De Niro's and Pacino's combined star power was one of Heat's major selling points.

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2010)

The film is a stunning crime drama that shares its protagonists' rabid attention to detail - and love of adrenalin. A Los Angeles police lieutenant (Al Pacino) pursues the mastermind (Robert De Niro) of a highly organized robbery outfit, and likes his style.
Heat is virtuosically crafted but overstretched modern noir, in which director Michael Mann's idea that the cop and criminal are similar souls arbitrarily divided by law comes to seem facile, and the much-hyped face-off between De Niro and Pacino strikes disappointingly few sparks. Still, as an epic panorama of urban existence it is often breathtaking.