Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2604 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-11-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic, Romanian, Bulgarian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 164 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Having developed his skill as a master of contemporary crime drama, writer-director Michael Mann displayed every aspect of that mastery in Heat, an 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, Heat 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

Video Description
DVD Special Features

Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Language in Dolby Digital 5.1: English/French
Subtitles: English/French/Arabic/Spanish/German/Romanian/English for the hearing impaired

Synopsis
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are finally together on screen in this riveting story about an intense rivalry between expert thief Neil McCauley (De Niro) and volatile cop Vincent Hanna (Pacino). McCauley will stop at nothing to do what he does best and neither will Hanna, even though it means destroying everything around them, including the people they love. With a solid supporting cast that includes Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Ashley Judd, and Natalie Portman, HEAT is a truly epic crime story.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic!!
I absolutely love this film. It has the perfect balance between action and drama and the performances are truely great. I love the fact that my two favourite actors (Pacino and DeNiro) are in it as enemies.

I cannot believe that some people have given it 1 star!!

Vincent Hanna: You know what they're looking at?
Depending on your mood and expectations, you may have differing opinions about Heat.
My personal opinion of this movie is that it is like a strong coffee (albeit in a large mug) without milk or sugar. Why is that? This movie needed to be watched with patience and thought to handle the length.
Some of the relationship themes were unneccessary and the pacing of the story does drag from it. As a result, this movie drove the critics into a "Don't waste my mf time!" frenzy.
Most memorable scene was when De Niro's got that fatal phone call from Jon Voight.
Heat may have been awarded with 6 nominations, but that does not mean it's everyone cup of tea or coffee.
If you like this or want to see something similiar, there is:
Infernal Affairs
The Departed
Face off

Heat is a true rarity
Some say Michael Mann is an acquired taste. I say an appreciation of Mann's films, notably Heat, The Insider, Collateral, Ali, Thief and Manhunter, means you have taste. At sixty-three, he's a world-class filmmaker who's still breaking rules and rubbing nerves raw. The bottom line on this 1995 classic is that is a very smart, tightly paced, action-packed crime thriller with beautiful cinematography and great performances underscored by a compulsive tension that builds from frame one until the end of the movie.

This is a film for blokes; the bottom line on the females is that because the film is so unconventional and densely plotted, it left many of our make-up lovin' brethren in the dust. Too bad. They're all lined up to take shots at a film which can only be described as "rubbish" by a viewer who simply couldn't follow the bread crumbs.

This movie is the "best thriller of the last twenty years," UNCUT magazine; Nick James (award winning Journalist) wrote a book about the movie 7 years ago. To be completely honest, it took me two or three viewings to really appreciate how great the plot points worked together. But the movie moves so well.

Again, this is a great film for people who will appreciate the clever, intelligent way director/writer Michael Mann constructs the whole, however i believe Mann sometimes overreaches, such as including an unnecessary subplot involving a serial killer - Waingrove.

The soundtrack (available on Amazon) is astonishing and I found the music to be faultless as, like the moody backdrops, these added another dimension of drama and accent to the scenes. I know this review has wondered into the realms of awe-struck hero-worship, but I cannot praise this film enough. Bottom line - this is a movie for grownups, the rest need not bother.