Customer Reviews

Red Heat

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

if you like buddy cop movies,you should like this one.the film stars
Arnie as strait laced, no nonsense Moscow detective Captain Ivan
Danko,who must team up with loose cannon,goof ball,undisciplined
Chicago cop Sgt.Art Ridzik(James Belushi). i won't give away why they
have to team up.i'll let you watch the movie to find out yourself.these
two are about as mismatched a pair as possible.the movie is ripe with
misunderstandings and comedic moments owing to the different tactics
each employ on the case.Belushi and Arnie work great off each
other.this is really a fun movie.in my mind,it's better than that other
buddy movie "48 Hours" which pairs up Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy.if
you like that movie,i can't see how you would not like "Red Heat".one
of the elements that make this film work is the fact it takes place in
1988,where the political climate between Russia and the U.S was much
different than today.anyway,for me,"this movie is funny,action packed
and all around entertaining.i give "Red Heat" 4/5

A fun shoot-im-up with lots of good chase scenes and a few good plot twists. One of the things that make the movie is Arnold going around strait faced and like the terminator without the metal endoskeleton.

Thoroughly rotten bad guy and drug dealer Viktor Rostavile `Rosta' (Ed O'Toss) flees the USSR after encountering Capt. Ivan Danko `USSR State Police'. We find that he has big plans in Chicago where he plans to do a deal with Abdul Elijah `incarcerated Revolutionary political leader' (Brent Jennings). Abdul has an agenda of his own. Everyone's plans must be adjusted as Danko turns up in Chicago and teams up with Det. Sgt. Art Ridzik `Chicago Police Dept.' (James Belushi) to track down and retrieve Rosta.

In the process of tracking we meet all kinds of dangerous criminals and beautiful women. Ridzik almost gets killed because of his instant affinity with a blond wayward nurse; he is in for a surprise. We also have the obligatory vehicle chase scene with a different twist.

Aside from the main players there are quite a few recognizable character actors which add significantly the movie.

Ahh... nothin' like an over-the-top Schwarzenegger vehicle to get me over my 80s action flick D.T.s! And ya gotta admit, 'Red Heat' can be pretty hokey at times. Take Arnie's weird attempt at a Russian accent, for example. Except for switchin' his Vs with Ws like Chekov from 'Star Trek' (bet'cha ten-to-one Walter Koenig actually helped him out with his "accent"), he sounds pretty much the same as he always did... only with more of a monotone, if such a thing is possible. And his emoting of anger (the only emotion most of his characters seem capable of doing) is just as bad as ever. Needless to say, I love every campy moment of it!

Then there's Jim Belushi, the comedic side of this preposterous fish-out-of-water buddy-cop story as he plays the kinda character he does better than almost anybody: a wise-@$$ who's always got some kinda smart-aleck comeback for everything. Ya know, kinda like Bill Murray, except a bit beefier, thereby making him a more suitable action-film sidekick. Not only does he help the main man out by tracking down a Soviet drug dealer through the mean streets of Chicago, he also helps set up the smattering of culture-clash gags going throughout the movie for his stoic partner to knock down... and vice-versa. And just when ya thought all that 'glastnost' and 'perestroika' stuff wasn't gonna work out...

And what's an Arnie flick without a few hilariously implausible action scenes? They save the best for last here as both the bad guy and the good guys do a charter bus chase & game of 'chicken' through a seedy area of the windy city, with one of the buses meetin' up with a train. Warner Bros. would lift the latter part of this action sequence from this flick and do it a lot better in "The Fugitive" movie several years later. Which I'm sure was their revenge for 'Red Heat' lifting the infamous 'back-lit Dirty Harry emerging from the shadows to take on the bad guys at the amusement park' climax from "Sudden Impact" and using it as part of Arnie's one-on-one "High Noon"-type shootout with the main heavy. Adding to this amusing development was the fact that our Austrian hero used a .44 Magnum revolver to mete out final justice. Coincidence? I think NOT...

Speakin' of the .44 Magnum: there was one shootout scene where Arnie fired off more than six shots with the gun without reloading once! Even Dirty Harry hadda reload every once in a while! How d'ya think he came up with that "Did I fire six shots... or only five?" routine?! Sheesh-- whatever happened to realism in action flicks, huh?! I swear...

BTW this DVD includes the movie both in widescreen and pan-&-scan aspect ratios. Personally, I could care less whether or not I watch this in one format or the other, but at least the disc's producers had the common courtesy to give you, the Arnie-action-movie-loving DVDphile, a choice in the matter. And if you're deaf or hard of hearing, here's a bit of warning: the subtitles don't always completely match the spoken dialogue. So if ya really wanna know what's bein' said, you'd better have the screenplay handy, or learn to read lips...

