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Not a clone, but Heat was clearly a big influence on it. They both start with armored car heists that play out very similarly.
If you liked The Town and Heat, you should like Den of Thieves.
I rewatched Heat last night for the first time in probably 20 years. Let's talk about it.
Not a clone, but Heat was clearly a big influence on it. They both start with armored car heists that play out very similarly.
If you liked The Town and Heat, you should like Den of Thieves.
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Twice in one sentence !!!
Now I'm gettin' pissed
Should have gone with Jules and "Say Mike again mutha'fucka, I dare you. I double dare you".
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I'd give Ashley Judd's ass a 10 in that flick.
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Love the movie in general, a lot. Hate the ending.
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Why do you hate the ending?
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I should clarify, the very ending where Vincent dies...Mann killed off Cruise's character in a similar fashion, in Collateral. I don't care for the good-guy-wins type endings...more a fan of endings, like in Seven. Great movie though.
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The one I posted is the remastered directors cut. Intenser colors, maaaan. But yours might also be a keeper, if it's an older edition that's closer to the theatrical cut, which keeps Petey's favorite line when Hanna calls himself ferocious.It's this one.
But the one you posted looks sexier.
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I was just looking up the differences between the director’s cut and theatrical cut, and it seems it’s only two things. That line you mentioned, and there’s an alternate shot during a conversation. Seems like the theatrical is the way to go.
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Recently I watched Den of Thieves, which keeps getting compared to Heat, and that lead to @FierceRedBelt and I discussing the various merits of the film, as well as where it may fall short.
I hadn't seen Heat in a very long time. Maybe 20 years. But last night I decided to give it another look and see how well it holds up.
Ultimately, I walked away feeling like it's a great film, but also an imperfect one.
The story is very much in Michael Mann's wheelhouse and obviously the cast and performances are amazing. This is when Pacino and DeNiro were still in top form, and guys like Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore weren't yet shadows of their former selves.
Likewise, there are many genuinely thrilling and well-staged scenes, such as the bank-heist-gone-wrong, the meeting in the diner between Vincent and Neil, and the final confrontation between those two characters.
Technically, the movie is nearly perfect. But is it just me, or does the movie feel "cold?"
I realized while watching it last night that, while the film is so well-made in so many ways, that I was not emotionally invested in it. I didn't really care about any of the characters and didn't empathize with them. Probably the closest I got to giving a shit what happened to any of them was feeling bad for Neil's girlfriend and caring a little that Natalie Portman's dad doesn't give a shit about her.
And as I see it, all of this combined with the visual look of the film (lots of stark blacks and whites with relatively little color) and soundtrack choices add up to a movie that holds the viewer at arms length.
There also were a few other things that didn't seem to quite match the quality of the rest of the film, such as the scene where Chris goes to see his wife and she waves him away. He gets stopped by the police and, despite the fact that they know EXACTLY who they're looking for, they let him go because he had a fake ID. That felt like Michael Mann cutting some corners to me.
All in all, I think it's a great film, but also one that left me feeling a little emotionally dead inside. And I think that's why I haven't rewatched it in so long.
What do you guys think? How do you feel about Heat? Is this really the GOAT crime film as some seem to think or are my criticisms on point?
It you want a rating, I'll give it an 8.5/10.
I'm actually rewatching HEAT right now, and just thought of this thread
Dude, you actually study movies for a vocation? I hate to be that guy but I honestly think a lot of it simply goes way over your head when terms like "bearer bonds" and "shaped charge" are used
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Cool, man. I'll be interested in hearing your thoughts.
I actually have been thinking about giving it yet another go around, even though I just watched it.
I've taken some film classes at the university and done some amateur screenwriting and have made a couple of short films.
I do hope to be a working filmmaker one day.
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I think you're caught up in how to make a scene look great when there's underlying little things that give the scene substance regardless of how spectacular the final cut is. Things that play into the depth of the subject matter. In the first 20 mins alone of HEAT there's like a billion mentions that as an attentive viewer you're like "holy shit ok this is a serious movie"
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I mean, I gave the motherfucker an 8.5. That's an extremely high score for me. I only gave one film a score that high in all of 2017, Blade Runner 2049 (also an 8.5).
A few people, including yourself it seems, seem to think that I didn't like the movie when I actually think it's one of the best crime films ever made. I just don't think it's a perfect film.
To your point, Michael Mann is known for being a perfectionist and a meticulous researcher, and I understand that the script is extremely detailed and nuanced. But that has no bearing on my primary criticism, which is that I found the film to be emotionally cold. What do technical details have to do with this?
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I guess you would have to define "emotionally cold"
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Well, since you seem to be taking issue with the OP, let me quote an excerpt:
This is, of course, my subjective experience. If yours is different, that's fine, but the movie struggled in terms of getting me emotionally involved with the characters.
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I think this might be a cop-out
If you think the film's iconic scene is cartoonish and you have zero investment in any of its characters, then why would you consider it "one of the best crime films ever made"?
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Vanessa Marcil forever y0.
Con Air, The Rock, and Broken Arrow all came out within eighteen months of each other. Better times.
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Watching the Waingro escape scene...
-Neil draws his gun leaving Waingro unrestrained
-Mike calls "hold it" cause there's cruisers doing circulars
-Neil takes his attention off the unrestrained Waingro and looks up to the cop cars
-Literally 9 seconds pass before Neil finally looks back down and sees Waingro is gone
What a plot hole
-Neil draws his gun leaving Waingro unrestrained
-Mike calls "hold it" cause there's cruisers doing circulars
-Neil takes his attention off the unrestrained Waingro and looks up to the cop cars
-Literally 9 seconds pass before Neil finally looks back down and sees Waingro is gone
What a plot hole
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Honestly I think its the kind of film were if you have an issue with it then the overall style is were its likely to be rather than specifics. For what it is done in the style it is I'd say its nearly perfect but you could certainly argue that Mann's crime thrillers are somewhat impersonal compared to the very best crime dramas.
They do tend to be quite heavily plot driven and I think you could argue that the visuals tend towards a "slick coolness" of advertising rather than trying to make maximum emotional impact.
That is playing devils advocate quite a bit as I do love Heat and Collateral.
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When did I call anything cartoonish? And what scene are you talking about, the conversation between Neil and Vincent?
I never said anything bad about that scene. It's great.
As for it being one of the greatest crime films of all time, it's one of the greatest specifically because everything else in the film is so damn strong that it can thrive even without a strong emotional core.
To be fair, the wording in my original statement may be a little too strong. It's not really that I didn't give a shit about the characters, it's more that when I watch the movie I am frustrated that I don't care MORE. I'm a guy who doesn't mind shedding a tear during a movie but Heat just doesn't activate my emotional receptors in that way.
For instance, with a lot of movies, during a scene like the one where Vincent finds his step-daughter in the bath tub I might be inclined to get the ol' watery eyes, but this doesn't happen for me in Heat.
