This is as good as it will ever get.

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2008)

I would have loved to have been at the pitch meeting where they tried to sell "that" scene.
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Director: "Well there's this scene where the cop meets the bad guy and invites him for a cup of coffee".
Studio person: "And then what happens - they shoot up the cafÃ©?"
Director: "Um, no."
Studio person: "They get into a huge fistfight?"
Director: "Um, no."
Studio person: "Well... so what happens?"
Director: "Um, well, they have a cup of coffee together."
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Doesn't sound like much, does it. Yet I bet if you gathered a group of film critics and asked them to pick "the ten greatest scenes in the history of cinema", the coffee house scene between Pacino and De Niro would be on every list. It is simply astounding. And it anchors one of the greatest films of all time.
"HEAT" is a pure genre film - classic "cops and robbers" stuff. It has identical elements to many other cops and robbers movies - a crime, a shootout, a love interest for the good guy and the bad guy, a cop on the edge, etc.
But saying Heat is "just another genre film" is like saying a Ferrari is "just another car" or Jessica Alba is "just another woman". The bottom line is "this is as good as it gets, folks". I thought it was perfect back in 1995. I watched it on DVD some twelve years later and that assessment hasn't changed.
So it's a cops and robbers film. You already know the plot. A crime happens. A cop pursues a criminal. There is a big confrontation at the end. You've seen it a thousand times.
But HEAT isn't about the "what". It's about the "how". How is was made, and how it was delivered. And to put it simply, the film is completely flawless. The acting is beyond breath-taking. Every scene is perfect. Every moment of it's nearly three hours is to be savoured like the finest wine.
Bottom line - A masterpiece that is richly deserving of its place on the "IMDB Top 250"