johnlink ranks RED HEAT (1988)
I started this movie not knowing if I had seen it or not. I’ve viewed most of the 80s Arnold Schwarzenegger library over the years, and this title seemed familiar. As I began it, however, I realized that this was a new one for me.
I watched RED HEAT (1988) on 11.16.10. It was my first viewing of the film. TRAILER HERE
This is about what I expected. An 80s action flick with a sampling of humor. A homoerotic opening scene in a nude spa gets us started on a less-than-serious tone. We finish with a fairly cool bus chase, and one of the lamest final confrontations in action history. Overall though, we get a fun enough, if never great, Arnold vehicle.
This movie may set the world record for bad guys who can’t shoot. Twice the lead villain fires at Arnold, first from six feet away in a small hallway, and in the climax, straight on from maybe twenty feet. Needless to say, he doesn’t hit the protagonist.
The acting in this is what you expect, but the writing is slightly better than I thought. I found myself interested in the backstory. The locker key is an effective enough MacGuffin, and the stakes are high enough that we care. The Russian opening in contrast to the Chicago lifestyle is well managed as well. This film would have done better with someone stronger than Jim Belushi. He sounds like Bill Murray in this film, and it would probably be a classic if the latter had been cast instead. Heck, the film has Laurence Fishburne (back when he was Larry), and he would have been a better number two for Arnold.
SCORES
FILM: 4; MOVIE: 6; ACTING: 3; WRITING: 6
4+6+3+6+0=19
FINAL SCORE: 4.75
