Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a film from 1984. That movie is "City Heat".
And, unfortunately, I don't really know a whole lot about this movie. What I can tell you is that it stars Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. Clint Eastwood, I've always known to be a really good actor. And even in the movies that are not his best, still wind up being watchable. As for Burt Reynolds, I haven't really seen a ton of movies with him in it. The only two that come to mind are "All Dogs Go To Heaven", and his minor role in that remake for "The Longest Yard".
I can also tell you that this movie is, apparently, a buddy-cop movie. Which, I don't think I've seen too many of those. And I can't count the "Dirty Harry" movies because of what happens to Harry's partners in those movies, so this might be my very first one I'm experiencing. I also know that this movie didn't do well in theaters back in 1984 during Christmas, when it was going up against "Beverly Hills Cop". Which, I could totally understand why, because "Beverly Hills Cop" was a much bigger movie. That, and I also haven't heard a lot of positive things about this movie. Now, I haven't bothered to read why exactly, because I want to go into this thing as blind as possible. I haven't seen any trailers or clips from this movie, so this is going to make my experience much more interesting.
I'm certainly hoping that this movie will end up being decent, even with the negative things I've heard about this thing. And the only way I'm gonna find out how good or bad this movie can possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "City Heat".
13 minutes later
Well, guys, I will say that, while the story hasn't really gone anywhere yet, the music is great. I am really digging the music in this movie, guys. It is some awesome stuff.
15 minutes later
So one of these thugs just took 6 shots from Speer's gun, and he's still standing?! How the fuck is he still standing, much less able to walk? You would think, by this point-oh, and that's seven shots now...and he's still standing. Unless he's wearing some extremely tough body armor, which I'm not sure existed in the 1930's, then there's no...oh, and now he's dead after the eighth shot. Jesus, that took way too fucking long for that guy to die. Holy shit.
5 minutes later
You know, I never thought I would see someone playing a saxophone at a funeral. Especially since he seems to be quite a few feet from where the funeral is being taken place. Granted, I'm not someone who should be judging what should happen at someone's funeral, but it just seems a little bit weird to me. Just thought I should mention.
9 minutes later
Well, guys, I just learned a creative way to take evidence from a gun. You just shoot the bullet at a pillow, and you take the bullet with you. That is something I never would've thought of. Good to know.
8 minutes later
You know, guys, last time I checked, this movie advertised our two main stars teaming up together. But guess what? We barely even have that. So far, they have shared at least three or four scenes together, and they just go off on their separate ways. It makes me question the legitimacy of this supposed team-up. I'm certainly hoping that that they will get together and do something soon. Otherwise, this team-up will seem like a complete waste.
18 minutes later
Well, I will say that is a creative way to douse out the fire. You just take out the fire hydrant, and it will spray water at exactly where the fire is at. Again, I never would've known that, but I guess I do now.
18 minutes later
You know, out of all the things I was expecting to see in this movie, two people role-playing as Little Red Hiding Hood and the Wolf in the bedroom was not one of those things. That was...certainly different.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "City Heat". And we're closing out with a pretty good song here. Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. I can listen to the song later, probably after I'm done putting this review together. Well...what to start with first? I may as well start with the writing.
Writing in this movie is rather weak. Specifically, it has more to do with our two main characters. Because neither one of them seem to have any real depth or background. The closest we get to that is when Murphy puts down a photo frame of the two together when they use to be partners. But aside from that, nothing else comes from it. When one of the female characters, which I believe her name was Addy, asks both of them separately as to why they don't get along with each other, Speer's answer is he doesn't know. And as for Murphy, he just says it's for fun. And I think he meant that he still kinda respects Lt. Speer, even though they don't always see eye to eye. As I said, it would've been nice had we gotten some kind of character depth between the two, but here's the problem. These two don't team together until an hour and ten minutes into the movie, that's only about 97 minutes long. And I'm not counting the few scenes they share together when they are discussing the case at hand, because, as I mentioned before, they go on their separate ways after they're done. They don't share any real depth, outside of them bickering at each other or exchanging sarcastic remarks. Now for some people, that's going to be perfectly fine. But it just comes off as a little bit weak, because you could totally do something more with these two, rather than have them bicker at each other most of the time.
I want to start by talking about Murphy, which is Burt Reynolds' character. And I want to start this by talking about the plot. So, Burt Reynolds' partner, Swift, is secretly working for a mobster named Pitt. And he brings a suitcase that has the records of another mobster's gang to them. This ends up with his girlfriend, I think, getting taken hostage. And this would later turn into a scuffle, where he ends up getting killed by them while his girlfriend makes a run for it. And it later ends up with Murphy wanting to get revenge on them by taking out their gang leader. Before I go any further onto Murphy's character, every other character, aside from Murphy and Speer, ends up being rather shallow. You are either a mobster, one of their leaders, or you're either one of the two female love interests for our main stars. So I will say that the character development is rather weak in that area. Now aside from them, I want to stick with Murphy for a moment. Murphy is, honestly, the most interesting character between him and Speer. He plays up more as the wimpy cop who can barely do anything right on his own. And I really think that this movie would've worked better if it was just a solo film featuring Burt Reynolds, as he's trying to get revenge of his former partner. But because this movie insisted on having him and Clint Eastwood teaming together, I guess, maybe, the movie would've bombed if it didn't have Eastwood in a starring role. Speaking of which, before I get into more of the characters, I did look up the movies budget, and it, apparently, was about $25 million dollars. And the movie made more than $18 million above that. The reason why I bring this up was because, earlier, I mentioned that the movie didn't do well in theaters. Well, I kinda have to retract that statement, because the movie, actually, did pretty well, financially. It's just the negative reception was the only thing I was right about. So, like I said, I think it's possible the movie would probably not have done well, had Eastwood not been involved in the movie.
