I give credit to any medium that starts with me disliking a character, then gets me to change my mind a few scenes later. We also get some memorable moments, one which will not leave my head anytime soon.After the fifty minute mark though the intensity started to die, and with it my interest.This movie is two stories that /mostly/ come together in the third act. Story one I quite liked. The killing intent Holly (Karen Young) exhibited grabbed my full attention. We also get a thoroughly despicable (if not terribly fleshed out) psychopath as a bonus.Story two was where I started to drift. Rich white dudes who think not getting hurt period can be solved with winning a fist fight. Mex's (Reynolds') self-destructive tendencies which had me pitying him, but didn't really make me feel closer to him emotionally. (Shucks, I felt closer to the Black Jack dealer.) Our lead kept sabotaging his own dreams and his character wasn't strong enough that this type of story worked for me.The ending had adequate tension, but not enough to save the movie.The two reasons I would recommend this film are 1) Karen Young's performance 7/10 stars and/or 2) You are a Burt Reynolds fan.

Burt Reynolds plays the same character again in this typical Cannon eighties movie. His character needs to get 100k, so h can move to Venice, but first he must help MacNicol do other things than drink Perrier and be scared of betting money.A girl he knows gets beat up, so he goes to the attackers dressed up in a smoking jacket, and fights them all in slow motion, using a medallion as a weapon.But he struggles to make his money, as he's a compulsive gambler, and when he wins his 100k, he bets it away, because he wants more, and more.But then he gets chased by some organised crime members, the ones who abused the girl from the first act. So Reynolds must act quick, before Statham remakes it in 2014...I don't care what the film is, but any action movie made by Cannon in the eighties is worth watching. Brosnan owned the movies, American Ninja movies were watchable, and then we had prolific actors showing up in random movies (this, and 52 pick up).This is no different, its cheaply made, focuses on Reynolds, and despite it being relatively action free, the two key action sequences are really well choreographed, and quite gruesome, which is pretty out there for a generic eighties movie.Reynolds is good, and support is also good, but generic.It won't change the way you see eighties movies, but its a little under seen treat I you come across it.Plus its the best movie ever made featuring Reynolds jumping from a height and having a hissing sound effect while falls, and then fifteen minutes later sitting on a Gondola....

I found this movie in a drunken stupor in the cheap movie bin at Wal Mart, and being the Burt Reynolds fan that I am, I picked it up. What that DVD case contained was one of the most ridiculous ever. Burt Reynolds break's a dude's leg by kicking him, slashes another guy's face with a credit card...and that's just the start of all the fun! AT the end of the film, he pushes a wall over on a bad guy, inpales on with a medal rod onto a circuit board, electrocuting him...then the best one of the film...he throws gasoline all over some poor shmuck, then Burt proceeds to jump 30 feet in the air, kick out a light bulb, which sets the gas-soaked man ablaze. Oh yeah, he also uses his the Force to pick up a butter knife when startled by the guy from Ghostbusters 2. COnfused yet? Hope so. This movie will make ya that way, so be prepared, young ones. I give this movie my best rating possible---5 bong hits out of 5!!!

"Heat" is an exceptional, vigorous and agile film, that counts with an efficient cast and a brilliant and structured story in a correct way. In this world where everybody looks for pleasures without limits, Nick Escaliente (magnificently interpreted by Burt Reynolds), a veteran combatant from Vietnam, specialist in martial arts, tries to win a lot of money in the casinos of Nevada. In his side, there are two inseparable friends, a boy (Peter MacNicol, also excellent and funny) and a prostitute. When his friend is murdered, Escaliente decides to show all his ferocity and his know-how in the martial arts, and to kill the mafioso ones. Reynolds is brilliant, and at the same time frightening as a man who carries inside of him a lot of hate and he riots and he is always ready to explode!the sequences where he avenges the friends' death and he beats to the end his enemies is of a violence and explicit plasticity. The director doesn't lose the control of the plot, and it drives the intrigue with a surgical precision, showing that the distance between the exaggerated violence and the happiness is short and fragile. I affirm that "Heat" is a "current" western, because the story happens in a dangerous and lawless Las Vegas, where the smallest negligence can mean the end!and "Heat" portrays this city with fidelity and professionalism, offering a plausible, pleasant and unforgettable show!this film really needs to be seen, appreciated and applauded!Burt Reynolds respects, as always, his fans, and he offers his more common acting: the solitary man, tough, charming, cynic and extremely lethal, who is always in the limit. The film seems to have been done in the measure for the star, and it still reaches its objective, guaranteed a hallucinating, explosive and touching day in Las Vegas!rent it, and you will understand why!!!