Dead Heat is set in Los Angeles where detectives Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) & Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) are investigating a spate of violent jewellery store robberies, during the latest one two suspects were eventually shot dead by the cops but they seemed almost invincible. At the LA morgue pathologist Rebecca Smythers (Clare Kirkconnell) says that the two dead thieves had already been autopsied before & she was sure that she had done them herself, Mortis & Bigelow are baffled & the only clue to the case is a large amount of a special drug in the thieves bodies. Mortis & Bigelow trace the drug to a pharmaceutical company & while there are attacked by a mutant zombie after finding a machine that can bring the dead back to life, Mortis is killed but Smythers & Bigelow use the machine to bring him back to life. The effects of the machine wear off as it cannot prevent the decay of human flesh so Mortis sets out to track those down responsible for killing him before his body decomposes...
Directed by Mark Goldblatt this is a horror film that uses the basic then popular buddy buddy action cop flick scenario such as Lethal Weapon (1987) (in fact the script for Dead Heat was written by Terry Black who is the brother of Shane Black who wrote Lethal Weapon!) as it's central concept & injects various horror themes around it, like one of the cops being killed & brought back as a zombie who is then determined to solve his own murder & while Dead Heat isn't a cult classic it is an entertaining oddball mix of a film. Played mainly for laughs it's a shame that two better actor's with more on screen chemistry couldn't have been cast, Treat Williams is alright but comedian Joe Piscopo is awful & almost single handedly ruins the entire film. Every line he has he pulls faces, makes silly gestures & tries to get a laugh which kills any genuine drama between the two cops as he never once even tries to act like a normal human being. At only 80 odd minutes long Dead Heat is short & it moves along like a rocket, the script throw's in a couple of twists at the end but they aren't that great & the idea that a criminal masterminds plan is foiled by a code using telephone buttons feels lazy. The character's are alright but no-one seems that bothered whenever anyone else dies, Mortis when Smythers & his partner Bigelow die for instance seems to show no emotion at all. A few things are never explained like the rushed ending & the bad guy's aren't bad enough.
There are some good effects sequences here with a scene set inside a butcher's particularly good as a bad guy uses the machine to resurrect all the dead animals & cuts of meat including dead Chicken's & an entire Cow's carcass. The film has a quite static & bland look which is a shame, it's well made with good effects work but there's not much visual style. There's a runaway ambulance which crashes & explodes to up the action a bit along with the fights & shoot-outs. Released a few weeks before big budget action film Red Heat (1988) the two titles are very similar & maybe Dead Heat would have done better business had it been released a weeks after Red Heat & cashed in on the similar sounding title & similar buddy buddy cop story.
With a supposed budget of about $5,000,000 the production values are good & the effects are OK but maybe the lack of any recognisable stars in the cast hurt it. The does let Dead Heat down a bit, Williams is alright but Piscopo is awful while genre legend Vincent Price has a small role.
Dead Heat is a strange mix of cop comedy thriller & zombie horror that is quite fun to watch, the choice of leads hurt the film & it's maybe not as funny, gory or scary as maybe it could have been but there's enough here to enjoy & for me to be able to recommend it.
Directed by Mark Goldblatt this is a horror film that uses the basic then popular buddy buddy action cop flick scenario such as Lethal Weapon (1987) (in fact the script for Dead Heat was written by Terry Black who is the brother of Shane Black who wrote Lethal Weapon!) as it's central concept & injects various horror themes around it, like one of the cops being killed & brought back as a zombie who is then determined to solve his own murder & while Dead Heat isn't a cult classic it is an entertaining oddball mix of a film. Played mainly for laughs it's a shame that two better actor's with more on screen chemistry couldn't have been cast, Treat Williams is alright but comedian Joe Piscopo is awful & almost single handedly ruins the entire film. Every line he has he pulls faces, makes silly gestures & tries to get a laugh which kills any genuine drama between the two cops as he never once even tries to act like a normal human being. At only 80 odd minutes long Dead Heat is short & it moves along like a rocket, the script throw's in a couple of twists at the end but they aren't that great & the idea that a criminal masterminds plan is foiled by a code using telephone buttons feels lazy. The character's are alright but no-one seems that bothered whenever anyone else dies, Mortis when Smythers & his partner Bigelow die for instance seems to show no emotion at all. A few things are never explained like the rushed ending & the bad guy's aren't bad enough.
There are some good effects sequences here with a scene set inside a butcher's particularly good as a bad guy uses the machine to resurrect all the dead animals & cuts of meat including dead Chicken's & an entire Cow's carcass. The film has a quite static & bland look which is a shame, it's well made with good effects work but there's not much visual style. There's a runaway ambulance which crashes & explodes to up the action a bit along with the fights & shoot-outs. Released a few weeks before big budget action film Red Heat (1988) the two titles are very similar & maybe Dead Heat would have done better business had it been released a weeks after Red Heat & cashed in on the similar sounding title & similar buddy buddy cop story.
With a supposed budget of about $5,000,000 the production values are good & the effects are OK but maybe the lack of any recognisable stars in the cast hurt it. The does let Dead Heat down a bit, Williams is alright but Piscopo is awful while genre legend Vincent Price has a small role.
Dead Heat is a strange mix of cop comedy thriller & zombie horror that is quite fun to watch, the choice of leads hurt the film & it's maybe not as funny, gory or scary as maybe it could have been but there's enough here to enjoy & for me to be able to recommend it.