City Heat (1984)

The opening is fun, bit its a little closer to The Naked Gun than The Big Sleep. In other words, closer to spoof than fun noir. But then they're not prepared to stick with it. There is nothing spoof about the rest of the script, its just a straightforward hardboiled noir imitation.

So this movie does two incompetent things: directly appropriates plot elements and scenes from previous and better noirs, and performs them in a way that isn't spoof enough to laugh, and isn't serious enough to be taken seriously.

You can tell this is right by watching the two leads. There's supposed to be a contrast between them, but not one so strong that they both think they're in different genres. If you just watch a one-shot of Reynolds, you can tell he thinks this is The Naked Gun, but if you just watch a one-shot of Eastwood, seems he thinks this is Dirty Harry.

But, in simple terms, the main problem with City Heat is its just plain uninteresting.

Fmovies: I can't talk about this movie without discussing it's troubled production.

Blake Edwards originally wrote the script in the 1970's. When his wife Julie Andrews read it, she thought it was the best thing he'd done and urged him to make it. He gave it to Taxi actress Marilu Henner (who he had just worked with on the Burt Reynolds movie The Man Who Loved Women) She read it and told him she loved the script, but didn't want the part he wanted for her, but that of the secretary. Edwards rewrote the script (making the secretary's role bigger) she was in. Edwards the gave it to Burt Reynolds who loved it, and immediately saw Clint in the 'minor cop role' and asked Edwards to rewrite it again. Clint liked it, but asked for another rewrite, he liked the new script, and all was good.

Blake wanted Julie Andrews (Burts co star in The Man Who Loved Women) cast in the role of Burts girlfriend, Clint wanted Sondra Locke. Edwards also wanted Kim Basinger (another from The Man Who Loved Women) The studio said nobody who had starred with Clint or Burt in a previous movie, could be hired.

The next day, Burt was told Eastwood wanted Edwards off the picture. During this time Edwards last movie tanked and Clint's went through the roof. The studio were siding with the red hot Clint. With Edwards gone, Clint was in control. He ordered yet another rewrite, this time from Jospeh Stinson (whose only other writing credit was Sudden Impact) he brought in Malpaso regulars Lennie Niehaus and producer Fritz Manes too.

When this was first discussed in 1983, it seemed like a good idea for Clint to star with Reynolds. Reynolds had just spent 5 straight years as the number 1 movie star in the world (78-82) and Since the turn of the decade he had a movie in the Top 10 Highest grossers of the year, whilst Clint only had 1, but by the time it was released Reynolds had 3 flops in a row, whilst Clint had a huge hit with Sudden Impact. Suddenly it seemed like it was wise of Burt to star with Clint.

Sadly Reynolds suffered a serious accident on the first nights shooting and had his jaw broken when he was hit in the face with a metal chair (instead of a breakaway chair made of balsa wood) while filming the fight scene in the cafe. Not wanting to shut production down, Reynolds decided to try and power through! He survived on a liquid diet and popping A LOT of pills, he says it was about 50 a day (this led to Reynolds becoming addicted to painkillers) and lost over thirty pounds by the time the film wrapped (leading to rumours he had AIDS) This accident had dire consequences for Reynolds career, which he would never recover from.

Plot In A Paragraph: A slick private eye (Reynolds) and tough police lieutenant (Eastwood) once best friends and partners, now bitter rivals reluctantly team up to investigate a murder.

I love the opening of this movie, in the first of several neat period touches, City Heat opens with a black and white version of Warner Bros famous WB logo, this immediately sets the right feel for the era.

City Heat's opening credits appear in an old time Broadway style font. The credits appear in white, The movies name in red neon lights. We are immediately presented with a classic crime 30's movie scene, rain falls hard on a dark cobbled street, whilst a hotel advertises vacant rooms with a neon sign. Lieutenant Speer like so many Eastwood characters, is first scene in silhouette, emerging from under a street light heading for the warmth and of a nearby

This doesn't deserve all the hate it gets.If the finished film doesn't quite come together as it should,it comes down to the fact that the shooting was a troubled production.Two actresses quitting their roles,a director been replaced and Burt Reynolds suffering an injury that caused him to become addicted to painkillers and becoming increasingly difficult to work with,and forcing Clint Eastwood to handle a lot of the tension amongst the cast and director.Bearing all that in mind,this is still far from been the worst of it's kind.

Set in the 30's,former police partners Eastwood and Reynolds are caught in the crossfire between two rival gangs when Reynolds' sidekick Richard Roundtree (Shaft)tries to con the local Mr.Big.The plot is a little confusing at first but by the halfway point everything makes sense and sets up the film's action-packed second half.

There's plenty to enjoy here.Eastwood and Reynolds' banter (despite his difficulties during,Reynolds still does quite well)the settings,and the shootouts.One of the best things about the shootouts is the lack of intrusive music on the soundtrack which for me ruins a lot of movies.

