Rating of
4/4
"Heat" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/27/11
An obsessive robbery homicide detective is locked in a battle of wits with an ingenious crew of professional criminals looking to score a multi-million dollar bank heist under his very nose. When you see a cast list like this one you know you're in for something special, but Heat is not just special; it's an absolute masterclass. It's a fairly common formula in this day and age, showing cop and criminal as two sides of the same coin, but the way Mann effortlessly flits between both sets of superbly realised characters has never been bettered and paved the way for the modern cop drama including everything from Infernal Affairs to The Dark Knight. The performances are all, of course, top notch and every aspect of the film that surrounds them is faultlessly engineered to create a near perfect heist movie. The bank shoot out that turns the streets of L.A. into a war zone is astonishing in itself and candidate for best action sequence ever filmed. The soundtrack has maybe dated a little in places and some of the domestic drama a little heavy handed compared to the levels of sophistication shown in telling the life stories of these men born of violence, but it is all interwoven into something that exceeds the sum of its parts. A modern classic.
