Recap: A professional gang of robbers take down an armored car, killing the three guards in the process, in a spectacular way. This gets the attention of Vincent Hanna and his team on Robbery and Homicide. With some luck they get a lead on one of the robbers and soon they have the gang staked out. But they have no evidence and must catch them in the act. The robbers themselves starts to feel the heat, but still decide to do one last bank job, one that would get them enough money to vanish and retire. But Hanna is one their heels and a lethal showdown is held on the streets of LA.
Comments: I know, it's not fair to compare movies. Movies should be measured and judged based on themselves. And especially it's not fair to compare a movie with classic and personal favorite Heat (1995). But in this case, it is inevitable. And actually a little interesting to see how the story has evolved since Michael Mann is responsible for both direction and script on both movies. The stories are very similar, not very surprising as Heat is a remake of LA Takedown (LA T).
But there are a few key elements that makes Heat into a classic and LA T into "just" a good movie. First off, the actors in LA T are good, but they are not Pacino, De Niro, Kilmer or any of the other stars. As the dialog in many cases is identical it is easy to see that LA T cast can't deliver the same lines with quite the same intensity, suspense and emotion. Still, I want to emphasize that the LA T cast is good, especially the meeting between Hanna and McLaren is good. Another key difference is that the characters are much younger in LA T and hence not having acquired the experience and history and family that enriches Heat. And this is maybe the biggest difference of all. Heat is clearly much more thought through and analyzed, which is natural since it is the second try. Subplots are few in LA T, characters abruptly introduced and forgotten with no or few clues to their connection to the story. Those subplots are much more explored in Heat, and we get a broad complex view. In LA T the scene is simple and sometimes confusing from lack of explanation.
Still some scenes are worth a good look. The mentioned meeting above is one. The (in Heat classical) shootout is very good also. But one does miss the depth of the characters, their personal history. Still, in itself a good movie, and very interesting to watch as comparison to Heat.
6/10
Comments: I know, it's not fair to compare movies. Movies should be measured and judged based on themselves. And especially it's not fair to compare a movie with classic and personal favorite Heat (1995). But in this case, it is inevitable. And actually a little interesting to see how the story has evolved since Michael Mann is responsible for both direction and script on both movies. The stories are very similar, not very surprising as Heat is a remake of LA Takedown (LA T).
But there are a few key elements that makes Heat into a classic and LA T into "just" a good movie. First off, the actors in LA T are good, but they are not Pacino, De Niro, Kilmer or any of the other stars. As the dialog in many cases is identical it is easy to see that LA T cast can't deliver the same lines with quite the same intensity, suspense and emotion. Still, I want to emphasize that the LA T cast is good, especially the meeting between Hanna and McLaren is good. Another key difference is that the characters are much younger in LA T and hence not having acquired the experience and history and family that enriches Heat. And this is maybe the biggest difference of all. Heat is clearly much more thought through and analyzed, which is natural since it is the second try. Subplots are few in LA T, characters abruptly introduced and forgotten with no or few clues to their connection to the story. Those subplots are much more explored in Heat, and we get a broad complex view. In LA T the scene is simple and sometimes confusing from lack of explanation.
Still some scenes are worth a good look. The mentioned meeting above is one. The (in Heat classical) shootout is very good also. But one does miss the depth of the characters, their personal history. Still, in itself a good movie, and very interesting to watch as comparison to Heat.
6/10