'Late

In "Red Heat", Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an iron-man Russian police officer who chases a rather nasty drug czar to Chicago. There he is partenered with James Belushi, a good, but sloppy cop. The two shoot up half the city as they close in on Vicktor Roskov. This movie is pretty much what you'd expect out of an '80s action comedy, vulger and bloody. Walter Hill basicly reworks the same formula from "48 Hours", but he knows what he's doing. I think that it is funnier and more excellerating. There is even an air of mystery and clues that have to be figured out, so it's marginally smarter than your average action thriller. It also has a few future stars, Gina Gershon and Laurance Fishburne. But it is definatly Arnold and Jim's show all the way. It will not change your world, but it is good (not clean, though) entertainment

This is an awsome movie. It stars Jim Bekushi and Arnold Schwarenegger. I like the part where they chicken with a bus and almost kill the bad guy.

Yes ! Mister ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER in this splendid movie still play admirably, wonderfully a secret agent of K.G.B in the old-established which was the U.R.S.S. MOTHERLAND ! And who's the antagonistic AGENT U.S.? Surely one of the best actors U.S. in his generation ! Best as much as SCHWARZIE which his not other which MISTER JAMES BELUSHI ! Nobody could be interppret so much than him this splendid role who's consist to frustrate and to be an anti-establishment agent ! I've seen this movie iwith VHS system, and i've bought this DVD for admire the DVD QUALITY !
THANKS MISTER JAMES BELUSHI and always good MISTER SCHWARZIE !

Ivan Danko (Schwarzenegger), a Russian police officer is sent to Chicago to find a psychopathic drug dealer. His new partner is Jim Belushi! They don't like each other, but hey, isn't that the key to good buddy flicks? YES. Danko fights guys in the snow at the beginning of the movie which is very amusing and he talks about his family to Belushi. At Danko's apartment, the super makes fun of his last name, disrespectful! Then there's a huge shoot-out in the hallways of the apartments and it's uptight! Talk about action-packed, Danko drives a city bus and plays chicken with the bad guy. Colossal! I've never seen two people play chicken with buses. It was amazing and then Danko exterminated the evil chap. Although, this film wasn't a hit with Schwarzenegger's fans, I loved every minute of it. It was honorable how Danko saluted Belushi at the end and his country. Pure integrity!

Ivan Danko (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a tough Moscow cop on the trail of Viktor Rostavili (Ed O'Ross) the drug dealer who killed his partner. When Viktor turns up in Chicago, having paid an American woman to marry him and being held by the local police on minor charges, Danko is sent to bring him back.

The Soviet government does not want to tell the Americans just how important a prisoner they have and so, unalerted to the danger, the Chicago cops arrange a casual handover and the rest of Viktor's gang manage to spring him. In the process, one of the two Chicago cops with Danko is killed and that leaves him and Art Ridzik (James Belushi) together on a mission. They have both lost a partner to Viktor and they want to get him.

Thrown into the mix is the inevitable element that both men are seen as unreliable by their superiors and that, while they start out with a lot of mutual suspicion, it turns into respect as they become buddies.

All of the above sounds pretty much the standard Hollywood cop story formula and that does not bode well but this movie wins on its execution and balance. It's very well edited with a constant but not overwhelming flow of action and a script that gives both Belushi and Schwarzenegger occasion to deliver moments of levity.

Both leads are well cast and they do a good job together and you can believe not just in the characters but in the way that they rub along together.

Despite the fact that parts of the movie were shot in Russia and Eastern Europe using local actors, the movie does not seem to move beyond a stereotyped view of the people and country. That is really just a small criticism though and the important thing is that this is one of the best buddy-cop movies around.

Red Heat is a 4 star movie because I like How Jim and Arnold play off of each other well in the movie and it shows how the russians and the usa are totally different but can still work togther/

There is nothing very new here,and indeed,it can be taken as a reprise of director Walter Hill's earlier and similarly themed movie "48 Hours"
Arnie plays a Soviet policeman sent to Chicago to bring back the Soviet Union's premiere drug dealer.He is "assisted",if that is indeed the appropriate word ,by a slobbish Chicago cop,played by James Belushi.Naturally it is not a routine assignment and much mayhem ensues before the predictable ending/The scenes in Russia are well staged and there is a chase sequence in Chicago,between two buses that makes a change from the more predictable cars.
Schwartzenneger is an under-appreciated comedic talent and his grim monosyllabic characterization is offset by Belushi's more fluid,and seemingly improvised style
The Soviets,or at least the Russians ,come out of this in a positive light (the villain is ,Arnie is at pains to point out a Georgian---interestingly so was the villified Stalin)I wonder if this is significant in securing Soviet co-operation in location shooting in Moscow.

There are some nice one-liners and the whole thing is diverting enough brain candy propelled along with the director's customary assured professionalism