Action film with heart

Rating: 9/10 (24 October 1999)

Heat is one of my favorite movies, and is definitely my favorite of the action film genre. My cousin (a male) told me he didn't like the film because there was too much "romance and c**p" in it. This seems to be a shared opinion with many of my guy friends.
Personally, I don't find action sequences all that interesting... something blows up, someone gets shot, someone gets punched, and that's the end of it.
I fell asleep during Lethal Weapon 4 in the movie theater. It is hard for me to care that much about what happens to a character during an action sequence when all that I have seen of him so far is his ability to handle action sequences, or maybe his sexual prowess in the occasional gratuitous sex scene.
I am a audience member who is begging to care about the main characters in a film.
Heat shows more of its characters' lives than just violence and action. It let's us into their personal worlds and shows us their relationships with lovers and friends. Heat makes me care about the people involved. I like that.
I like for instance, that we see DeNiro's character have a somewhat awkward conversation with a girl in a diner, or Pacino's character lose his temper over his step-daughter's emotional problems. These scenes, which my cousin would have cut out, make the characters real. It makes them three dimensional. It makes them people.
And I care a whole lot more about what happens to a bunch of people than I do a bunch of cartoony action heros.
This is why I hold my breath during the robbery scene, and wonder nervously who will come out on top during the final showdown between DeNiro and Pacino.
Heat gives me something to care about, and for that, I give it a 9 out of 10.