Really not that great...

Rating: 6/10 (25 July 2004)

I saw "Heat" years ago and never thought much of it. Some friends encouraged me to try it again and I did. My opinion hasn't changed.
I'm sorry, but this movie is basically a horrendously drawn-out 'cops and robbers' movie centred around an amazing five minute gunfight. Pacino's character came off half the time as a stereotypical "problem" cop. He spends the other half of the film trying to spout off asinine lines that make him sound like an obnoxious assclown.
For such a solid cast, I felt there was a real lack of character development. You don't much care about Val Kilmer and Ashley Judd's failing relationship, and I found it hard to feel very upset about Natalie Portman's attempted suicide when up to that point she'd had a whole three lines of dialogue. Pacino and his wife's problems just seemed too stereotypical and stale for their to be much thought put to it.
The only relationship that even remotely worked was that of De Niro and Amy Brenneman, mainly because it was force-fed to us as the movie progressed. And the whole 'De Niro/Pacino' showdown that this movie was supposed to be was somewhat of a let-down. Although their one scene together was written and acted superbly, the rest was incredibly underwhelming, including their final, pretentiously suspenseful stand off.
All in all, an over-rated, overly long cop drama. 6/10.