Heat

Directed by R.M. Richards, Heat follows Burt Reynolds’ Nick Escalante as he takes on various tough-guy jobs to support his gambling habit. Filmmaker Richards, working from William Goldman’s screenplay, offers up a deliberate drama that does, in the end, fare best in its episodic yet compelling first half, as the movie benefits from Reynolds’ typically commanding presence and a narrative that’s been peppered with several engaging sequences – including a terrific interlude wherein Nick confronts a mob figure (Neill Barry’s weaselly Danny DeMarco) and his two goons. (The film’s high point, however, is a riveting digression detailing Nick’s run of good luck in a Vegas casino that inevitably sours.) And while the picture benefits substantially from the agreeable chemistry between Nick and his latest client (Peter MacNicol’s appealing Cyrus Kinnick), Heat eventually progresses into an almost incongruously action-packed third act that’s hardly as exciting or satisfying as Richards has presumably intended – which, although it’s capped off with a decent conclusion, ultimately cements the movie’s place as a lamentably erratic piece of work that should’ve jettisoned its overtly high-octane elements.

**1/2 out of ****