| | | A Los Angeles Crime Saga.
Features: DVD, Pan and Scan (TV Format), Widescreen, English, French, Subtitled
When Al Pacino and Robert De Niro square off, Heat sizzles. Written and directed by Michael Mann, Heat includes dazzling set pieces and a bank heist that USA Today's Mike Clark calls "the greatest action scene of recent times." It also offers "the most impressive collection of actors in one movie this year" (NewsWeek). Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore and Ashley Judd are among the memorable supporting players in this tale of a brilliant L.A. cop (Pacino) following the trail from a deadly armed robbery to a crew headed by an equally brilliant master thief (De Niro).Heat goes way beyond the expectations of the cops-and-criminals genre -- and into the realm of movie masterpiece.
"...the most impressive collection of actors in one movie..." David Ansen, NewsWeek
"A sleek, accomplished piece of work, meticulously controlled and completely involving." Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"...in the cop-movie pantheon with Akira Kurosawa's "High and Low," and that's as "right" as the genre gets." Mike Clark, USA Today
"An epic tale of crime and obsession...[a] modern day crime classic..." Sean Fitzgibbons, DVD Verdict
"Stunningly made and incisively acted by a large and terrific cast..." Todd McCarthy, Variety
Editor's Note
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are finally together on screen in this riveting story about an intense rivalry between expert thief Neil McCauley (De Niro) and volatile cop Vincent Hanna (Pacino). McCauley will stop at nothing to do what he does best and neither will Hanna, even though it means destroying everything around them, including the people they love. With a solid supporting cast that includes Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Ashley Judd, and Natalie Portman, HEAT is a truly epic crime story.
Plot Summary
"Never have anything in your life you can't walk out on in thirty seconds" is the motto of expert thief Neil McCauley (De Niro). After his next break-in, McCauley plans to retire from his outlaw life and move to New Zealand. However, Vincent Hanna (Pacino), a Los Angeles police detective, obsessively tracks McCauley's gang of thieves, who have left three security guards dead in an armored truck robbery. As the detective gets closer to tracking them down, the crooks plan another big heist, this time at a bank. Hanna soon gets a lead that helps him determine the identity of the criminal mastermind who engineered the thefts, and discovers McCauley is a man as driven and relentless as the detective himself. Although he doesn't have enough evidence against the thief to make an arrest, Hanna convinces McCauley to join him for coffee, at which point the two engage in casual conversation and discover that their lives are remarkably similar. However, each man makes it clear he'll kill the other if necessary. Though they know the police are closing in on them, McCauley and his men risk going through with the bank job. A violent shoot-out and car chase result, but the criminals escape. Hanna continues to pursue them unceasingly, at the expense of his already-crumbling marriage. Eventually Hanna and McCauley face each other for the last time in a thrilling showdown at the Los Angeles airport. With HEAT, director Michael Mann achieves the nearly impossible task of making three hours go by in a flash with his use of the hand-held camera for action scenes and a moody score that echoes the characters' emotions. Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, and others play characters that are also crucial to the plot, but never distract from the central conflict between McCauley and Hanna. The acting is outstanding, the story is riveting and the action scenes are breathtaking. Both De Niro and Pacino are perfect as two men driven to sacrifice nearly everything for their respective professions. With edge-of-your-seat action and insightful drama, HEAT is a crime film at its most intense and personal.
