Sign In / Sign Up

Red Heat

Red Heat
Release date: 1988-06-17
Rating: 6.234
Votes: 1504
Genres: Action, Crime
A tough Russian policeman is forced to partner up with a cocky Chicago police detective when he is sent to Chicago to apprehend a Georgian drug lord who killed his partner and fled the country.

Reviews

JPV852

JPV852

Entertaining enough buddy-cop movie has some fun action scenes (the bus chase sequence was great). Only thing holding it back was the pairing of Schwarzenegger and Belushi never quite worked for me. Still a good flick from Walter Hill, though not sure it ranks all that high compared with others from the era. **3.5/5**

John Chard

John Chard

Look out Chicago, Arnie & Jimmy are loose on the streets. Captain Ivan Danko (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a no nonsense Soviet cop who is sent to Chicago to pick up a murdering Russian drug dealer. Upon arriving in the windy city, Danko is teamed with Art Ridzik (James Belushi), a wise-cracking street cop notorious for cutting corners to get the job done. Complete polar opposites, both men form an unlikely alliance as Danko's Soviet methods blend with Ridzik's free spirited street wise techniques. There were quite a few buddy buddy films around in the 1980s, certainly the teaming of unlikely cop partners was nothing new at the time of Red Heat's release. Yet for all it's obvious reliance on clichés, and its out dated Russian/American guffaws, Red Heat is a romping, violent and funny picture. Pairing the big Austrian Oak Schwarzenegger with the Americana that is James Belushi pays off in bundles. Yes it's sometimes crass, but Belushi's cocky mannerisms play off Schwarzenegger's robotic frame with comedic joy. All played out in amongst carnage and murder created by director Walter Hill, who is quite frankly, and thankfully, just extending the formula that he started in 1982 with 48 Hrs. The support cast is not to be sniffed at either. Peter Boyle, Ed O'Ross, Laurence Fishburne, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Brion James and Gina Gershon. All line up to add fuel to the Arnie and Jimmy fire. Also good to see is that Hill shot on location in Illinois and Moscow to give the film some scenic impetus, whilst James Horner's score is suitably bombastic and at one with the material. It's no rocket scientist who observes a film like this and calls it popcorn fodder, because it so obviously is. But within its buddy buddy framework lies a very quotable film that's essential for fans of Arnie & Jimmy. Sometimes that's all one needs from a film like this. 7/10

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

I am not sure how much actual acting Arnold Schwarzenegger had to do in this rather derivative crime caper. A bit like John Wayne in "Brannigan" (1975), he is despatched to partner up with a cop abroad to order to repatriate a dangerous criminal. In this case, though, he is a Russian and it is wise-cracking American "Ridzik" (Jim Belushi) that he must bridge the culture-gap and work with to track down a murderous drug dealer who did for his partner and fled. To be fair to Arnie, he has his tongue a bit in his cheek here, but Belushi just mis-fires once too often in this rather sloppy adventure. The escapades are all rather predictable and the underlying joke/scenario wears thin all too quickly. I suppose it nods a little to the thawing in the post-Reagan relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union, but the delivery borders on the slapstick at times and I was never really a fan of Belushi's brand of rather puerile comedy - indulged in spades here by a trio of writers including the usually far more reliable Troy Kennedy Martin. It passes the time effortlessly enough, and reminds us who lived through that period of just how dodgy some of our fashions were, but thereafter it's all pretty mediocre fayre.

