Director Michael Mann+Pacino+DeNiro=Epic Cop Drama

Michael Mann already had a lot of critical acclaim from the 80's hit series "Miami Vice" and more recentley the movies "The Insider" and "Collateral". In the middle of it, the core, is the strongest of them all...HEAT.

The plot when laid out on a small table, seems pretty basic, perhaps even cliche'. An L.A. detective is trying to handle the rigors of everyday life on and off the job, while at the same time trying to stop a tightknit group of men who are performing various high profile heists all over L.A.

Add Michael Mann's vision, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Tom Sizemore, Val Kilmer, and Ashley Judd. Add several smaller sub-plots that don't stem out but run alongside the main plot so smoothly they almost meld perfectly within it. Add all of it up, and you have the best Crime Drama in the past 20 years.

Al Pacino stars as detective Vincent Hanna. He loves what he does, and can't imagine doing anything else. Everything crumbles around him, as he's always walking in a world of crime and trying to catch the bad guys. Even his marriage is on the rocks. It doesn't matter because he can't stop what he's doing. His character is one of the most driven we've ever seen in film in recent memory, and noone else perhaps could have brought that to life than Pacino.

Robert DeNiro is Neil McCauley. He's more than a petty thief: He's the mastermind behind a crew of hardened men who look up to him as almost something of a father figure. Explosive Ordnance, timelines, high tech communications, infiltration..you name the trade, they've performed the raid with it. They have one Final Heist to pull off after running into various difficulties with a rogue crew member and other things that start bringing the HEAT their way.

What makes HEAT better than just a "cops vs. robbers" crime drama is, well, everything else that's in it. The sub-plots, as mentioned before, are very tightly connected and not scattered loose ends that seem like filler to us at the end of the movie.

There are first, all of the other actors in the film and the things they contribute to the moving power of this story:

Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis. He's got a gambling habit, and an upset girlfriend who's ready to leave with their small son at any time. Tom Sizemore is Michael Cheritto, perhaps the closest to Neil besides Kilmer's character, and as hardened a criminal as they come. Joh Voight is Nate, the man of calm demeanor who finds Neil various scores to be set up with. Danny Trejo as Trejo, another loyal member of the crew.

William Fichtner is a money moving mogul who's also after McCauleys head but soon find's the tables are turned. Kevin Gage is Waingro, a cocky biker type who also has a part as a crewmember, and later on seems to have something else he's doing on the side that is driving the L.A.P.D. batty as they struggle to find more answers, while at the same time trying to not run out of time in finding out how to catch the crew red handed...

The character depth is awesome as we don't find ourself cheering for either side, but enthralled by their colorful personalities of drive, passion, and loyalty. Thier girlfriends and wives are worried, mad, or walking out the door as their men hit head on in a battle of good vs. evil.

The movie is pretty long but never seems to drag, as said before, the subplots all roll together well to never leave us to far off course, while at the same time moving the life of each person on both sides of the law forward to a most dramatic conclusion.

There is suspense around every corner, and it comes again, like Michael Mann's career, to the middle of the timeline for the big bang. We have an awesome shootout in the streets of Los Angeles that would make Al Capone tremble. Automatic weaponfire and the Hunter becoming the hunted as we follow Pacino and DeNiro, two men who in so many ways are so much alike, beyond the point of no return.