City Heat (1984)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It's 1930s Kansas City. Private investigator Mike Murphy (Burt Reynolds) loses his partner who is brutally murdered after trying to blackmail a mobster with his secret accounting records. When a rival gang boss goes after the missing records, he is forced to team up with his ex-partner cop Lieutenant Speer (Clint Eastwood) to fight both gangs before KC erupts in a mob war.From a Blake Edwards story, this takes place when both Burt Reynold and Clint Eastwood was hitting a slow patch after being red hot. Clint would recover, but Burt never did. With the people involved, you would think this could be something incredible. But there is nothing but disappointment. Burt is playing his usual self, smirking thru his fight. Clint has no chemistry with Burt. The style is too stiff and weak. It has none of the grittiness required. It looks completely fake. Worst of all, it moves at a snails pace, dragging its feet. The dialog is stilted. There is no jokes, at least none that worked. In fact, none of it really worked.

"In Kansas City 1933, wisecracking detective Murphy (Burt Reynolds) tracks the killer of his partner," according to the synopsis writer at Warner Bros. Meanwhile, "Police Lt. Speer (Clint Eastwood) doesn't have much tolerance for the local mob war's body count. Neither guy likes each other, so that makes them a dream team. And it provides the ideal scenario as they clean up the town with slugfests and shoot-'em ups that parody Reynolds' and Eastwood's macho screen images." Original writer/director Blake Edwards was replaced by Richard Benjamin after reportedly clashing with Mr. Eastwood, while Mr. Reynolds suffered a serious injury early in the filming. This didn't mean "City heat" had to be a disaster, but it was. It looks like Eastwood and Reynolds are trying, with a couple of facial tics and gestures, to duplicate the successful Paul Newman and Robert Redford team. Whatever they're trying doesn't work. We're left with Eastwood calling Reynolds short.** City Heat (12/5/84) Richard Benjamin ~ Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn

City Heat (1984) 1/2 (out of 4) Horrendous film about a cop (Clint Eastwood) and private eye (Burt Reynolds) who are investigating the same case. Turns out a man (Richard Roundtree) was trying to blackmail some mob boys but soon he's dead and it's up to our two superstars to crack the case. If you ever need proof that superstars aren't as important as a good screenplay then here it is. Apparently Blake Edwards was set to direct this movie but got fired sometime during the filming as he couldn't agree with the two stars on what this film should be. Perhaps this is the reason the movie is such a mess but whatever the reason it's doubtful you'll see a worst movie with Eastwood. Sometimes when you go into a movie with low expectations you find yourself enjoying it on a few levels but that wasn't the case here. Everything in this movie is horrid but the biggest problem I had is that I could never figure out what the hell I was watching. At times the tone is so serious that you think you're watching an actual thriller. At other times the material is so over the top that you feel as if you're watching some type of spoof. With Eastwood and Reynolds you appear to be getting a buddy picture yet they're hardly on screen together and when they are it isn't for too long. This is a really confusing movie in terms of its tone but perhaps Edwards was going for the spoof, got fired and the replacement director went for something more serious. Whatever happened the final result is a complete disaster and without question a major embarrassment. There's no denying that Reynolds was making some poor selections here and this is yet another. He seems really out of place here and gives a rather awkward performance that never gets the laughs he's going for. You somewhat would expect him to pick out a bad screenplay but for the life of me I can't understand how Eastwood would get involved in something like this. This material is without question the worst I've seen from him and it's hard to believe he'd sign on for something like this. He sleepwalks through the entire film and can't give it a bit of energy. Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn and Rip Torn are all bland as well and Roundtree doesn't get to do much before getting knocked off. The film takes place in the 30s so we get all the old fashioned cars and outfits and while this is pretty on the eyes there wasn't a single frame where I actually felt like we were in the 30s. It's hard to find any direction here as each scene is just off the wall and comes off looking extremely tired and there's no energy to be found anywhere. As horrid as this movie is at the same time it's almost easy to recommend just so people can see how badly a movie can be even with strong talent. This is the type of film that makes you scratch your head and wonder what they were thinking but I'd love to hear Eastwood try to put a spin on this.

"City Heat" was a Blake Edwards project that derailed in Hollywood. The genial director of "Ten", "S.O.B.", "Victor-Victoria", among others, was fired from his own creation. A lot of people became involved, trying to bring it to the screen. This film is a perfect example of why too many cooks can spoil the broth. How much of this mess can be attributed to the original screenplay Mr. Edwards wrote, although we suspect it was completely changed. The fact that Sam O. Brown is given credit might indicate how Blake Edwards felt about seeing his work destroyed. Ultimately, Richard Benjamin was selected to direct.For lack of better things to watch, we caught "City Heat" not too long ago. It is not a complete disaster, but nothing seems to make sense. For this being a film about a period in which gangsters dominated the criminal scene in America, the criminals in the movie commit the ultimate sin: they cannot even shoot! There are frequent gun fights, but hardly anyone is hurt.It might have been an attraction to pair the two stars, Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, who were at the top of their craft to star in "City Heat", but their characters do not make much sense. We keep thinking whether Speer and Murphy were supposed to be allies, or enemies. The women do not fare better. Jane Alexander is totally wasted. Madeleine Kahn has nothing to do, only appearing in about three sequences. Irene Cara's Ginny Lee is an afterthought. Rip Torn, Tony Lobianco, and the rest of the supporting players do not add anything to a film that is best forgotten for what it did not deliver. Richard Benjamin would probably be better off omitting this from his directing resume.