Movie Recommendation

  • My Stepmother Is an Alien
    My Stepmother Is an Alien
    1988-12-09
    Trying to rescue her home planet from destruction, a gorgeous extraterrestrial named Celeste arrives on Earth and begins her scientific research. She woos quirky scientist Dr. Steve Mills, a widower with a young daughter. Before long, Celeste finds herself in love with Steve and her new life on Earth, where she experiences true intimacy for the first time. But when she loses sight of her mission, she begins to question where she belongs.
    More...
  • The Running Man
    The Running Man
    1987-11-13
    By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where “runners” attempt to evade “stalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.
    More...
  • The Terror Within
    The Terror Within
    1989-01-20
    Experiments in biological warfare have destroyed all but a few remnants of the human race. Alone in a lab, eight students work feverishly to create a vaccine before they are forced outside in search for food. It is then that the surviving scientists discover creatures mutated by the plague. Now they prepare to do battle against their worst fear: The Terror Within.
    More...
  • Raw Deal
    Raw Deal
    1986-06-06
    Mark Kaminsky is kicked out of the FBI for his rough treatment of a suspect. He winds up as the sheriff of a small town in North Carolina. FBI Chief Harry Shannon, whose son has been killed by a mobster named Patrovina, enlists Kaminsky in a personal vendetta with a promise of reinstatement into the FBI if Patrovina is taken down. To accomplish this, he must go undercover and join Patrovina's gang.
    More...
  • All of Me
    All of Me
    1984-09-21
    Just before stubborn millionaire Edwina Cutwater dies, she asks her uptight lawyer, Roger Cobb, to amend her will so that her soul will pass to the young, vibrant Terry Hoskins – but the spiritual transference goes awry. Edwina enters Roger's body instead, forcing him to battle Edwina for control of his own being.
    More...
  • Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
    Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
    1987-04-02
    A new batch of recruits arrives at Police Academy, this time a group of civilian volunteers who have joined Commandant Lassard's new Citizens on Patrol program. Although the community relations project has strong governmental support, a disgusted Captain Harris is determined to see it fail.
    More...
  • Eraser
    Eraser
    1996-06-21
    U.S. Marshall John Kruger erases the identities of people enrolled in the Witness Protection Program. His current assignment is to protect Lee Cullen, who's uncovered evidence that the weapons manufacturer she works for has been selling to terrorist groups. When Kruger discovers that there's a corrupt agent within the program, he must guard his own life while trying to protect Lee's.
    More...
  • Fratelli d'Italia
    Fratelli d'Italia
    1989-11-23
    Three episodes held together by a common element: a car rented by three different characters.
    More...
  • Otto - The Movie
    Otto - The Movie
    1985-07-19
    East Friesian Otto moves to the big city Hamburg. There he gets into trouble with a loan shark and needs to find a way to impress his love interest Silvia.
    More...
  • An Innocent Man
    An Innocent Man
    1989-10-06
    Jimmie Rainwood was minding his own business when two corrupt police officers (getting an address wrong) burst into his house, expecting to find a major drug dealer. Rainwood is shot, and the officers frame him as a drug dealer. Rainwood is convicted of drug dealing, based on the perjured evidence of a police informant. Thrown into a seedy jail, fighting to prove his innocence is diffucult when he has to deal with the realities of prison life, where everyone claims they were framed.
    More...
  • Hey, Did You Score?
    Hey, Did You Score?
    2012-06-22
    Three male friends navigate different stages of romantic relationships: One is starting to date; another fears infidelity; the third is divorcing.
    More...
  • Narrow Margin
    Narrow Margin
    1990-09-21
    An L.A. District Attorney attempts to take an unwilling murder witness back to the United States to testify against a top-level mob boss. Frantically attempting to escape two deadly hitmen sent to silence her, they board a Vancouver-bound train only to discover that the killers are onboard with them. For the next 20 hours, as the train hurls through the beautiful but isolated Canadian wilderness, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues in which their ability to tell friend from foe is a matter of life and death.
    More...
  • School Daze
    School Daze
    1988-02-12
    Fraternity and sorority members clash with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend.
    More...
  • Sister
    Sister
    2012-04-04
    A drama set at a Swiss ski resort and centered on a boy who supports his sister by stealing from wealthy guests.
    More...
  • Karla
    Karla
    2006-01-20
    Based on real events, Canada's most notorious serial killers, Paul Bernardo and wife Karla Homolka kidnap, sexually abuse, and murder three young girls.
    More...
  • Smart People
    Smart People
    2008-04-11
    Professor Lawrence Wetherhold might be imperiously brilliant, monumentally self-possessed and an intellectual giant -- but when it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he's as downright flummoxed as the next guy.
    More...
  • Her Alibi
    Her Alibi
    1989-02-03
    A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thinking her innocent, but as she shows more and more interesting abilities (such as knife throwing) he begins to doubt his first assessment.
    More...
  • Dead Mine
    Dead Mine
    2012-09-27
    The legend of Yamashita's Gold lures a treasure hunter and his group deep into the Indonesian jungle. Once they are trapped in an abandoned World War II Japanese bunker, they face the terrifying reality that the only way out is to go further in.
    More...
  • Taking Care of Business
    Taking Care of Business
    1990-08-16
    An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.
    More...
  • Lymelife
    Lymelife
    2008-09-08
    A coming of age dramedy where infidelity, real estate, and Lyme disease have two families falling apart on Long Island in the early eighties. Scott, 15, is at the point in his life when he finds out that the most important people around him, his father, his mother, and his brother, are not exactly who he thought they were. They are flawed and they are human.
    More...

Similar Movies