Speaking of which, let's talk about Eastwood's character, Lt. Speer. Speer is a cop that plays it in the mobsters faces, because he does his police work up close and personal. Well...unless if Murphy is involved, Speer really doesn't do anything and just let's Murphy do his own thing. That is, unless something happens to Speer that is close to him. By that, I mean if you get coffee or tea spilled on him, or if you make a hole on the front of his windshield, then he will go gung-ho and start being a badass while taking out these mobsters no problem. And, I can't believe I would have to make this comparison again, it reminds me a lot of what Dirty Harry would do. Where he would have the same similar police style as Harry Callahan, and would end up being sarcastic. Well, at least depending on the writing in those movies. But anyway, that's what Speer's character in this movie reminds me of. The thing, however, is that Harry actually has development. And setting aside the four sequels, Harry was an interesting character in his lone debut film. Here though, Lt. Speer really doesn't have any kind of character to him, other than being a badass when he needs to and being sarcastic when he has to share a scene with Murphy. As I said earlier, if we had gotten some kind of character depth on Lt. Speer, then I think his character would've meant more to the film, but it really doesn't. And the only reason why he's here is so we can have a buddy-cop film that barely features both of our main characters together. While I'm on the subject of our characters bickering at each other, this movie has quite a bit of humor, because this movie was advertised as a comedy. And I will say that it does kinda work here, however, I do think that the main plot, overall, of Murphy wanting to get revenge for his partner's death is seen rather as sort of an afterthought. And you might not even remember that, as to why Murphy and Lt. Speer need to team up with each other. So, on that end, the writing for our main plot seems like it's sort of there, but you're not really going to care about it, because the movie seems to want to focus on it's team up of Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. Again, what little teaming up they actually do in this movie.
So, overall, guys, the writing is kinda weak, as far as our main plot is concerned. What about the acting? Well, even though the writing here is not that great, the acting is really solid. Just about everybody here turns in an amazing showing. Even with the rather weak writing, the acting definitely makes it up here, so I can give most of the entire cast here a ton of props for making their characters work. There is one bit of acting that I felt was noticeable. And it was the scene I mentioned earlier where Speer ends up putting 8 shots into this one mobster, who was somehow still standing after taking so many gun shots. Well, after the 8th shot, it seems as though he ends up trying to fall backwards at first, but it seems like the actor might've forgotten his part, and quickly started lean forward as he falls down the stairs while passing by Lt. Speer. That, to me, was the one bit of acting that I thought felt kinda weak. But it's not that noticeable, unless you're someone like me who notices this kind of thing. Beyond that, though, the acting is great from just about the entire cast.
There really isn't a whole lot here for special effects. There are very few makeup effects on our female cast members, and that looked rather good. Things involving squibs during gunfights are done well. Pyrotechnics are also done really well. So, I can say that the special effects are really good. Costuming, before I forget to mention it, is really good, too. Including the two role players that were dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. Personally, I didn't even know that kind of role-playing existed back in the 1930's, but hey, I could be learning the origins of where role-playing came from, so who knows? Anyway, setting aside all my questions for that scene, special effects and costuming are really good.
Camerawork here is great. Our sound-mix is mixed well. Lighting is done really well. Our music is fantastic, both in score and soundtrack. This is the kind of music that would most definitely sound like it came from the 1930's, and it is great. The music ranges from either piano music, to the saxophone, to the singing of Ginny, who was Swift's lover in this movie. She has an amazing singing voice, and her music is definitely a highlight of this movie. As is the song that was starting to play during the ending credits, where it literally is the theme song for this movie, and it is also amazing. So, I can definitely say that the music certainly carries this movie forward.
Ultimately, guys, can I recommend "City Heat"? Um...kind of. If you're a fan of either Clint Eastwood or Burt Reynolds, or both, then I would say check it out. It's certainly not a terrible movie, but it definitely isn't any of their strongest roles. The one thing that this movie suffers from, at least for me, is the rather weak writing for our main characters. And the story itself, as I mentioned before, is seen more as an afterthought. I'm not really sure if I would watch this movie a second time, but who knows? If I do end up watching it again, I might watch it a couple of more times before deciding on whether or not it's worth holding on to. But, like I said, if you're a fan of either Eastwood or Reynolds, then go ahead and give it a watch. You can probably find this movie cheap on DVD and Blu-Ray for about $6. Or if you can find this thing on either Netflix or Hulu, or any other streaming service that you are using, then go ahead and give it a watch. And if you end up loving it, then, by all means, purchase it. You might really enjoy it. As for me, since I got a slight noir vibe from this movie, I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "Out of the Past". Because I love that thing so much, and I kinda want to keep that noir vibe trending for a while.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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