Long, long, long

Rating: 6/10 (1 September 2005)

"Heat" was recommended to me for its supposedly original and fascinating storyline. However, just having spent 3 hours of my life watching the DVD, I'm somewhat surprised to report that story & characters are by far the weakest link in the movie. Like other reviewers have reported, the film is overly long, mainly because Michael Mann tries to cram way too much subplots in, none of which work since the characters are all tragically generic, the women especially. Also - and I always hate it when scripts do this - much is made of the supposed cleverness and intelligence of the Pacino and De Niro characters. So why do they make one stupid decision after the other? Aaah, that's probably what their mutual attraction is all about, punctuated by a terribly boring coffee scene and culminating in a hysterical manly handshake before the credits roll.
Anyway, see this movie for the great sound, hardcore action and, probably, if you like Pacino and De Niro.