| Features | 3 Theatrical Trailers | | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Access | | Subtitles: English, French |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Heat - DVD Review By: Christopher Null - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 10/30/2009 11:42 PM | |
I hate to condone the making of 3-hour long movies, but Heat is one in which you're not going to fall asleep. Comparisons to Casino are going to be inevitable, with both hitting the 180-minute mark and starring Robert De Niro as a crook, but unlike that film, Heat manages to keep the interest level high throughout the whole picture. Heat is the instantly gripping tale of a large-scale heist leader and die-hard loner named Neil McCauley (De Niro). As the film opens, he and his team of brutal, precision thieves (including Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore) knock over (literally) an armored car for a stash of bearer bonds. On the case is Detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), a troubled, angst-ridden veteran of the LAPD....read the full review |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 9/4/2007 |
| Original Release Date: 1995 | | Catalog ID: 116316 | | UPC: 00085391163169 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen/Standard 2.35:1/1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (1996) | | | MTV Award, Val Kilmer, Most Desirable Male |
| Memorable Quotes| "Maybe we should both do something else, pal."----McCauley (Robert De Niro) to Hanna (Al Pacino) over coffee|"I don't know how to do anything else."----Hanna |"Neither do I."----McCauley|"I don't much want to either."----Hanna |"Neither do I."----McCauley | | "It's like you said. All I am is what I'm going after."----Hanna, to his estranged wife | | "Never have anything in your life that you can't walk out on in 30 seconds if you see the heat around the corner."----McCauley |
|
| | Professional Reviews | Premiere
"...Gobs of talent are amassed..." 12/01/1995 p.35Rolling Stone
"...This spellbinder vibrates with style, substance and humor, plus voluptuous camera work..." 12/28/1995 p.138 Sight and Sound
"...[HEAT] serves to bolster the case for Michael Mann as the key American auteur of the last ten years..." 02/01/1996 p.43-4 USA Today
"...A film that deserves Oscars for photography, editing, sound and arguably scoring....Heat is packed with unforgettable subcharacters..." -- 4 out of 4 stars 12/15/1995 p.1D Entertainment Weekly
"...[Mann's] .357 Magnum opus....Macho-intellectual chutzpah..." 06/21/1996 pp.72-3 Variety
"...Stunningly made and incisively acted by a large and terrific cast....[HEAT] stands apart from other films of its type by virtue of its extraordinary rich characterizations..." 12/11/1995 Los Angeles Times
"...A sleek, accomplished piece of work, meticulously controlled and completely involving. The dark end of the street doesn't get much more inviting than this..." 12/15/1995 p.F1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...There is absolute precision of effect here, the feeling of roles assumed instinctively..." 12/15/1995 p.37 Total Film
"[With] stunning cinematography, capturing an off-kilter LA, all metallic grey and widescreen sheen." 04/01/2004 p.137 Time Magazine 9 of 10
Dispassion vs. passion, intellect vs. instinct, the implosive vs. the explosive style - as writer-director Michael Mann develops the duel between the cop and robber in Heat, his film becomes a compassionate contemplation of the two most basic ways of being male and workaholic in modern America...All [the inner turmoil in his characters] adds good weight and tension to the movie and provides a lot of very good actors with the opportunity to do honest, probing work in a context where, typically, less will do. But Mann's aspirations don't stop there. Having revived the historical saga in The Last of the Mohicans, he obviously wants to do the same thing for what has become a much more familiar (and tiresome) genre, the urban action picture. This Mann achieves with truly epic sweep, maniacal conviction and awesome technical proficiency. He announces his intentions in an opening sequence that may be the best armored-car robbery ever placed on film. - Richard Schickel
Austin Chronicle 9 of 10
...director Mann (Thief, Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans) remakes his 1989 TV movie L.A. Takedown by bringing two acting titans together in one of the most intelligent crime-thrillers to come along in years...What's so effective is the intriguing character examination we find at the heart of the film...Although the two share little screen time together, Pacino and De Niro's scenes are poignant and gripping...Hanna and McCauly eventually meet again in one of the greatest bank robbery/shoot-out scenes ever that is beautifully chaotic and masterfully edited (last January's Bank of America shoot-out in L.A. was an eerie reenactment). With a stellar cast including Val Kilmer and Jon Voight, Heat has it all including a great soundtrack full of tone-setting, ambient, and symphonic arrangements. - Simon Cole
|
| |
|
|
|
