Movie of the Week: Heat
Alexa: “Heat” is a good movie that could have been a great movie with some tighter editing. The things the film does well, it does really well. Michael Mann’s artful direction instills the movie with an almost noirish mood, and he creates an impeccable sense of place with his careful crafting of the LA crime scene. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro give outstanding performances in their own right, but there is something magical about watching these two greats act opposite each other. During the scene when Hanna and McCauley confront each other in the coffee shop, I couldn’t look away. These are two men who are more alike than not but they’re consumed by divergent paths, and Pacino and De Niro truly mold them into complex characters. The action sequences are expertly choreographed and shot, with the climactic bank heist an exceptionally visceral experience. But between all of these compelling moments are long slogs of relationship building and character development that drag the fi...