this 1990s great movie, Heat, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Pacino is head of the robbery-homocide division of LAPD and De Niro is a master thief and criminal. They square off against each other, and to my knowledge this is the only movie that they appear on screen together. Pacino is great, although he can be a little bit over the top at times (as he was in Scent of a Woman.) De Niro is at his best, a tough as nails hood who won't let anything stand in his way.

Val Kilmer and the underrated Tom Sizemore (I still think he deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Saving Private Ryan) are De Niro's lieutenants. Ashley Judd is Kilmer's wife. A very young Natalie Portman plays Pacino's step daughter. Dennis Haysbert (of 24) is a ex-con on probation who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Overall, this is one of the best movies of the 1990s, IMO. I recommend it to everyone. Anyone else seen it?

Decent Flick. De Niro is at his best when is is not in Mafia Movies.

I disagree - De Niro was great in Godfather II, Heat, GoodFellas, Casino, etc....I don't like him as well when he tries to do comedy, like Meet the Parents.

Heat rocks! Michael Mann, creator of my one of my fav TV shows: Miami Vice, is a damm good director. The Keep, Manhunter, The Insider, Last of the Mohicans and Heat are all top notch flicks. And from the reviews I've been reading his new film, Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, is supposed to be killer too...!

Yeah, I forgot to mention that Mann was the director - Mohicans is a fantastic movie with a great soundtrack.

Heat is among my 30 or so all-time favorite films. In fact, for a while, I considered it THE best film of the 90's. De Niro and Pacino are such cinematic icons, it's great to have them square off against each other like this. The supporting cast is good, too. Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd...and this is one of the few critically acclaimed movies that poor Mr. Kilmer finds himself in; most of his own films end up being fodder for film critics.

I'm looking forward to Michael Mann's new film, too! Tom Cruise has got himself a funky new look. I trust Mann: he is almost incapable of making a bad movie. (I say almost...Last of the Mohicans left me cold. And it wasn't actually bad...just flat.)

Excellent Movie. Outstanding director!

P.S.
Mann is slated to direct "Gates of Fire". For those of you who have read this book and appreciated Mann's previous efforts you can begin to imagine why, if done right, "Gates" might become my all-time favorite movie ever!

I can't understand why this movie didn't do better when it was released. Does anyone know?

The lack of response to Heat was inexplicable to me, too. Over time, I came up with some guesses:

-Not many people knew about the film because of lackluster advertising (heck, even I almost missed it). Worse, it came out quietly at the end of March, right when everyone else's attention was on the Oscars, where Forrest Gump won big. (A similar fate was dealt to Mann's Ali: it was released in December 2001, but was lost in the Oscar buzz surrounding Fellowship of the Ring and A Beautiful Mind.)

-audiences weren't willing to sit through a 3-hour crime drama, even if it had Pacino and De Niro. Yet, later that year, Mel Gibson came out with his own 3-hour epic Braveheart, and audiences had no problem flocking to that movie. That showed how enormous Gibson's box office appeal was (and still is).

-people were expecting a furious De Niro/Pacino slug fest, not a meditative, existential film.

What a great fricking movie. Kilmer attempts acting and actually does a halfway OK job of it. DeNiro as the icewater for veins head of his crew, that take down scores (jewelery jobs, bank jobs, hijackings, sorta generalist criminals) is so good in this part. An overlooked role is Amy Brenneman (Eady) as the girl DeNiro's character took a liking to after meeting in a bookstore.

bump, since we're talking about De Niro.

I picked up the new DVD of this the other week and have re-watched it twice since. It just keeps getting better and better. Mann does such a tremendous job creating the relationship between De Niro and Pacino. I'd also forgotten how good Val Kilmer is in this. The way his face changes from flushed with success to cold-blooded killer as he walks out of the bank is absolutely chilling.

Great flick. This could have been another action flick without much of a plot, but the character development and pacing are top-notch.

Mann is the Man!!!!

Very good film...just constant in your face for three hours...but suffers slightly from lack-luster relationship/ending and almost too much material crammed into that time... ***1/2 out of ****