Heat (1995)

Al Paccino, De Niro and Val Kilmer in the same movie! And not only them but Danny Trejo, too! It's a grimy, gritty crime movie action thriller from the great gray nineties in the inner city.

The script's near poetic sometimes. You don't live with me, you live among the remains of dead people. You sift through the detritus, you read the terrain, you search for signs of passing, for the scent of your prey, and then you hunt them down. That's the only thing you're committed to. The rest is the mess you leave as you pass through.

It really struck me with that particular quote: the genius of the script. How elaborate it was. The dialog polished to the point of... a really great script.

The dialogue's balanced by short and intense bouts of action, but it feels more like a solid thriller than an action movie otherwise, as the mood easily grows brooding and dark, and character relations are a focus outside of the bank heists. When there is action it's authentic though. Things really blow up. People get shot. The dust takes a while to settle, and the main characters don't compromise. They're professionals.

It feels a bit like a mix between Takers (but way better) and... this one other thriller I can't recall the name of that really was really similar. Will update this post if I stumble upon it again.

This is one serious movie. I like the authenticity. I like the actors. I like pretty much everything about it except the sad ending, which is maybe what leads me to bring down the score from a solid five to a particularly high...

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

But such is fate. I get why they chose to take the route they did; I appreciate the unexpected, yet in this case I would really have preferred the happy Hollywood ending.