Shady Review: Heat

It has been a rough few months for the man behind the keyboard. In writing, Shady Review Man has yet to recieve the money he was entitled to four weeks ago, and is living on naught but bread, water, and toy cars of appropriate size and colour. Thankfully, due to todays technology, one does not always need those shiny golden coins to take part in the greater pleasures of viewing anecdotes through a flickering window. I am of course talking of watching movies, and the means VCR. Yes, those large cassettes some of you no doubt still have lingering in your dark closets, all but forgotten with the rise of new ways to indulge your film-viewing. But I shall not rant any longer, it is time for us to do some timetravelling. The year is 1995, and the action movies are dominating the market, as they have come to do in later years as well. But for every three bad action movies, a good one occassionally falls out by mistake. Heat is one such mistake, and we shall be looking at this actionthriller more closely, after this commercial.

/Do you feel as if though your sight is giving up on you? Are you perhaps down on your luck when it comes to getting ahead in life? Would you perhaps merely want someone to once lend you a hand? We have the solution! Vecna Corp. fixing all your unliving needs!/

*ahem* Yes. Let us begin.

Cool guys don't look at explosions.
Perhaps you walked into the wrong theater sonny, this is a viewing for 1995. And as far as movies who are acting out nothing but crime, this movie handles what little special effects it has with ample skill. What really stands out in this movie is the tension. No thriller has ever survived the crowd sleeping through it, or possibly laughing, and to keep itself above water, it needs that tension. Heat supplies it just where it needs it, almost giving it a feel like the movie is actually happening outside your house, at times. The complete lack of music during gunfights strengthen this further, and when all you hear is the erratic shooting of what could well be an actual gunfight, you watch just a little closer.

My comm device is not working properly.
The acting in this movie is-.. well, how does one say this.. Brilliant. Yes, brilliant is a good word. Val Kilmer, Al Pacino AND Robert De Niro all make appearances as lead characters, and boy are they good at doing so. I found myself sympathizing with the bad guys in this movie, because they were just that well played. They feel like real people, not people getting shot at in a movie.

How about a story before we sleep?
The plot of Heat is fairly simple, in fact. A bunch of professionals who are getting fairly tired of living in constant vigilance decide to hit one more job. However, the police swiftly sniff out their plans due to a newcomers misstep, and the heat begins. Heh, I know, bad one. What's so good about Heat is that it does not constantly follow the badguys, nor does it focus on Mr and Mrs Lawman running about shooting said baddies. It focuses on both. You get to see their equally crappy lives, with equally crappy dreams, and equally crappy jobs. Well, maybe some of that rings true, but in essence, it all builds up throughout the movie, and makes for a very enticing story.

Conclusion, Conclusion, Conclusion.
Heat is an excellent movie for it's time, and stands up to many movies of today, blowing most crime movies this reviewer has seen right out of the water. It may not have super special effects, or a wacky fantasy storyline, but it does have interesting characters, a good story, and an excellent way to showcase both. Add guns, perfect formula.


Heat gets a high 92% from Shady Review Man. This movie is good. Very good.