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City Heat
Warner Bros. // PG // September 2, 2003
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
THE MOVIE
On paper, teaming up Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds for 1984's City Heat must have seemed like a wonderful idea. Both were huge box office stars at the time, and both had those "tough guy" images with the public that made them a perfect match to do a movie together. In fact, although I was only in my early teens at the time, I remember a lot of anticipation for this movie when it was first released.
Although it did respectable business at the box office (about $38 million domestically, not bad for 1984), there's really no room for argument: City Heat is a disappointing flop. It's almost as if (and this may not be far from the actual truth) some Hollywood big wigs got together, decided to put Clint and Burt in a movie, but didn't take the development anywhere beyond that stage. The story here is dismal and unentertaining, and although Clint and Burt don't embarrass themselves (Reynolds' acting, in fact, is quite good for what he is given), City Heat is a perfect example of how important screenwriting is to the movie-making process, no matter whom you have in your lead roles.
Set in the prohibition Kansas City of the 1930's, Eastwood plays tough-nosed Lieutenant Speer, while Reynolds takes on the role of wise-craking private investigator Mike Murphy, whose partner – played by "Shaft" himself, Richard Roundtree – gets himself involved with the wrong type of people and winds up getting murdered. Murphy and Speer investigate the case together, but are always at each other's throats, since they have a history together (Murphy used to be a cop and work with Speer).
City Heat can't seem to decide whether it wants to be a drama or a comedy, and the mix of the two just doesn't work here. Another problem is that the 1930's look is far too sanitized in the picture…not only is every car brand-spanking-new, but it seems like everyone's clothes have just been pulled off the rack and pressed, as well. The world the characters inhabit doesn't look "lived in", and the result is a movie that looks like the actors are on a Hollywood back lot (which, of course, they were) rather in the real Kansas City of the 1930's.
Of course, Eastwood was a big enough star to bounce back from this disaster. His next movie was Pale Rider, followed by such hits as Heartbreak Ridge and the final Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool. Reynolds, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. City Heat proved to be his last A-list movie (his next film was Stick…need I say more?) and his career would not rebound until he took on the role of B.L. Stryker in the television series of the same name.
THE DVD
Video:
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, I was quite impressed with the transfer here. It's far from perfect, but there's actually less dirt and defects on the print than the DVD version of The Rookie, a much more recent Eastwood film which I reviewed just a few days before looking at City Heat. The movie makes use of a lot of browns and grays, and much of it takes place at night, so this isn't a very colorful movie (keeping in tone with the era, I suppose), but as far as the transfer goes, fans of the film (whomever they may be!) should be quite pleased with what they get here.
Audio:
City Heat is one of a number of new releases into "The Eastwood Collection" that is re-mastering his movies into 5.1 Dolby Soundtracks (as well as providing widescreen anamorphic). However, while the 5.1 here does provide crisp and clear audio, the track itself is not very aggressive, even during the gunfights (and one explosion) that take place in the movie.
Extras:
Not much in the way of extras on this disc. There's the Theatrical Trailer for the movie, which seems a bit longer than most theatrical trailers and, of course, presents the best dialogue from the film – the only good dialogue, in fact! Also on the DVD is a Cast List, which includes an Eastwood filmography, but none for Burt Reynolds! I guess that's why this is called "The Clint Eastwood Collection" and not "The Burt Reynolds Collection"!
THE BOTTOM LINE
Even die-hard Eastwood fans are going to be hard-pressed to find something here that they would enjoy enough to warrant a purchase or rental. The only reason I added it to my collection was because I'm trying to get all of Clint's work that is available on DVD, so if you're doing the same, I'm sure you'll want to pick it up. Reynolds fans, on the other hand, may be more suited to this movie – since compared with some of his other box office roles, this one falls somewhere in the middle. Still, though, there's no real justification for recommending this movie to the general DVD purchaser/renter.
On paper, teaming up Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds for 1984's City Heat must have seemed like a wonderful idea. Both were huge box office stars at the time, and both had those "tough guy" images with the public that made them a perfect match to do a movie together. In fact, although I was only in my early teens at the time, I remember a lot of anticipation for this movie when it was first released.
Although it did respectable business at the box office (about $38 million domestically, not bad for 1984), there's really no room for argument: City Heat is a disappointing flop. It's almost as if (and this may not be far from the actual truth) some Hollywood big wigs got together, decided to put Clint and Burt in a movie, but didn't take the development anywhere beyond that stage. The story here is dismal and unentertaining, and although Clint and Burt don't embarrass themselves (Reynolds' acting, in fact, is quite good for what he is given), City Heat is a perfect example of how important screenwriting is to the movie-making process, no matter whom you have in your lead roles.
Set in the prohibition Kansas City of the 1930's, Eastwood plays tough-nosed Lieutenant Speer, while Reynolds takes on the role of wise-craking private investigator Mike Murphy, whose partner – played by "Shaft" himself, Richard Roundtree – gets himself involved with the wrong type of people and winds up getting murdered. Murphy and Speer investigate the case together, but are always at each other's throats, since they have a history together (Murphy used to be a cop and work with Speer).
City Heat can't seem to decide whether it wants to be a drama or a comedy, and the mix of the two just doesn't work here. Another problem is that the 1930's look is far too sanitized in the picture…not only is every car brand-spanking-new, but it seems like everyone's clothes have just been pulled off the rack and pressed, as well. The world the characters inhabit doesn't look "lived in", and the result is a movie that looks like the actors are on a Hollywood back lot (which, of course, they were) rather in the real Kansas City of the 1930's.
Of course, Eastwood was a big enough star to bounce back from this disaster. His next movie was Pale Rider, followed by such hits as Heartbreak Ridge and the final Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool. Reynolds, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. City Heat proved to be his last A-list movie (his next film was Stick…need I say more?) and his career would not rebound until he took on the role of B.L. Stryker in the television series of the same name.
THE DVD
Video:
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, I was quite impressed with the transfer here. It's far from perfect, but there's actually less dirt and defects on the print than the DVD version of The Rookie, a much more recent Eastwood film which I reviewed just a few days before looking at City Heat. The movie makes use of a lot of browns and grays, and much of it takes place at night, so this isn't a very colorful movie (keeping in tone with the era, I suppose), but as far as the transfer goes, fans of the film (whomever they may be!) should be quite pleased with what they get here.
Audio:
City Heat is one of a number of new releases into "The Eastwood Collection" that is re-mastering his movies into 5.1 Dolby Soundtracks (as well as providing widescreen anamorphic). However, while the 5.1 here does provide crisp and clear audio, the track itself is not very aggressive, even during the gunfights (and one explosion) that take place in the movie.
Extras:
Not much in the way of extras on this disc. There's the Theatrical Trailer for the movie, which seems a bit longer than most theatrical trailers and, of course, presents the best dialogue from the film – the only good dialogue, in fact! Also on the DVD is a Cast List, which includes an Eastwood filmography, but none for Burt Reynolds! I guess that's why this is called "The Clint Eastwood Collection" and not "The Burt Reynolds Collection"!
THE BOTTOM LINE
Even die-hard Eastwood fans are going to be hard-pressed to find something here that they would enjoy enough to warrant a purchase or rental. The only reason I added it to my collection was because I'm trying to get all of Clint's work that is available on DVD, so if you're doing the same, I'm sure you'll want to pick it up. Reynolds fans, on the other hand, may be more suited to this movie – since compared with some of his other box office roles, this one falls somewhere in the middle. Still, though, there's no real justification for recommending this movie to the general DVD purchaser/renter.
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