Relatively straight-laced officer Roger Mortis and his loudmouthed partner Doug Bigelow are called to the scene of a jewelry store robbery, and find it shockingly hard to kill the violent criminals responsible. Visiting a friend of Roger's, who also happens to be a coroner, they are informed that the two culprits had previously passed away before their act at the location had occurred. Discovering a preserve chemical found in the bodies of the deceased, the two trace it to a strange company that has been ordering it in bulk for a small amount of time. When things go awry during their investigation at the facility, Roger is killed. However, before his partner and friends can mourn for too long, they discover an unusual machine that is seemingly capable of bringing the dead back to life...
Choosing an entry for 1988 proved to be far more difficult that I had expected it to be. Mind you, it wasn't due to a lack of quality movies, but rather due to what I had not previously watched. There were many works of wonder released to theaters during that year, including Pumpkinhead, The Serpent & The Rainbow, The Blob, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, and many more that you should have already seen by now. For reasons unknown to even myself, I chose Mark Goldblatt's lone directorial effort, the action/comedy/horror project Dead Heat, which stars many people who I had legitimately forgotten had careers at one point in their lives. Perhaps that long-term memory loss was a good thing.
For a flick filmed and released twenty seven years ago, Dead Heat actually looks like it was from thirty seven years earlier instead. The color schemes and editing scream late 1970s, with even some of the dialogue and shootouts seemingly lifted from programs that are often looked back on with an almost ironic love by some of those "I Love The *insert decade*" shows. Heat's classification as a horror picture was slightly puzzling to me for its first thirty minutes or so, and its first truly horrific and memorable moment doesn't occur until the officers make a stop by a butcher shop (ran by legendary Chinese-American actor Keye Luke), wherein they are attacked by the reanimated corpses of some staples typically found in an Asian-themed restaurant. Truth be told, that was also when my doubt of it being a horror-comedy was erased, albeit while producing chuckles more than full-fledged laughs.
Speaking of staples, our officers are, for better or for worse, relics of their time. Treat Williams (Hair, The Phantom, 1941) seems like he's mostly being confined and held down, unable to let loose or have fun with what has transpired. Sure, he does eventually start to develop some sort of personality outside of being the prototypical good cop character in every motion picture or television show from the past four decades, but gosh does it take far too long. While blandness will almost always lose out to other's traits in pictures like this, it's far superior to the flat-out irritation from costar Joe Piscopo (Saturday Night Live). I won't lie when I will tell you that it was indescribably difficult to try and find a way to not repeatedly type "Shut the FUCK UP Joe Piscopo" for my review. There's a certain negative charisma to the guy, reeking of a certain pungent stench that just makes it impossible to laugh with (or even at) the guy. Eh, I guess that I shouldn't harp on this too much longer, so I'll just conclude with:
Despite a really fun supporting role from Vincent Price (who kills it even when he's on autopilot), and an admittedly fantastic finale (mostly due to minimal screen time from Piscopo and an excellent decaying sequence), Dead Heat is just such a tossup for me. It's a great idea (one of which would be slightly retooled for 2013's dreadful R.I.P.D.), but its execution is insanely frustrating. For every time that I was starting to enjoy the experience, something would just swoop in and steal the smile from my face. I suppose that I can say it's worth a try solely based on that previously mentioned third act and conclusion, but heed my advice and prepare for many moments that could make you grimace more than you may have wanted to this season.
Tomorrow, I decide to explore one of the more (purportedly) underrated gems from the slasher genre, wondering if we really will see Bruce Campbell and Renee Estevez in starring roles that were advertised to the home video market. I suspect that I may have been lied to again though.....
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