Review of Dead Heat

This action comedy directed by Mark Goldblatt (The Punisher) puts a unique spin on the buddy cop formula popularised by 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon, as Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo play a couple of LA detectives called Roger Mortis and Doug Bigelow who discover that a spate of armed robberies in the city are being carried out by zombies. When Mortis is killed in the line of duty he is brought back to life in a resurrection machine and has twelve hours before his body starts to decompose in which to solve his own murder. The jokes are corny and the performances lame in this movie written by Terry Black (brother of Lethal Weapon films' scripter Shane Black), but Steve Johnson's makeup and special effects are pretty impressive and there is a standout scene in an Oriental grocery store where a bunch of re-animated animals go on the attack. The film is really moist with blood & guts too, it was originally rated X and had to be resubmitted 8 times to the MPAA before it got it's R rating as bodies literally melt and explode all over the screen. It also features Vincent Price in one of his last ever screen appearances as Arthur P. Loudermilk, inventor of the resurrection machine. The ending parodies Casablanca (1942) with the two leads walking off together, saying "This could be the end of a beautiful relationship."