City Heat (1984)

This movie has some rawness and grit, interesting story line, plot, and sub-plots, with Eastwood as a tough no-nonsense detective, Speer, and Reynolds as an ex-cop and Private Eye, Murphy, who butt heads with each other, in Prohibition-era 1933 (last year of Prohibition, in fact), but team up to investigate mob murder and corruption. It also has some funny lines and wittiness. And of course, Eastwood, with his intensity, as well as his piano playing, is in true form as usual.Is this a comedy trying to be a drama or a drama trying to be a comedy. It's not a dramedy; it's too confused to be a successful dramadey. The talent of both stars is squandered in this production that can't decide what it's meant to be. One suspects that it's meant to be satire, but it's a long way from the success of Swift's "A Modest Proposal". That's the risk of satire: the wrong move and the whole effort is thwarted. The costumes are great. The sets are delightful and the cars dazzling. The treat in the movie is Jane Alexander as Reynold's long suffering brilliant secretary. Worth watching just for the pleasure of her company.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

The weight of expectation for City Heat was massive, two iconic Hollywood actors together in a buddy buddy cop movie, one with nods and homages to film noir and old school gangster movies, it wasn't unreasonable to expect a movie to sit with the best on Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynold's then CV's circa 1984. Unfortunately it's no masterpiece or close to being in the upper echelon's of each actor's respective works. But that doesn't make it a bad film.A change of director saw Blake Edwards replaced by Richard Benjamin after Eastwood and Edwards, ahem, couldn't see eye to eye, so that immediately put the film on the back foot in many critic's eyes. Ironically Benjamin does OK - working from Edwards' script (there's a whole bunch of back stories and tittle-tattle assigned to this film if you care to search for it). Lots of fun here, though, as Clint and Burt, one a cop, the other an ex-cop turned PI, reluctantly team up to cut a swathe through the gangsters ruling the roost in prohibition era Kansas City.Eastwood does his straight backed machismo act, throwing awesome punches along the way, while Reynolds is wonderfully cheerful as a tough guy who all things considered, would rather not get hurt! The script is full of zingers, delivered with customary sardonic self parody by the stars, while the roll call of supporting actors is not to be sniffed at. Period detail is high end, with Nick McLean's photography carrying the requisite neo-noir impact, while the music tracking is pleasingly nostalgic.It's over the top of course and needlessly convoluted as per its yearning to be noirish, yet if you can cut back your expectation levels? And you can simply enjoy the sight of Eastwood and Reynolds having fun romping in this period? Then you just might enjoy this more than you dared to believe. 7/10

It's 1930s Kansas City. Private investigator Mike Murphy (Burt Reynolds) loses his partner who is brutally murdered after trying to blackmail a mobster with his secret accounting records. When a rival gang boss goes after the missing records, he is forced to team up with his ex-partner cop Lieutenant Speer (Clint Eastwood) to fight both gangs before KC erupts in a mob war.From a Blake Edwards story, this takes place when both Burt Reynold and Clint Eastwood was hitting a slow patch after being red hot. Clint would recover, but Burt never did. With the people involved, you would think this could be something incredible. But there is nothing but disappointment. Burt is playing his usual self, smirking thru his fight. Clint has no chemistry with Burt. The style is too stiff and weak. It has none of the grittiness required. It looks completely fake. Worst of all, it moves at a snails pace, dragging its feet. The dialog is stilted. There is no jokes, at least none that worked. In fact, none of it really worked.

"In Kansas City 1933, wisecracking detective Murphy (Burt Reynolds) tracks the killer of his partner," according to the synopsis writer at Warner Bros. Meanwhile, "Police Lt. Speer (Clint Eastwood) doesn't have much tolerance for the local mob war's body count. Neither guy likes each other, so that makes them a dream team. And it provides the ideal scenario as they clean up the town with slugfests and shoot-'em ups that parody Reynolds' and Eastwood's macho screen images." Original writer/director Blake Edwards was replaced by Richard Benjamin after reportedly clashing with Mr. Eastwood, while Mr. Reynolds suffered a serious injury early in the filming. This didn't mean "City heat" had to be a disaster, but it was. It looks like Eastwood and Reynolds are trying, with a couple of facial tics and gestures, to duplicate the successful Paul Newman and Robert Redford team. Whatever they're trying doesn't work. We're left with Eastwood calling Reynolds short.** City Heat (12/5/84) Richard Benjamin ~ Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn