Heat (DVD, 1999)

If you've seen HEAT before you've seen L.A. TAKEDOWN ... well then, you'll have to forgive the hoary old cliché "it suffers in comparison." For the latter was in fact Michael Mann's made-for-TV 'original' - like his 1986 MANHUNTER, an adaptation of Thomas Harris' best-selling psycho-thriller Red Dragon, the second version 'remake' (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) is known as the better product.
Which is a pity, really, as both originals were slickly-made and engrossing thrillers, with cold professionals both coolly and coldly pursuing that which neither know anything else but ... Robert DeNiro grimmaces as per, and Al Pacino simply plays Al Pacino. In what is possibly the most electrifying two minutes of 1990s cinema, Pacino invites DeNiro for a 'cup of cawfey' and a quiet chat. In both film versions, both characters admit, with sardonic understatement, how their respective lives are empty and hollow: the bankrobber's is limited to any relationship from which he can walk away in 30 seconds flat, and the policeman's dedication to his career is threatening the loss of the woman he loves. Each man concedes a brief empathy for the other's mirrored emptiness - it makes the closing hand-clasping scene almost touching ...

There are entire takes and scenes where the dialogue is word-perfect. Only Patrick McLaren (LA TAKEDOWN) becomes Neil McCauley (HEAT) - but they still sell swimming-pools - and the Waynegro character boasts added tattoos and sleaze in HEAT. And Hey! whaddya know: Wes Studi (DANCES WITH WOLVES, LAST OF THE MOHICANS, GERONIMO) actually plays a Good Guy for a change! Both films are, of course, ridden with the tough-guy aphorisms one can nowadays expect from an action thriller (and complain into half-empty pint glasses when they're absent from the anticipated excitement) - "We're sitting here drinkin' cawfey, but if I see you coming out of a score, you're going down" ...

Having said that, HEAT - despite its 163 minutes running time ... is riveting. The dialogue is tight. The downtown gun-battle (filmed in downtown Los Angeles) sounds alarmingly genuine, as the staccato of automatic gunfire reverberates both loudly and impressively between the skyscrapers - full marks to the Sound Effects boffins! If you're stereo-ed up to your amp, crank up the Wattage for an ear-shattering and neighbour-rousing experience!