There's less to this than meets the eye

Rating: 4/10 (28 July 2008)

It seems almost churlish to say so given the big movie names involved  Pacino, De Niro and Michael Mann, but, depending on what you want from a film, Heat, isn't really that good. As usual here in IMDb reviews it gets both 10/10 an just 1/10. Well, both are off mark. I have given it 4/10 because  well  as a movie spectacle it does the business and then some. The trouble is that Mann apparently wanted to make more than just a intelligent crook v an intelligent cop movie. Mann wanted to inject meaning. Well, he hasn't unless you're the kind of guy or gal who thinks that your average R&B pop video is meaningful. That's not to say, of course, that this is merely on the level of such a video, only that it has the same spurious significance. The usual cliché is that you often have to suspend disbelief to enjoy a tale, and Heat demands that a lot of disbelief is suspend. For one thing there is no back story: we are presented with a range of characters and must either accept them or not. But how did De Niro, portrayed as rather an intelligent cove get into crime when undoubtedly his intelligence and character would have made him a success in many more legitimate areas. On the other hand, he is remarkably ruthless, is apparently incapable of forming relationships (until he meets a girl who he thinks might be 'it'), and can see himself pursuing no other career than crime. Then there's Pacino: wedded to the job, his third marriage going down the pan, the man is an interesting case history. But no explanation is offered as to why this should be. Well, you might say, none is needed. Just accept those two characters and enjoy the action. In that case, why does Mann introduce the theme of relationship, their hold over us, their strength, their weaknesses? What was needed was another film which would examine that theme at length  but then Mann would not have had his action movie. So if that is what you want, enjoy it. But don't be taken in by the faux philosophical nature of the movie.