Dead Heat (1988)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

From the editor of "The Terminator" and the brother of the creator of "Lethal Weapon" comes a cinematic experience you don't see every day…a buddy cop action comedy, but with mutated zombies. Whether you think a film that mashes two completely different genres couldn't be ridiculous, then you're guess is as good as mine.Vicious crooks that can't die are murdering innocent Los Angelinos, and wisecracking, trigger-happy LAPD detectives Mortis and Bigelow are the only pair qualified for the case. After Mortis is unexpectedly killed, Bigelow soon learns about a pharmaceutical company's 'resurrection machine' that turns his partner into the living dead. Now that the plot description is taking care of, let's talk about the eclectic cast that made "Dead Heat" watchable to begin with.Already established as a serious actor, Treat Williams is certainly a treat (sorry for the pun) as the undead cop Roger Mortis. Delivering his dialog with such deadpan wittiness, Treat becomes cooler even when he survives multiple gunshot wounds and a deadly ambulance crash. Playing Mortis' muscle-bound partner Doug Bigelow is not a stretch for current MIA Joe Piscopo. Whenever his cracks succeed "We have something on the monitor, Captain," others fail "You ought a write fortune cookies, pal." Lindsay Frost (known for "The Ring") is appealingly striking as the soon-to-be ill-fated love interest Randi James. While Darren McGavin and Keye Luke excel fine as the two villains, horror legend Vincent Price makes a stand-out appearance as the inventor. His performance was brief, but graceful just as Price was nearing the end of his long career.Only in the tubular decade known as the 80's can muster up something ridiculous, yet interesting as a film called "Dead Heat."

I saw the first monster and I thought my TV was out of focus. He had like three noses, and a mouth that stretched all across his face. This ain't your daddy's buddy cop flick.But nothing prepared me for the butcher shop. That was a riot! And two zombies with machine guns trying to kill each other was a hoot! Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo were great as the buddy cops.The show even had Vincent Price. Darren McGavin was excellent as the bad guy who was resurrecting zombies to do his bidding.A funny zombie cop movie that was well worth the time, even though it could have used some gratuitous nudity.

"Dead Heat" is a boring film. There is a reason why, as a huge zombie movie fan, I didn't hear about it right away. I found myself unable to follow it closely. It starts out with a nice little rush of action followed by a chase scene, and I got the feeling I was in for a nice ride. But I was let down. Way down...With awful one-liners, the story trudges along through an absurd plot and ends with a blah, not a bang. To be honest, I had to have a coffee to stay awake. One cop turns into a zombie. The other guy gets mad. They both end up becoming zombies. Vincent Price is thrown in for good measure and it doesn't work. I can't really say much else about "Dead Heat." "Return of the Living Dead" it ain't.3 out of 10, kids.

I watched this movie some years ago, one night I couldn't sleep 'cause of a bad case of flu. It was 2 am, and nothing else was on TV, only infomercials. So, I started to watch it and caught my attention immediately. OK, there are a bunch of bad jokes, but I laughed like crazy, and for an 80's movie, it's quite good. I can't find the DVD south of the border, but if I do, of course I'll buy it. I remember great performances of Treat Williams in "The Substitute" saga, but this is priceless. Not the best, of course, but fun to watch. Can't deny it, it's a little guilty pleasure of mine, but I can't remember seen another movie like this one. Perfect to watch if you got nothing better to do.