Red Heat - I finally ‘got’ this film

Like many, I became a fan of Arnie in the late eighties/early nineties, however, despite about three viewings of ‘Red Heat’ I never really liked it.  Until now.  My initial disapproval of the film was the ‘lack of action.’ I guess I was too used to the big man mowing down hordes of bad-guys with machine guns, ala Commando, Predator and Terminator.

But, although the action scenes are definitely subdued (when comparing them to Schwarzenegger’s other output), there is actually some in there somewhere.  I guess that ‘Red Heat’ normally gets lumped into Arnie’s other work and so a lot of people call it an ‘action’ movie.  As I said, there are a few shoot-outs and car chase, but ‘action’ is second to its primary genre, which is ‘buddy cop’ film.

When you ignore the lack of cracking skulls and just focus on the relationship between the two mismatched leads, i.e. the tough Russian cop and wacky Chicago detective, then you’ll find this could well be the most perfectly-formed buddy cop movie ever.  The Schwarzenegger and Belushi combo works brilliantly.  Their opposite personas play of each other and Red Heat could almost be considered a comedy rather than an action movie based on how many one-liners there are in there.

Basically, if you’re looking for out and out action, then this movie will probably fall short of your expectations (like it did with me for so many years).  However, if you’re looking for a no-frills buddy cop film that is just simple and effective, then this one will fill an hour and a half of your life.  It’s not ‘classic’ Schwarzenegger, but it does the job.

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