Dead Heat

Just want to offer another opinion on this movie for fans of zombies, buddy cop movies, schlock & the like. And don't miss Vincent Price.

OK, Dead Heat will never be listed alongside OscarT winners, big deal. There're plenty of award-winning movies that I don't like, but fans of cult movies are missing something here: Funny kitch.

The pitch meeting must've been hilarious: Picture Lethal Weapon meets Return of the Living Dead meets ReAnimator. C'mon, the genre mix alone is worth the look.

It may not be saying much, but this is Piscopo's best movie. I've been waiting for the DVD release to add it to my cult favorites.

A string of violent robberies are being committed by criminals who won't stay dead. Cops Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) investigate, their enquiries leading them to the headquarters of Dante Pharmaceuticals, where Roger is killed, but resurrected shortly after by a machine that gives him approximately ten hours to find out who is behind the crimes.

Any film that features the contents of a butcher's shop coming to life is okay by me. As well as reanimated duck's heads, a lively pig carcass, aggressive offal, zombie chickens and a belligerent hunk of beef, this film also delivers a disfigured overweight zombie with an attitude problem, a terrific scene in which someone decays to putrid mush in seconds (kudos to FX man Steve Johnson), lots and lots of shootouts with plenty of juicy bullet squibs, and genre legend Vincent Price in one of his last screen roles. Fans of film-noir will note the similarities with classic D.O.A. (1949), a snippet of which appears in this film on a TV screen; fans of bad 80s fashion will enjoy Joe Piscopo's mullet and leather blouson jacket; and fans of aquariums will be delighted by the film's many fish tanks.

7/10. From the opening bloody shootout, to the mid movie shootout, to the final shootout, Dead Heat is a lot of fun.

I saw this movie back in 1988 when it came out, and recently we bought the DVD on a whim. Neither Chandra or I remembered much about it, but we both enjoyed it more than we expected. The FX hold up well, even 16 years later, and it's just an enjoyable film.

There are some gross bits (which makes it better!), but there were some good scenes deleted - make sure you check the DVD for the extra scenes, The "death day dream" really ties in some of the disjointed bits in the movie.

True, some of the film is very dated 80's, but it still makes me grin. Take a chance and you might enjoy it too.

OK! Lets get one thing straight right now. If you're looking for a serious movie about cops v robbers a la Robert de Niro, Al Pacino or something similar this is not the place to come.

If on the other hand you want an action packed, leave your brain in the lobby, tongue in cheek zombie flick, with a side order of buddy-cops take on dastardly criminals thrown in then you aren't going to get much better than this.

Cops Mortis (Treat Williams) and Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) are on the trail of nutty old Vincent Price (unfortunately not given much screen time) bringing dead criminals back to life so they can carry out jewellery store robberies. Of course being dead already makes it a tad difficult for the police to kill them.

Mortis comes a cropper fairly early on, but worry not as he is soon resurrected with the regeneration machine found at the dodgy research company that they think might be connected with the crimes.

The only problem is Mortis now has only twelve hours to solve the case before he decomposes, so things move on at a fair old pace after this as the lads do battle with various zombies, and a Chinese butchers shop full of meat that comes back to life!

Great fun for fans of 'Braindead' or 'The Evil Dead' style horrors, and anyone else who wants a film that they don't have to take to seriously. Also stands up well to repeated viewing.

8/10 I say, but judging by some of the other IMBD reviews others wouldn't (boring gits!)

I'll warn you, this is a very cheesy film. It's full of bad jokes and bad acting, but it's a guilty pleasure of mine. It's hailed, primarily by me, as the single greatest zombie-cop, buddy movie ever made. It is hailed by a fair number of those I have subjected to it as the worst movie they've ever seen. I can admit it, it's not Shakespeare, but if you like cheesy 80's horror and watered down pseudo-Lovecraft or even, *shudder* Joe Piscopo, then I encourage you to give it a try.