Heat (1995)
93%RT Audience Score: 94%
Awards & Nominations: 14 nominations
Though Al Pacino and Robert De Niro share but a handful of screen minutes together, Heat is an engrossing crime drama that draws compelling performances from its stars — and confirms Michael Mann’s mastery of the genre.
Heat is the kind of movie that makes you want to rob a bank just so you can feel as cool as Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. But then you remember that you’re not a criminal mastermind and you’d probably get caught within five minutes. Still, the movie is a classic for a reason – the action scenes are intense, the cast is top-notch, and the coffee shop scene between De Niro and Pacino is iconic. Plus, Val Kilmer and Ashley Judd’s relationship drama adds a nice touch of humanity to all the heist shenanigans. Overall, Heat is a must-watch for anyone who loves a good crime thriller. Just maybe don’t get any ideas about robbing a bank afterwards.
Production Company(ies)
Orion-Nova Productions,
Distributor
Warner Bros.
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
1219 Dodds Circle, East Los Angeles, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for violence and language
Year of Release
1995
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital SDDS Dolby Atmos
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Aspect ratio:2.39 : 1
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Runtime:2h 50m
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Language(s):English, Spanish
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 15, 1995 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 27, 1999
Genre(s)
Crime/Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Diane Venora, Natalie Portman, directed by Michael Mann, written by Michael Mann, crime, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Michael Wilmington, Anthony Lane, Steven Rea, David Ansen, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Dave Kehr, rated R, produced by Art Linson, Michael Mann, Warner Bros., Surround, Mono, Neil McCauley, Lt Vincent Hanna, Chris Shiherlis, Nate, Michael Cheritto, Justine Hanna
Worldwide gross: $187,436,818
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $368,568,233
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 413
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 40,192,828
US/Canada gross: $67,436,818
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $132,605,051
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 573
US/Canada opening weekend: $8,445,656
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $16,607,199
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 742
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $60,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $117,981,591
Production budget ranking: 318
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $63,533,087
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $187,053,556
ROI to date (est.): 103%
ROI ranking: 926
Robert De Niro – Neil McCauley
Val Kilmer – Chris Shiherlis
Jon Voight – Nate
Tom Sizemore – Michael Cheritto
Diane Venora – Justine Hanna
Director – Michael Mann
Producer – Art Linson, Michael Mann
Writer – Michael Mann
Director(s)
Michael Mann
Writer(s)
Michael Mann
Producer(s)
Art Linson, Michael Mann
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
14 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (89) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (78) | Rotten (11)
When Pacino’s loud, bruised cop and De Niro’s canny crook stare at each other, you can read something spent and weary in their eyes and voices. The heat is hell. So are their jobs — but somebody’s got to do them.
April 29, 2014 | Rating: 3.5/4
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
The taciturn De Niro and the braying Pacino share a flawless scene over a cup of coffee, but the real honors go to Val Kilmer and Ashley Judd as a warring, loving couple.
April 29, 2014
Anthony Lane
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
So why doesn’t Heat, with its elaborately staged, tautly edited robberies, its killer cast, edgy score and elegant cinematography, offer more satisfaction? It’s the script, stupid.
April 29, 2014 | Rating: 2.5/4
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
Just when it seemed that the only hope for crime movies lay in the postmodernist artifice of films like Pulp Fiction, Mann reinvests the genre with brooding, modernist conviction. This one sticks to your gut.
April 29, 2014
David Ansen
Newsweek
TOP CRITIC
There’s nothing really new in this lengthy 1995 thriller by writer-director Michael Mann about cops and robbers in Los Angeles, but it has craft, pacing, and an overall sense of proportion, three pretty rare classic virtues nowadays.
April 29, 2014
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
An odd though often entertaining blend of The Asphalt Jungle and Oprah, a traditional cops-and-robbers story weirdly fitted out with long, earnest discussions of interpersonal relationships.
April 29, 2014 | Rating: 3/4
Dave Kehr
New York Daily News
TOP CRITIC
One of the best crime movies ever made…
June 21, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
Mann ups the ante on all of the formulaic elements by instilling them with a grandiloquence they may not even deserve.
April 10, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
The movie is lacking in both heart and soul, but it makes up for it with sheer voyeurism.
March 10, 2022 | Rating: 3/4
Mal Vincent
The Virginian-Pilot
In Heat, all the meticulous authenticity and coolly portrayed characters inherent to a Michael Mann picture fulfill a crime epic of incredible scale and ambition.
February 23, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
Twenty-six years after it was released, I’m not sure that Heat has ever been bettered as an action film, or as a crime drama.
December 29, 2021
Graeme Tuckett
Stuff.co.nz
Heat gives us one of crime cinema’s great cat-and-mouse chases, and brilliantly pairs it with the little everyday dramas of family, romance, parenting and work-life balance in the life-and-death professions of both cops and robbers.
September 13, 2021
Joe Nolan
Nashville Scene…
Plot
Master criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) plans one last big heist before retiring, while Lieutenant Hanna (Al Pacino) attempts to track him down and deal with the chaos in his own life in the crime drama Heat.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
In Heat, Al Pacino’s character deals with the infidelity of his wife and the mental health of his stepdaughter.
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