Red Heat


Chicago police chief: "Under the circumstances, I'm gonna have to ask for your weapon."
Danko: "And I say...no."



release year: 1988
genre: cop/buddy action
viewing setting: home Bluray 12/2/22 and home DVD 8/18/14 and 9/4/05

synopsis: A Soviet cop comes to Chicago to help track down a Soviet drug dealer who fled to America.

impressions: Good buddy-cop movie with plenty of action and one-liners. The plot uses the bird-out-of-water angle for the Soviet cop, and it works. Needless to say, the team-up of violent/direct Soviet and smart-ass American proceed to destroy lots of property and kill lots of bad guys. Walter Hill directs this movie, and he does a great job as usual.

things to watch for: The fight in the bathhouse/snow at the beginning.

something this movie has that no other movie has: A bus chasing another bus!

acting: Arnold is great as the take-no-crap Soviet. Jim Belushi is the Chicago cop, full of witty remarks. The two work well together. Ed O'Ross is the Soviet crimial, and is suitably menacing. Laurence Fishburne, more than a decade before his head expanded like a balloon, plays a jerk detective. Sven Ole-Thorsen, who appears in many of Arnold's movies as a big goon, is a big goon who Arnold must fight in a Russian bath house.

final word: This is Arnold's buddy-cop movie, and it's pretty good.

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