Dead Heat

Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo are two, now get his, mismatched cops. Joe Piscopo is Bigelow, a macho, insensitive lug who only cares about himself...maybe. Treat Williams is Mortis, a kind, intuitive detective with a promising career ahead of him...until his latest case lands him on a slab. Fortunately, the case provides them with a means to bring Mortis back. Now, Bigelow and an undead Mortis race to find Mortis' killer before it's too late...(or perhaps it already is) The film tries hard to be funny, and it is, in certain moments. The two lead actors have a kind of chemistry and the cast of character actors are dynamite (including Darren McGavin, Vincent Price, Robert Picardo, and Key Luke) but it is the genre-mixing which steals the show. The butcher shop scene is hilarious and sick, a good indication of where the movie would have went if more freedom had been extended toward the filmmakers. But it remains a neat little flick for the horror lovers and the action buffs everywhere.

Hopefully more and more people will discover this title, but until then, it has a small cult audience. Don't let that stop ya, seek it out. It won't change your life, but it ought to give you a diverting way to spend an hour and a half.

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.

Takes the buddy movie to new heights, at any rate. Other than one of the cops is dead, it pretty much plays out like a standard cop/buddy movie. So much so that it's unintentionally funny. That, and the script taking the logic of resurrection to logic conclusions (like in the Chinatown butcher shop), makes for a hilarious pic. We also have horror veterans like Vincent Price, Darren McGavin (Kolchak/Night Stalker) and Keye Luke along for the ride. Check it out if you get a chance.

One of Joe Piscopo better movies, Dead Heat is a fun ride that is filled with action and wild comedy. Treat Williams stars in this interesting story about the walking dead. Not a horror movie about zombies, but the living dead committing crimes. Williams and Piscopo do justice to this low budget movie. The story itself holds its own as the limited special effects can only take the audience too far. The comic relief of Piscopo fills in the gaps where the gun fights and walking dead miss. Treat Williams shows his leading man qualities in Dead Heat while he has failed to do so in other movies. In the end, the movie produces an enjoyable ride for action fans. One of Vincent Prices' last movies, he is the icing on the cake of the b-movie that Dead Heat is.

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.