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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 2537
Released: May 15, 2007 |
| Our Price: $4.34 |
| Used Price: $2.50 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
An L.A. cop (Al Pacino) becomes fixated on a deadly thief (Robert Dinero) and his crew ( Val Kilmer & Jon Voight) who are taking Los Angeles to the cleaners. This movie includes one of the most spectacular shoot outs in film history as Dinero and Kilmer rip through downtown Los Angeles with both guns blazing.
Description of Heat:
Having developed his skill as a master of contemporary crime drama, writer-director Michael Mann displayed every aspect of that mastery in this intelligent, character-driven thriller from 1995, which also marked the first onscreen pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. The two great actors had played father and son in the separate time periods of The Godfather, Part II, but this was the first film in which the pair appeared together, and although their only scene together is brief, it's the riveting fulcrum of this high-tech cops-and-robbers scenario. De Niro plays a master thief with highly skilled partners (Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore) whose latest heist draws the attention of Pacino, playing a seasoned Los Angeles detective whose investigation reveals that cop and criminal lead similar lives. Both are so devoted to their professions that their personal lives are a disaster. Pacino's with a wife (Diane Venora) who cheats to avoid the reality of their desolate marriage; De Niro pays the price for a life with no outside connections; and Kilmer's wife (Ashley Judd) has all but given up hope that her husband will quit his criminal career. These are men obsessed, and as De Niro and Pacino know, they'll both do whatever's necessary to bring the other down. Mann's brilliant screenplay explores these personal obsessions and sacrifices with absorbing insight, and the tension mounts with some of the most riveting action sequences ever filmed--most notably a daylight siege that turns downtown Los Angeles into a virtual war zone of automatic gunfire. At nearly three hours, the film qualifies as a kind of intimate epic, certain to leave some viewers impatiently waiting for more action, but it's all part of Mann's compelling strategy. Heat is a true rarity: a crime thriller with equal measures of intense excitement and dramatic depth, giving De Niro and Pacino a prime showcase for their finely matched talents. --Jeff Shannon
Heat Reviews:
Best movie period! 
2009-12-16 - Just watched this on Blu ray, must say for a movie that is over 10 years old, what crystal clear picture, and clear sound on the blu ray. I agree with almost everyone that did reviews on Heat, this is Mann's best film. All the actors brought their "A" game, I feel Pacino and Deniro were superb, playing off each other for that one 5 minute Diner, scene we were all waiting for to see them together finally in the movie. This is some of their best work, recently I feel both actors haven't really brought their "A" game to some of their pictures, they reunited for Righteous Kill, which i think was a bunch of strings pulled by Hollywood to get these two icons back together for a mediocre movie at best and watching that film was nothing special I felt like the performances weren't there, as if they just "phoned" it in... However in Heat like I said performances were top notch all around.
The story is so textured and layered, really get to know cop and criminal and realize both men aren't too different from each other, both are committed to what they do and both have that Alhpa Male quality, and what they do at their job, they do very well. Pacino has a tenacity, and will not quit until he gets his man dead or alive, but he is a weary, tired cop, but his dedication to the job is his caffeine. Deniro is calm, collected, a loner, he lives a solitude thief life, he's a professional criminal and knows one slip up means the end, that's why he is timid and on guard with every new person he makes contact with exceot his close allies. But if you double cross him in some way he will put you down without hesitation, it's a sense of loyality to him. But that's his one down fall, he opens up to a woman who works in a book shop. But he knows if he has to he'll pick up and disapear. The scene with Val Kilmer crashing at Deniro's pad when Val says "You need to get furniture" Deniro is a man prepared if the cops bring the Heat, he can just leave his sparse belongings and on a plane somewhere over the Pacific. Deniro also knows he's getting older and can not push his luck so one last score could mean he can retire from a thief's life.
It's this rich textured story of these men that draws in the viewer.
This is a ploy Mann uses in his films, antagonist/protagonist playing off each other, or in Miami Vice, two protagonists with different traits, different styles... playoff each other, all characters in Mann films are doppelgangers to one another.
What I like about Mann and his films are the close up shots of the actors faces, the color pallette he uses. With Collateral uses a soft color pallette because the movie is primarily during the night with Tom Cruise having Jaime Foxx drive him around to his destinations. With Miami Vice you get rich dark colors then punctuated with bright blues and whites, even in Public Enemies the color texture and lighting Mann uses brings a visceral touch I think. Scene with Deniro and Amy Brennan driving through the tunnel toward the end, you get lit up with the bleached white lights as they drive though the tunnel and the camera stays on them. Mann know's how to direct and use lighting and color to full advantage. Another thing I like about Michael Mann films his music be it using instrumental or using vocals, I really liked the music here in Heat, just brought another element.
Then of course there's the LA Bank scene shootout with automatic weapons, the sound was so clear and precise coming from the speakers, listening to the noise the machine guns made I watched in awe.
I've read some reviews about this blu ray, some favorable some not... personally my disc I didn't notice any flaws what so ever, sound i did have to turn up a tad on my TV, other than that,like I said awesome picture quality, nice sound, nice bonus features.
If you want to watch a rich story punctuated through out with some nice action scenes (like I said LA Bank robbery scene is awesome, so intense, violent, beautifully shot), top quality acting from the two main leads and the supporting cast this is a most definate worthy pick up on blu ray.
Ok...not thrilling 
2009-12-12 - When I ordered Heat on Blu Ray I was hoping to get a high quality transfer. Instead, all I received was a film that had no DTS and extra features in which do not vary from the DVD. Overall the movie is still a classic, but the BluRay was a disappointment. I'm very glad that I did not pay the full retail on this disc as it is not worth it...
De Niro and Pacino? Must own.
2009-12-10 - One of my favorite films of all time. The bank robbery scene in Heat is featured in GTA. It makes me appreciate the film even more. AQ really good.
The DVD is Better 
2009-12-09 - This is a great movie, but a terrible blu-ray disk, and a bad release.
The audio is fine, but the video is awful. The focus is completely off in some scenes. In a few places, the video visibly jumps in and out of focus. In other places, the background noise is more animated than the foreground action. The DVD release up-sampled to 1080p is actually better looking than this disk.
Even without that, several memorable lines have been removed from this version, with editing that makes it pretty obvious in at least one place.
Disappointing.
deniro and pacino are not in this movie......together
2009-12-06 - I just watched this movie again on some commercial station. It's still great. But one thing about it that I've never seen mentioned. I don't think deniro and pacino are ever in this movie at the same time. You never see their faces together at the same time(I don't think). In the restaurant, when they're talking to each other, you see one face and the back of the other's head. Same with the ending. you never see the faces together. If someone can point to a scene where you see both faces, tell me. I think when they are together , the director used doubles. Prove me wrong and I will send you a brand new dollar. It's still a great movie.
