A review of Red Heat (1988)

A review of the 80's action film Red Heat, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi as two mismatched cops from opposite sides of the world. The Red heat movie, though typical of Hollywood in the 80's, is a film that stands the test of time and is one of the better examples of films from this period.

Red Heat

Red Heat is definitely what Hollywood likes to call ‘High Concept’ – a film easily summarised in one sentence. The mismatched buddy cop movie may be well trodden ground and characterises much of the output of Hollywood in the 1980’s, but with the two leads delivering likeable performances and in the expert hands of director Walter Hill, this is one of the better examples of the genre.

The plot

Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Ivan Danko, a Moscow cop with a score to settle on the trail of a Russian mobster, following him all the way to Chicago and teaming up with James Belushi, who is more slob than cop. What follows is less to do with plot and more to do with shoot outs, fist fights and car chases, and though Red Heat is a violent film, the violence is very much over-the-top, stylised, comic book violence as opposed to the graphic gore that punctuates much of today’s cinema.

The mismatched duo

Arnold Schwarzenegger has built his career playing this sort of role; muscle-bound, no nonsense tough guys, who can stop the action just long enough to deliver the occasional wise crack. The ‘Austrian Oak’ is never going to win any acting awards, but what he does, he does very well and here he plays the role completely straight faced and deadpan. He barely cracks a smile once in the entire movie! The other half of the duo is James Belushi, who reminds us what a great comedy actor he is, delivering his lines with terrific comic timing. This is very much a Schwarzenegger movie though and Belushi takes the required back seat in the “comedy sidekick” role, but he makes the most of his time on screen supplying the vast majority of laughs and getting all the best lines.

The test of time

The rest of the cast which include Peter Boyle and Laurence Fishburne are sadly given little to work with, but with the help of some great east/west, culture clash dialogue, Schwarzenegger and Belushi are more than capable of carrying the film on their own shoulders. It may be an excessive and violent movie, but it doesn’t pretend to be something its not, so we can just sit back and enjoy one of the few 80’s action movies that has stood the test of time.