Heat - A game of 'cat and mouse' (with machine guns)

Heat' was the movie many cinema devotees had been waiting for - for it was the first chance to see modern screen legends Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro lock horns and face off against each other (or at least share some 'proper' screen time since 1974's 'The Godfather Part II').  And the posters and general marketing didn't disappoint - depicting the two acting legends looking equally fierce while wielding some seriously big guns (plus you had Val Kilmer thrown in there for good measure, but - despite him being roughly at the height of his fame in 1995 - no one was really talking about him).  But did it deliver?

It terms of sheer scale it certainly did.  Weighing in at around two and a half hours, 'Heat' is certainly an epic crime tale about a burned-out cop (Pacino) trying to catch a notorious bank robber (DeNiro) in the act.  Although most people would have gone to see it based on those two names alone, there was plenty of other star power involved.  I've already mentioned Val Kilmer, but there was also (reasonably well-known faces - in comparison) Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Wes Studi, Danny Trejo and even a young Natalie Portman.  However, no matter how many other faces you see, most people just wanted to watch the two leads slug it out (either physically or metaphorically).  But, as the early reviews rolled in, the one main criticism was regarding the lack of screen time the two share.

Yes, Pacino and DeNiro's performances are as good as you'd come to expect from them and if you're only watching the film to see a crime movie, regardless of who's in it, then you'll certainly get your money's worth here.  But the simple fact remains that, despite it being an excellent film, the two men only share a single scene together (or at least one where they're allowed to do a good bit of verbal sparring, like we'd come to expect from them).  And, of course, that scene is awesome, but it lasts for about five minutes out of a film that's nearly three hours.  Yes, 'Heat' is great, but I can't help but feel that the producers missed a trick at not getting the two men to share more screen time and that the marketing campaign kind of lied to us.

Don't go expecting too much action either.  The amount of guns displayed in the promotional material is about as misleading as making it appear that Pacino and DeNiro would being the same scene.  Yes, there is an excellent gunfight using M16s in the middle of Los Angeles, but this comes about two thirds of the way through and only lasts a little bit longer than the two leads' shared scenes.
The bottom line is that 'Heat' is a great crime movie, filled with plenty of 'cat and mouse' antics where Pacino gradually gets closer and closer to DeNiro, however I - like many others - felt it could have been so much more.  The next time we'd get to see these two heavyweights together would be 'Righteous Kill' which kind of disappeared without a trace.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that