Dead Heat (Divimax Special Edition)
List Price:
Our Price: $9.36
You Save: $0.62 (6%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.94 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Darren McGavin, Joe Piscopo, Lindsay Frost, Treat Williams, Vincent PriceBrand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 86 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-27
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD Reviews of Dead Heat (Divimax Special Edition)
DVD Review: "Take it easy, mister. You're not well."
Summary: 4 Stars
There's a certain offbeat awesomeness to this 1988 hybrid movie which just compels me to pop it in the player every few years. DEAD HEAT baffles straightforward attempts at genre pigeonholing. There's a bit of that buddy cop LETHAL WEAPON flavor going on, a bit of D.O.A., and some A NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. And then it carries on with its own mad vibe. Joe Piscopo is Joe Piscopo, and that's not an endorsement. DEAD HEAT certainly won't win accolades in acting or screenplay or cinematography, but, damn, if there isn't something about it that keeps your eyes glued and keeps you wondering what kind of crazy is going to drop next.
Maverick LAPD detectives Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and Doug Bigelow (Piscopo) look into a spate of armed robberies in the posh district, the twist being that these masked robbers prove to be really, really, really hard to kill. Because they're already dead. The investigation leads the detectives to a pharmaceutical firm where they get in a shoot-out with more really hard to kill weirdos (as Bigelow would later comment: "Remember the good old days when guns killed people?"). When Roger Mortis becomes a casualty, he's revived by a resurrection device and comes back without a heartbeat but with a sort of invulnerability. He has ten to twelve hours before his corpse dissolves into organic goo, time enough, he hopes, to catch his murderer.
I haven't seen too much of Treat Williams's cinematic stuff, but I've seen DEEP RISING and DEAD HEAT plenty of times, and dude is terrific in these two movies. His performance bolsters DEAD HEAT's oddball premise, exuding as he does this essence of understated cool. His character Det. Roger Mortis has always demonstrated a sense of reckless bravado, but it's fun watching him let loose and show even more disregard for personal safety the more he accepts his zombie state. I guess there's a certain release that comes with gross skin deterioration and an assortment of gashes and gory bullet wounds. In the final half hour, zombie Detective Mortis can't seem to help but smile and smile.
No brains were eaten in the making of this movie, but there's still ample gross-out moments for ghoulish-minded sorts like me. The out-of-left-field sensibility, that twist of the surreal, is never more palpable than in the frenetic and kinda sick butcher shop sequence, in which slaughtered meat come to life and jump on our characters. Somewhere, Sam Raimi is giving a fist pump. DEAD HEAT makes a half-hearted effort at a romance with not one, but two, hotties (Lindsay Frost is smoking hot), but it's really more about the weirdness and the horror and the tongue-in-cheek stuff and the undead cop getting his vengeance on even as bits of him get sliced at, shot off, burnt up, or rotted off.
The most charitable thing I can say about Saturday Night Live alum Joe Piscopo is that, as the muscle-bound, dim-witted cop partner, he's less annoying in this one than in other things he's been in. Meanwhile, old horror vets Vincent Price and Darren McGavin lend the picture a kind of dubious prestige. And, to apply the Kevin Bacon game on DEAD HEAT and LETHAL WEAPON, not only did Terry Black - brother of LETHAL WEAPON writer Shane Black - write the screenplay to DEAD HEAT, but Shane Black himself makes a cameo appearance as a patrol cop in DEAD HEAT. His scene coincides with my favorite line in the movie. Right before Shane shows up, a severely scorched Roger Mortis unzips himself from a body bag and starts pulling burnt pieces of his face off, at which point a paramedic cautions him: "Take it easy, mister. You're not well." (Heh.)
Even though this guilty pleasure was released in 1988, the special effects hold up well; the zombie make-up stil looks pretty decent. This DVD is the "Divimax Special Edition," and it's got okay bonus features, all things considered: an audio commentary with Director Mark Goldblatt, Producers David Helpern & Michael Meltzer, and Writer Terry Black; 8 deleted scenes, most of which merely expand on already existing scenes; the original electronic press kit, which is a brief behind-the-scenes look at the film; the theatrical trailer; MIFED Promo (which is sort of like a trailer); poster and still gallery; original storyboard art; and the original screenplay set in PDF format on DVD-ROM.
DEAD HEAT isn't going to wow you with its smarts or wit or deep character arcs or its big budget. And it certainly wallows in its share of 1980s cheesiness. But what DEAD HEAT is, is a fun train wreck. Treat Williams puts on a good show.
Description of Dead Heat (Divimax Special Edition)
Violent criminals who can?t be killed are shooting up Los Angeles, and the investigation leads LAPD detectives Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) to a mysterious pharmaceutical firm. But when Mortis is suddenly murdered, his coroner girlfriend and loose cannon partner discover the company?s ?resurrection machine? that turns Roger into the walking dead. Now the department?s most unstoppable cops must battle zombie hit men, a butcher shop gone berserk and the deceased industrialist (the legendary Vincent Price in one of his final film roles) who may hold the key to it all. But can Mortis solve his own homicide case before he completely decomposes? Darren McGavin (THE NIGHT STALKER), Lindsay Frost (THE RING) and Keye Luke (GREMLINS) co-star in this wild combination of explosive action thriller and gory zombie comedy directed by Mark Goldblatt (THE PUNISHER) and featuring grisly make-up effects and monsters by Steve Johnson (SPECIES).Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Disorganized CrimeBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2002-09-03; DVD
Best price: $22.02
![Venom [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Venom-Blu-ray-B004TP55PC-X.jpg)
Venom [Blu-ray]EBH; Release date: 2011-08-09; Blu-ray
Best price: $7.13
Price in other shops:
Evil Dead IICAMPBELL,BRUCE; Release date: 2000-08-29; DVD
Best price: $7.73
Price in other shops:
VampIMG; Release date: 2011-09-20; DVD
Best price: $5.69
Price in other shops:
Chillerama (Unrated)IMG; Release date: 2011-11-29; DVD
Best price: $11.77
Price in other shops:
Dark Night Of The ScarecrowVCI; Release date: 2010-09-28; DVD
Best price: $7.28
Price in other shops:
Basket Case (20th Anniversary Special Edition)VANHENTENRYCK/SMITH; Release date: 2001-07-17; DVD
Best price: $4.72
Price in other shops:
Night of the CreepsSony; Release date: 2009-10-27; DVD
Best price: $6.72
Price in other shops:
IntruderMusic Video Dist; Release date: 2005-08-09; DVD
Best price: $6.94
Price in other shops:
Maniac CopRYKODISC; Release date: 2006-11-14; DVD
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops: