At the risk of quoting Jim Gaffigan, "hey, I just saw Heat!"

I've never seen it before.  I know, I know, after the Madonna thing does that really surprise anyone, but oh man I'm glad I waited for blu-ray because it looks AMAZING.  So sharp and clear... you know, there's so many movies where the 2:40 scope feels like you're getting picture cut off, this is the opposite, this could be on the biggest screen and you find yourself immersed in.  When we started going through locations it reminded me of seeing old IMAX documentaries with my dad.  The cinematography was astounding.

Gawd, everyone was in this.  I think I remembered that Danny Trejo was in this but I didn't realize his character was actually named "Trejo."  I also didn't realize that Robert DeNiro's character was based on a real guy, a FASCINATING guy, it sounds like.  Actually, when I first read the scene where he and Pacino sit down, I mixed the characters up, I thought for some reason DeNiro was the cop and Pacino was the crook.  That was an interesting little read (I need to find the whole script for this...).

And what TIMING... I finally got around to seeing this because I watched the big-screen revival of "The Sweeney" on Netflix and thought "this better be the Heat of Britain" because the bar for hard-nosed cops in that country got raised by Luther and, of course, Life On Mars/Ashes To Ashes, and... it wasn't, I don't think.  But it reminded me that I never saw the movie so I decided to.  But the timing... the guy who helped put the movie together was Chuck Adamson, a name that jumped out to me immediately because he was Dennis Farina's partner, then Dennis Farina popped up in the special features, like a ghost, it's almost unreal.

You know, I forgot to mention Ted Levine in there... I was honestly surprised he died because it was so in my head that his character would move to San Francisco and meet Monk.

Oh, and I love the fact that Pacino said his character did a little coke when the camera wasn't on, that's why he blows up every now and then.

And can I say how HAPPY I am that I didn't have to see this movie for the first time on a VHS tape or on a DVD on my old laptop or CRT TV and suffer through those black bars?  I waited and I was rewarded.