A film about clever robbers, but cleverer cops

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2001)

Screen legends Pacino and De Niro share the screen for the first time in this twisting crime caper from Michael Mann.
As senior officer in a tight-knit LAPD crime unit, Pacino's job is hunt down a hardened crew led by De Niro, and bolstered by Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore, who have been responsible for a number of high-ball 'scores' recently.
As the two crews shape up to each other through a series of successes, failures, double-crosses and near misses for both sides, the scene is set for the tense and inevitable final showdown, and as jailbird De Niro calmly tells Pacino in the film's memorable scene ' I ain't never going back inside'.
'Heat' gets it right where many other films of this genre fail, by simply doing what a good film is supposed to; it tells a story. Bad guys don't spend all their waking hours robbing banks and making Â£50m special-effects explosions, as similarly cops don't spend all their day chasing them - they've also got wives and families, however dysfunctional they may be - and that's where some of the best stories in Heat unfold.
Oh, and there's loads of car-chases and shooting too - yippee!!