Metacritic reviews

Stunningly made and incisively acted by a large and terrific cast, Michael Mann's ambitious study of the relativity of good and evil stands apart from other films of its type by virtue of its extraordinarily rich characterizations and its thoughtful, deeply melancholy take on modern life.

One of the most intelligent crime-thrillers to come along in years.

A sleek, accomplished piece of work, meticulously controlled and completely involving. The dark end of the street doesn't get much more inviting than this.

A stunning crime drama that shares its protagonists' rabid attention to detail and love of adrenalin.

Under a director with less vision and ambition, Heat could have been just another routine crime drama, but Mann brings such an edge to the proceedings that the threadbare story takes on a new urgency.

It didn't sound like fun to us, either, but we were wrong; Heat scores on many fronts...The plot, though it seems to ramble, builds suspense with deft precision, and the action set pieces are triumphs.

It's a monster of a movie, and it gets unwieldy.

We're not watching McCauley and Hanna anymore; we're watching De Niro and Pacino trying to out-insinuate each other. For a few moments, Heat truly has some.

A cool and rather detached movie...Heat generates lots of energy but gives off little light.

Ultimately, though, the movie never transcends the limitations of its Hemingwayesque, men-with-men attitudes.