Michael Mann (2) (1943–)

Guys will literally watch Heat instead of going to therapy. Trust me on this, I'm guys. Heat is a fantastic movie, Mann an incredible director of crime and action, and the movie is gorgeously shot and full of top-tier performances, from Pacino's deranged detective Vincent Hanna, to De Niro's professional and tactical criminal mastermind Neil McCauley, and Val Kilmer's icy gunman Chris Shiherlis. The movie is perfect and self contained, and doesn't really need a sequel.

But we have one anyone, show more because Mann is not done with these characters. And you know, this story is parasitic, but perfectly fine, advancing on three parallel timelines. In 1988, we meet McCauley and Hanna much as they are, with Hanna chasing a psychopathic home invader in Chicago, and McCauley planning a heist against a Mexican cartel. Immediately after the events of the movie in 1996, Shiherlis is recovering from his wounds and working as a security contractor for a Taiwanese-Paraguayian crime family. And in 2000, lose ends are being tied up, with Hanna, the psychopathic home invader, and Shiherlis helping the daughter of the crime family move to the next level.

If you like Heat, you're going to enjoy this book, which is much like the movie, but more. But I think without the movie, and without Pacino and Kilmer in my head, this wouldn't have been nearly as good. The writing is a lot like a screenplay, terse and telegraphic, stating images and moods rather than making them. The novel is not Mann's form, and while co-author Gardiner does her best to flesh it out, you can see where the dialog crackles, and when this book needs light, sound, and actors to make it live.

But hey, you're not going to go to therapy are you? show less

“… split in thirty seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner.”

The first 6 pages of this book are a recap of the movie that came before it. This story begins the next day. And Hanna has a major hard-on to catch Chris, the man who killed his partner during the bank heist. I found that story to be fairly boring. But the 'flashback' stories are pretty good, in a Richard Stark's Parker novel kind of way. Neil's plotting, planning, and executing of scores is pretty good reading, show more and if more back stories about him and his crew were to be published, I'd totally be on board!
But if more Chris stories were to come down the pike, I'd pass. show less

Confession - Heat is one of my favorite movies for many reasons, including being set in places I spent a lot of time in my youth. So when I heard there was going to be a book sequel to the movie, I knew I’d read it, but I tried to tamp down my expectations. I needn’t have worried - this book exceeded my hopes. If you like to read and if you enjoyed the movie Heat, you’re almost certainly going to like this book. Readers should be warned about graphic, disturbing sexual violence and show more there is a sub thread of queerness as stand in for moral decay / bad character I don’t care for. I still really enjoyed the book and look forward to the sequels I have heard (I write this in late summer 2022) will be written. Available at this writing on Scribd as a well performed audiobook. show less

I’ve seen the movie Heat a few times, I like its balance of action and character development, so when I saw this novel I snapped it up and I was really excited about reading it.

As a read, the way it’s written, this would have worked better as a screenplay, or rather 2 if not 3 screenplays. There were a few scenes that hovered around a 4* - 5*, but mostly it was ½* - 3, yes there was a lot of action and big scenes, but it didn’t have the character development and the balance of the show more movie. As I was reading this, I could see the movie, the problem was this is a novel, a medium that uses words rather than pictures to tell its story.

I’ll probably still see the movie (that’s in pre-production now) but more out of curiosity of how it compares to this novel. show less