Dead Heat DVD - 3.00!

[Mr_Vindictive]

My wife and I stopped by a Dollar General yesterday after leaving Blockbuster.  We stopped in for a few house cleaning supplies.  On the way out, while waiting for the cashier, I noticed a stack of DVDs sitting near the checkout counter.  

After digging through 5 dollar Cary Grant double features, I saw Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo looking back at me; each holding machine guns.  Thinking the find was too good to be true, I searched for the price tag - 3.00.

I immediatly bought it.  For me, this is a true bad flick find.  Not only is the casework for the DVD horrible, so is the tagline.

"THESE CAPS ARE ON THE MOST DANGEROUS CASE OF THE LIVES."

Yeah, it actually says "THESE CAPS".  Nope, not "COPS" but "CAPS".

It looks to be distributed by a company called "Top Ten Media" which I believe is an asian company due to the fact that their credits on the dvd are in Japanese.  I popped the DVD in for just a moment (haven't watched it all yet) just to check out the quality.  The picture isn't great but it is pretty good.  The sounds is low but I can live with it.  

I'll watch it tonight and give a review sometime soon.

[The Burgomaster]

Way back in the early days of DVDs, I bought the movie TICKET TO HEAVEN (released by Simitar).  The cover has Nick Mancuso's name spelled wrong.  It is spelled M-A-N-U-S-C-O.  Other than that, it's a decent movie about a guy who gets brainwashed by a religious cult.  His family and friends try to kidnap him and deprogram him.

Maybe someone should start a thread about DVD boxes that contain misspelled words or other inaccurate information.

[Fearless Freep]

..or other inaccurate information.

You mean other than inaccurate plot descriptions? :)

[Yaddo42]

Robert Hays has been the victim of misspellings of his last name as "Hayes" a few times in articles and on video and DVD boxes. I remember Entertainment Weekly giving him some kind of "career freefall" award when his name was misspelled on the front of some straight-to-video action flick from the mid 90s. I've seen it spelled wrong several times on back of many boxes in the plot description.

"Dead Heat", other than being one of the last small roles for Vincent Price, I remember catching this on TV a few times late at night. I felt sorry for Treat Williams (who is a good actor and I've often wished his career had been better than it has) and had one of those "Oh, so that's what he's been up to" moments considering the mostly lackluster post-SNL of Piscopo.

[Zombie Movie Fan]

I actually bought Dead Heat on VHS for $0.98- and I felt ripped off after watching it. :)

[JohnL]

I always liked Dead Heat.

"Wanna see what happens when you resurrect someone twice?" :)

[Mr_Vindictive]

Dead Heat was actually a great flick.  Well worth the three bucks that I spent on the DVD.

The sound did turn out to be horrible though.  It seemed that any music, gunfire or background noise would be so loud as to make your ears bleed but that the dialogue was so low that I would have to constantly crank up my surround sound.

I agree with what one of you said about Treat Williams.  I always thought he was a decent actor as well, but it seemed like he had a frigging blast throughout this film.  It had seriously fun moments throughout and was a blast.

Well, atleast it was with a blast of margaritas.

[mr. henry]

i have the same DVD copy you speak of with the "caps" misspelling. i haven't watched the dvd yet but own the vhs and have watched that.

i think it's an underrated movie. it's a spoof of course with some great one-liners and some cool effects. the dead animals coming to life is great. what is that that jumps at joe piscopo's face, a liver?

i think i paid slightly more for my dvd. but under 4.95.

l8r-

[Mr_Vindictive]

Good to know I'm not the only one Mr. Henry.  

Yeah, the film was a pleasant suprise.  The zombie livestock was absolutely the best scene in the film.  The liver in that scene actually attacked Treat Williams, not Piscopo.

Great film overall.

[Fearless Freep]

Yeah, it actually says "THESE CAPS". Nope, not "COPS" but "CAPS"

Maybe  they're from Boston?

[Mr_Vindictive]

LOL

Thought that at first Freep, but that's not the case.

Just a bad misspelling

[mr. henry]

Skaboi wrote:

>
> I'll watch it tonight and give a review sometime soon.
>

i'd like to read your review. check mine out if you want at www.310am.com

i think it's an entertaining, obviously B-movie with some great dialogue.

later.

[Mofo Rising]

Wow, the last thread talking about Dead Heat was from 2004? Say it ain't so!

Dead Heat is a film I've always enjoyed watching from back in the days when it was endlessly rotating on HBO. For those who aren't familiar with it, Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo are buddy cops in an '80s world investigating a wave of seemingly invincible criminals. Along the way, Williams is shoved into an "asphyxiation chamber" and is killed. Lucky for him, in the same building there is a device that can bring people back from the dead. Well, sort of. He's still dead, but at least now he can get up and walk around.

This is a pretty solid b-movie. I watched it again last night and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's got a lot of great ideas, and really seems to have a pretty fun time with the concept of the dead super-cop. How you can not love a movie that reanimates all the dead animals in a Chinese butcher shop, culminating in a show down with a side of beef? Or a movie that has a showdown with two of the walking dead gunning each other with Uzis for a solid minute?

The downside of Dead Heat, it's pretty poorly done. It's got a lot of fun ideas, but it's a dumb movie. The direction is bad, the acting is sketchy at the best of times, the story is poorly thought out, and the dialogue is sub-par.

Except when it isn't!

"Hey, you're hurt!"
"Lady, I'm f**king dead."

Another observation, the "asphyxiation chamber" the detective gets trapped in is used to euthanize animals. Except that what the chamber does is remove all the air from the room creating a vacuum in seconds. That would be a particularly excruciating way to go for any animal, let alone humans. The bends, anyone?

Anyway, for anybody looking for prime '80s cheese, I highly recommend Dead Heat. 4 out of 5.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I've picked up the film in various formats since I originally made the thread back in 2004.  I now own it on Blu-Ray and it's one of my yearly viewings.

Sure, it is cheap but as with films like these, it adds to the fun for me.  Inventive, funny, and cheesy as hell.  Couldn't really ask for more!

[Francesco Dellamorte]

I love Dead Heat. Is one of my favorite comedy horrors.