This is a surprisingly pleasing combination of comedy and film noir thriller,with Eastwood in particular sending up his own macho image at every opportunity.

City Heat fmovies. This is one of the only times that Clint Eastwood & Burt Reynolds got together. The casting is with great imagination. It was actually made at a good time for both actors and the support cast is good. So what went wrong? Blake Edwards script for this one is just not as funny as other films he wrote. The situation seems contrived and this was a time when Eastwood was doing actions films. The action is just missing here. While Reynolds could do comedy, it seems that both actors didn't get to do in this movie what sold tickets for their fans.

When the movie ends, it just kind of ends in a stand off and you get the feeling like you needed an ending that just isn't here. It is fun seeing these two actors together in this film, but the script is the missing element. Richard Benjamin, a funny man directed, and I am surprised he didn't do better with it as he knows what good comedy is.

While the movie is fun, it is not funny enough. Blake Edwards saved better material for his Pink Panther movies I guess.

Like the old saying goes, bigger is not always better. Apparently sticking two actors with the highest star power was not the best idea for City Heat. It's not a bad idea, but it's not a great one. There are SOME good moments in this movie but there is a lot missing. Because of this the bad outweighs the good by far, which can make this a frustrating film to watch.

We know this much; Mike Murphy (Burt Reynolds) and Lieutenant Speer (Clint Eastwood) are acquaintances on some level. In what way - we're never really told. That's already one step in the wrong direction. If you're making a buddy cop movie, you have to give some kind of background of the main characters. Otherwise, the viewer will have no clue why the two characters are at odds half the time.

Much of the time I was trying to figure out what Reynold's character was up to. Every time the screen shifted to Eastwood I finally caught up with what was happening. I'm not really sure how but that was one of the frustrating parts about this movie. It was like Reynold's was there only for fluff and laughs. I'll admit Reynold's did make me laugh at times but it was just for that specific moment. Clint Eastwood also has funny parts. Just like any Eastwood movie, he has his own way of doing things and he does that in this movie too. But these occurrences didn't really change my opinion of this movie; although I wish it had.

To make things even more awkward was that this film barely had a soundtrack. I mean even the silliest of soundtracks sound better than nothing. There were times where I was watching action sequences in this movie where I only heard a "biff" or "baff" and an occasional gunshot. Music can change the whole feeling of a certain scene and without it I felt like I was watching anything very exciting. I was bored with it. Even when it comes to the most stupid action scenes in a movie, there was at least music to back it up. There was almost nothing here. I felt that there was nothing to be excited about. I was just watching a film with no emotion. That is really nerve racking for me. I need to feel something while watching a movie. City Heat just never took off for me and it is truly unfortunate. I was expecting a lot more.

City Heat is just another buddy cop movie with no real life in its characters. The action scenes can be boring with no music in the background and its characters are short of laughs due to the sloppy screenplay.

It's 1933 and in Kansas City, we follow that of Detective Murphy, as his partner has just been killed by some big-heads and he finds himself caught up in the web he has left behind. While, this is going on Lieutenant Speer also investigates, but when the two collide, there are some fireworks, as they have a work history together. But they have to put their differences aside, if they are going to get the job done.

Should I call this a disappointment, because the effortlessly shallow material just doesn't go hand-to-hand with the talent that was involved. This parody / drama on noir and tough-guy images is no more than a vehicle for the two stars, who just seem to be slumming it out here. It's not a bad film, because it's well made, but the story doesn't entirely hit any strides, it changes direction between spoof and drama with mixed results and it can be quite tedious in spots. All the accolades though, would have to go to the delightfully smooth Burt Reynolds in the role as the charismatic, smart-guy detective Murphy. His presence definitely overshadows Eastwood. But the colourful banter and always at odds attitude between the two, makes it a fun pairing up to watch, as they work off each rather nicely. Clint Eastwood, plays the straight-faced, no-bull Lieutenant Speer with his usual approach and sly humour. They both get some highly witty, top-notch lines. The supporting cast are satisfactory with the likes of Rip Torn, Jane Alexander, Irene Cara, Richard Roundtree and Robert Davi dusting in with a skew of personalities. While, they're worth better material, they all do the best with what they're given to work with. The feel of the 1930's has an artificial air about it here, as clearly you can't escape the back-lot sets. But still it's professionally catered for with a pleasant blues score and a dour colour scheme crafted in to get that glum, wet atmospheric night build-up of Kansas City. The direction of Richard Benjamin is quite standard, but it has some neat photography techniques of the period and a few flashy impulses, like one fine and exciting late-night shoot-out in a deserted street.

Nothing much out of the ordinary and very forgettable, but only the fans of two stars should really bother with this one.