One hell of a cop movie

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2013)

What makes "Heat" one of my all-time favorite movies is that the characters are so well-developed. And not just Pacino and De Niro, but also the supporting players. (Almost) everyone here has a backstory, something to make you really care about them. This works like gangbusters for those that don't make it, but equally so for those that do.
And one of the characters in the movie is the city of Los Angeles. It's such an urban sprawl that it can stand in for pretty much anywhere (and in some ways, it has). But Mann takes us from the upper-crust designer houses to the workaday neighborhoods and really gives this place some personality. Not always a pleasant one, and that's what's great about it.
This is the movie that screams Michael Mann to me: the expert weapons-handling, a spectacular bank shootout, clearly defined characters on opposite sides of the law, an engrossing story. It's a movie that puts every minute of it's almost-3-hour runtime to great use, and one that leaves you (me, at least) floored when the end credits roll.
10/10