Heat (1986)

I'd probably rate this much lower if I saw it for the first time today or Reynolds wasn't one of my favorite actors. I first saw this during a very good period of my life and when this held a particular sort of interest for me. Add in Reynolds being my pick for coolest actor ever and you get a 9 rating instead of a 5(ish). It has about the worst action you can imagine. The music is that ubiquitous, 80's attempt at 'grit' you hear in every movie of the era trying to show you there are no real heroes, only anti-heroes. Most of the cast seems to have attended the school for over emoting. BUT Reynolds and MacNicol work very well together AND I bet they make you chuckle at least once. This is not a great movie but if you set your expectations low enough you just might find it charming. I can still watch this every 3-5 years or so.

I give credit to any medium that starts with me disliking a character, then gets me to change my mind a few scenes later. We also get some memorable moments, one which will not leave my head anytime soon.After the fifty minute mark though the intensity started to die, and with it my interest.This movie is two stories that /mostly/ come together in the third act. Story one I quite liked. The killing intent Holly (Karen Young) exhibited grabbed my full attention. We also get a thoroughly despicable (if not terribly fleshed out) psychopath as a bonus.Story two was where I started to drift. Rich white dudes who think not getting hurt period can be solved with winning a fist fight. Mex's (Reynolds') self-destructive tendencies which had me pitying him, but didn't really make me feel closer to him emotionally. (Shucks, I felt closer to the Black Jack dealer.) Our lead kept sabotaging his own dreams and his character wasn't strong enough that this type of story worked for me.The ending had adequate tension, but not enough to save the movie.The two reasons I would recommend this film are 1) Karen Young's performance 7/10 stars and/or 2) You are a Burt Reynolds fan.

Even though it came out a few months earlier, this great Burt Reynold's obscurity, "Heat," could have easily been a sequel to his other great 80s obscurity, "Malone." Once you changed a couple of small plot points to make the films consistent, you'd still have exactly the same character at the center of each. Burt acts the same, looks the same, dresses the same, and his character in Heat has a very similar background and the exact same skills as the one on "Malone." In fact, the two films even share some of the same lines of dialog (almost). In "Malone" the young girl tells Burt's character that he must like violence. Burt replies that "No, I'm just good at it--there's a difference." In "Heat" Peter McNichol asks Burt if he's a naturally violent person. To which Burt replies "No, I'm just good at it." I mean, really--could that be a total coincidence? Another similarity--"Malone" was basically a old fashioned Western in the "Shane" mode. "Heat" is basically a Spaghetti Western in the revenge mode.I love both of these flicks and wish they'd get decent DVD releases.

The beginning of this movie I thought it was a horror film, a shot following a bloody woman to the ER. This is a cheat as Roger Ebert puts it and misleads us. However that set-up with the beat up girl is incredibul...its very interesting how the director chooses to take revenge on the people who beat up the girl...HOWEVER I have seen over a million movies in my day believe me and this is by far the worst ending I have ever seen. EVER. After seeing the movie I was not mad I spent 2hrs watching it because the early action scenes were very good and showing the star with a gambling problem very unique. We all know what happens to people with gambling problems and you see in the movie. However this is a very small subplot and does not get expanded in the least...very weak. There are so many things this movie could have been. And about the HORRIBLE ending I would never give it away even thou I belive it to be the worst anti-climax ending ever it is sooooooooo uniqie I dont believe any movie ever made has done it and for good reason. A million more movies can come out in the next 20 years none will end like this come on...YOUR LEADING UP TO THE FINAL BATTLE WITH a guy who has been in vietnam and is considered to be one of the deadliest men in the world and they don't even fight...you have to see what happens...wow...I can't take it. This is the longest review I have ever written on this site and I just can't get over how good this movie could have been. A dam shame...6.8 out of 10 but a definite viewing for any gamblerholic or lover of offbeat cinema.