Good But Overlong

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2003)

The thing to strike me about HEAT is that it`s overlong . I don`t know if I`ve been watching too much MTV but a major problem I`ve had with a great number of movies coming out of Hollywood studios since the early 1990s is that they`re too long for their own good and I wish to add HEAT to this list since its running time is taken up with too many unnecessary scenes . If these scenes had been ditched at script stage not only would we have had a shorter film we`d have had a far better one . Take the scene in the coffee bar where the gang have just carried out the initial heist and Neil teaches Waingro a lesson by banging his head off the table . Seeing as they`re shown throghout the story to be well organised , professional villains why would Neil draw attention to themselves by assaulting Waingro in this way ? It`s a scene that lacks any credibility and should not have been included . There`s another problem with too many domestic scenes , the film tries to show the audience the marital marital/romantic life of every major character , cop and robber . I know Michael Mann`s later movie THE INSIDER is also full of scenes involving home life but that`s necessary to the plot and characterisation . Here it is not
HEAT isn`t by any means a bad film , on the contaray it`s a good one . DeNiro and Pacino in the same movie , boy what a casting coup . Not only that we get to see Val Kilmer when he was famous plus up and coming names like Portman , Sizemore and Fichtner , and once the story gets going it is very compelling with a breath taking shootout . Unfortunately because someone ( I`m guessing Michael Mann deserves all the blame for this ) thought they`d stretch out a two hour movie into a three hour one HEAT remains good instead of great