Heat: Director's Definitive Edition | Full Movie | Movies Anywhere

Dream match-ups on paper don't always succeed on the screen -- like twin fires fighting for oxygen, will they merely cancel each other out? Hardly. This is one titanic clash that actually lives up to the billing.

Above all, the dialogue is complex enough to allow the characters to say what they're thinking: They are eloquent, insightful, fanciful, poetic when necessary. They're not trapped with clichés.

Heat is a giant of a film, a god among American crime thrillers… Masterpiece is an overused term. Here it barely comes close.

Mann has produced the best crime epic since Goodfellas and one of the best films of the year, an absolute must-see for anyone who likes good (heck, great) acting and modern cinema.

At its core it's actually about virtuosity... and, by extension, the virtuosity of Mann himself, of which there's no short supply. Too bad it's running on empty; if the film weren't so hollow it would be a masterpiece.