‘I give up. This whole thing’s very Russian…’
Buddy cop movies were a staple of 80s and 90s action cinema. Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys – the list really does go on and on. While they have kind of gone out of fashion in recent years (partly because of the lack of bankable action movie stars), they will always hold a special place in my heart. Let’s begin with some honesty. Red Heat isn’t as good as any of those films that I’ve just mentioned. But it does have a secret weapon. One Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger…
Captain Ivan Danko (Schwarzenegger) is forced to leave Mother Russia for the windy city to team up with smartass Chicago cop Art Ridzik (Jim Belushi) for reasons that nobody needs to spend a single second worrying about. What isn’t in doubt is that they need to find a Russian mobster called Viktor (Ed O’Ross), again, for what can only be described as ‘reasons’. It’s something to do with crack cocaine. Maybe. It doesn’t matter. They must also contend with a pompous lieutenant (Laurence Fishburne), a femme fatale (Gina Gershon) and an uncompromising police chief (Peter Boyle).
As with the Oceans Elevens franchise, Red Heat can roughly be separated into three sections. Good. Bad. Good. The show stopping opening which sees Arnie stomping around in tiny pants and smashing people about in the snow is a truly wondrous introduction. Sadly, from there Arnie kind of dozes off for a while and forgets that he isn’t playing the Terminator anymore. His total absence of emotion hamstrings the middle section of the movie as he shares absolutely zero chemistry with Belushi who is at least trying to make something happen. Add in a convoluted plot and a stock Russian villain and you are heading to a pretty uninspiring conclusion. Luckily, the final 20 minutes sees Arnie awake from his slumber and kick some ass, even finding time to throw in some trademark one liners. It is in these moments when the Schwarzenegger/Belushi partnership finally starts to pay off and it is not until this denouement that we glimpse the great movie that Red Heat could have been if they had only had a little more fun with it.
As it is, Red Heat is a perfectly serviceable Arnie movie. I was never fully bored and there were enough moments that made me smile to make the whole thing worthwhile. It wouldn’t crack my top ten though…