Heat

Year 2, Day 226 - 8/14/10 - Movie #592

BEFORE: I've been avoiding this one due to its length, just shy of 3 hours, but in retrospect maybe that's not too bad. I can stay up late on Saturday night to finish it, and I can't really close out the cop/crime category without watching it. This is the 2nd of the three team-ups between DeNiro and Pacino, the others being "Righteous Kill" and "The Godfather, Part II" (though they shared no screen time in that one).

THE PLOT: A Los Angeles crime saga that focuses on the lives of two men on opposite sides of the law - one a detective; the other a thief.

AFTER: Do you figure that they flipped a coin to see who got which role? Essay topic: How would the film be different if the two lead actors swapped roles?

Unfortunately, DeNiro and Pacino don't share much screen time here, either - except for the ending scenes, and a notable scene in which they go out for coffee together. That's right, the master thief Neil McCauley (DeNiro, last seen in "Stardust") and Lt. Vincent Hanna (Pacino, last seen in "The Insider") sit down and have a face-to-face chat over coffee, to discuss the situation, and their natures. It's part of this film's examination of what it means to be a career cop, and what it means to be a career criminal.

You get the feeling that maybe these guys might have been friends, if they weren't on opposite sides of the law. I can't really say they respect each other, because it wouldn't make sense for a cop to respect a criminal, or vice versa - but they each are forced to acknowledge that the other is very good at what he does. The irony is that neither character seems able to have a stable relationship with the opposite sex - Hanna's on his third marriage, which is falling apart, because he's unable to share his emotions, or talk about his day ("Hey honey, let me tell you about the dead hooker that we found in motel room today...") while McCauley follows the advice of not forming any permanent attachments, since he might have to pack up and leave town to evade the law at any moment.

Is the movie too long? Perhaps. Is it overly complicated? Possibly - but life is complicated sometimes, so I'm prepared to give it a pass. And the life of a top cop, or a top thief, is probably extensively complicated, and when they intersect, it makes for good entertainment for us at home. The preparations for the heists are definitely complicated, which I appreciated, and watching the police work breaking apart the crimes, and tracking down the perps, was delightfully intricate as well. Watching hunches pay off, and small clues lead to bigger ones, is a delight for me - probably would be less so if it was my job, and not part of my nightly entertainment.

Like last night's film, the climactic showdown takes place at an airport - nice coincidence.

Tonight I've got to dust off the old DENIR-O-meter (patent pending) - haven't used it in a while, I hope it still works...

Also starring (and this is a huge cast of a-listers AND b-listers) Val Kilmer (last seen in "The Real McCoy"), Tom Sizemore (last seen in "Blue Steel"), Mykelti Williamson (last seen in "The Assassination of Richard Nixon"), Jon Voight (last seen in "Zoolander"), Amy Brenneman (last seen in "Casper"), Ashley Judd (last seen in "De-Lovely"), Dennis Haysbert (last heard in "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas"), Natalie Portman (last seen by me at Comic-Con, before that in "The Professional"), Ted Levine (last seen in "American Gangster"), Danny Trejo (last seen in "From Dusk Till Dawn"), William Fichtner (last seen in "The Perfect Storm"), with cameos from Hank Azaria (last seen in "Run, Fatboy, Run"), Henry Rollins, Tone Loc, Jeremy Pivan and Tom Noonan (last seen in "Synechdoche, New York", but more on him tomorrow)

RATING: 8 out of 10 hockey masks

DENIR-O-METER: 6 out of 10 - Bobby D. seems pretty reserved here, like he's holding back. His thief character does a slow smolder, while Pacino gets most of the best lines, and is much more animated.