Flawless

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2005)

Much has been made of this movie being the first showdown between masters De Niro and Pacino, however those two short scenes may not even be the high points.
This movie is, in a word, flawless. The script develops every event in such intricate detail that one hardly notices the almost 3 hour running time. while it may be true that the scene in the coffee shop is one of the most brilliantly crafted in motion picture history, the scenes before and after are the true reasons to watch this movie.
How this movie was overlooked by the Academy is beyond me. The screenplay, direction, and acting are all better than anything Nicolas Cage or Kevin Spacey turned in in '95, and the assured, incredibly nuanced direction was easily far and above anything Mr. Gibson put forward in Braveheart (not that it wasn't a good movie, though).
Heat handily wins the top spot in the Canons of Director Michael Mann as well as stars Pacino and DeNiro.