Off for 3 weeks from 7th December to India; hope the mess this site is in is cleared up by the time ...
Off for 3 weeks from 7th December to India; hope the mess this site is in is cleared up by the time I get back & that the number of cheats & churners will have decreased. Season's greetings to you all. xx
Member since:10.10.2002
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Eastwood and Reynolds star as a Speer and Murphy, a cop and ex cop turned private eye respectively who often clash with each other (due to Reynolds leaving the force to set up in his own investigation business) but have a sort of love hate relationship. Murphy's partner is murdered by gangsters and he goes on a vendetta pitting gangster against gangster so that they wipe each other out, much to Eastwood's dismay, but has to team up with him to work together anyway.
The story is no great shakes, but it is amusing to watch Clint Eastwood (stern and moody) and Burt Reynolds (cheeky and comical) together on screen. I didn't feel it was that good a film considering the calibre of both actors. You could say it was one of those "nice if these two get together in an action comedy flick" type films, but I found myself cringing throughout the film and wondering "Really what were they thinking?" It definitely wasn't either of their best work.
I have always been a great fan of Clint Eastwood; those smoulderingly sexy eyes are just lovely, but I have to say that the squinty eyed look was extremely overused in this film. Burt Reynolds has never been a favourite of mine and he didn't change my opinion of him from watching him overdo the comedy in this film. One of the stupidest scenes, although some might think it's the funniest, was when Reynolds' character pulls out and uses one gun after another, each time a bigger one and Speer outdoes him by pulling out bigger ones followed by bigger ones. This was taking the spoof thing too far for me, I found it very annoying…
City Heat is set in the early 30s around prohibition time. You get a feeling of déjà vu with some scenes as the gangster action and the sparring between the two leads seems somewhat familiar. Personally I found it overly clichéd… Then again, I'm not a fan of spoof movies which I didn't realise this was until it was too late!
Starring double trouble Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, with Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn, Tony Lo Bianco, Richard Roundtree and Rip Torn in supporting roles, City Heat could be classed as a gangster spoof movie. It was directed by Richard Benjamin and released way back in late 1984. The screenplay was by Sam Brown and Joseph Stinson and it was produced by Fritz Manes.
The film was certified PG as some scenes may not be suitable for young children and runs for about 1 hour 40 minutes.
You can pick up the DVD of the film from Amazon Marketplace for about £5 (depending on availability). I found it very difficult to source anywhere that's selling the DVD but lovefilm.com have it on their rental list if you want to try them or maybe try your usual DVD rental source. Was it really deemed such a bad film that no one can be bothered to sell the DVD? Of course, there's always ebay!
I'd be generous rating this any more than 4 out of 10 and no, I definitely wouldn't watch it again. You'd have to be really crazy about both leads and / or into gangster spoof movies to really enjoy this film and even though (as previously mentioned) I do like Clint Eastwood, this film was somewhat of a letdown. Maybe they were going through a quiet time with films and just decided to do this one to earn some big bucks? I don't know, but it felt like it was a vehicle just to get them both some exposure.
Trivia: it was amusing to see Irene Cara as a singer in the film who was one of the actresses in Fame - now how many of you remember THAT film?
Pictures of City Heat DVD
Eastwood & Reynolds in a publicity shot
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.....the Bollywood ones are more colourful somehow.......R. xxx
greenierexyboy 10.06.2008 12:17
Burt Reynolds, bless him: he CAN act, he just ended up starring in countless car crash movies where he didn't have to. Do you know he turned down the part in Terms of Endearment that won Nicholson his second Oscar? Clever boy...
HotBabes 02.06.2008 11:45
I wouldn't want to watch this although lie you, I like Eastwood but Reynolds always seems a bit 'smarmy' and creepy to me lol. x
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