laguna heat movie reviews

Laguna Heat

Harry Hamlin (Tom Shephard) Jason Robards (Wade Shephard) Rip Torn (Joe Datilla) Catherine Hicks (Jane Algernon) Anne Francis (Helene Long) James Gammon (Grimes) Jeff Kober (Vic Harmon) Dehl Berti (Azul Mercante) Clyde Kusatsu (Coroner) Rutanya Alda (Dr. Kroyden)

Simon Langton

After his partner is killed, private detective Tom Shephard returns to his home in Laguna Beach, California, where he finds himself embroiled in a series of nightmarish murders that take him back to the past and some twisted family ties.

Recommendations

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Challengers Link to Challengers
Abigail Link to Abigail
Arcadian Link to Arcadian

New TV Tonight

The Jinx: Season 2
Knuckles: Season 1
THEM: The Scare: Season 2
Velma: Season 2
The Big Door Prize: Season 2
Secrets of the Octopus: Season 1
Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story: Season 1
We're Here: Season 4

Laguna Heat Reviews

No All Critics reviews for Laguna Heat.

Supported by

TV Reviews; 'Laguna Heat,' On HBO

Share full article

By John J. O'Connor

Nov. 19, 1987

DESPITE a long list of promising names among the production credits, T. Jefferson Parker's novel ''Laguna Heat'' still reads better than it plays. The latest HBO Pictures presentation had its premiere on the Home Box Office pay-cable service last weekend. Its next showing will be Saturday at 11:30 P.M.

A possible clue to the problem: the teleplay is attributed to Pete Hamill, and to the team of D. M. Eyre and David Burton Morris. Nothing spells trouble for a single project more than a gathering of writers. It's the old ''too many cooks'' syndrome. The story of ''Laguna Heat'' encompasses one of those simmering murder mysteries that ponder man's fate and the decline of Western civilization. Hard-bitten and gloomily philosophical, it is equal parts Andre Malraux and Raymond Chandler. Unfortunately, the film - directed by Britain's Simon Langton (''The Whistle Blower'') and produced by Bill Badalato (''Top Gun'') - keeps sounding oddly naive, if not downright sophomoric.

Harry Hamlin of ''L.A. Law'' plays Tom Shepherd, a police detective who has returned to Laguna Beach, Calif., in something approaching disgrace. His police partner in Sacramento was stabbed to death when Tom couldn't bring himself to shoot the teen-aged attacker. Now divorced, Tom has returned to live with his father, Wade (Jason Robards), himself a former cop who runs a soup-kitchen mission to help the needy. Tom's godfather is Joe Datilla (Rip Torn), the big man in town who plays tennis with United States senators.

In no time at all, Tom is confronted with a grisly murder, the torch burning of a local horse-stable owner. The investigation begins and Tom finds himself being drawn back to the past, a past dominated by his father and Joe Datilla and a ''rat pack'' of fast-living, ambitious friends. Wary and depressed, he nevertheless finds time to begin a romance with the dead man's daughter (Catherine Hicks), which leads to a skinny-dipping scene that ends up on the beach in what looks like an homage to the movie ''From Here to Eternity.''

The action comes to a halt frequently for conversations on the meaning of it all. Father: ''You believe in God, Son?'' Son: ''I don't know.'' Things wear out, we are told, cars, clothes, marriages. In case anyone misses the point, an alcoholic woman, played with style by Anne Francis, tells Tom: ''Welcome to the last days of Pompeii - watch yourself, the fires ain't out yet.'' Meanwhile, the local Chamber of Commerce is in a tizzy about the bad publicity, hoping it won't interrupt the flow of tourists willing to spend lots of money for a sun tan. And Tom's new police partner, in vintage Chandlerese, observes that ''we're only the garbage collectors - the only people worth anything in this world are bartenders and whores.''

Mr. Hamlin, in fashionable facial stubble, works up a storm of steamy brooding that inevitably leaves him looking more darkly handsome than ever. Mr. Robards and Mr. Torn, two wily veterans, go through their few key scenes with authoritative ease, their very presence in the film providing a strong hint as to how the case will be resolved. For all that, ''Laguna Heat'' is never quite as scorching as it would like to be.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

As “Sex and the City” became more widely available on Netflix, younger viewers have watched it with a critical eye . But its longtime millennial and Gen X fans can’t quit.

Hoa Xuande had only one Hollywood credit when he was chosen to lead “The Sympathizer,” the starry HBO adaptation of a prize-winning novel. He needed all the encouragement he could get .

Even before his new film “Civil War” was released, the writer-director Alex Garland faced controversy over his vision of a divided America with Texas and California as allies.

Theda Hammel’s directorial debut, “Stress Positions,” a comedy about millennials weathering the early days of the pandemic , will ask audiences to return to a time that many people would rather forget.

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime and Hulu to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

162.811 movies
10.304 shows
30.068 seasons
616.564 actors
9.003.281 votes

Best movies top 250
Movie updates
News Updates
TV Shows updates
Celebrity News
Most Popular Celebrities
Top 100 Celebrities
Highest Net Worth Celebrities
Celebrities born today
On demand News
Amazon Prime
BBC iPlayer
Paramount Plus
Awards & Events News
Sundance Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
SXSW Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival

Laguna Heat

Cast & crew

Laguna Heat (1987)

Genre: drama / thriller, duration: 110 minuten, country: united states, directed by: simon langton, stars: harry hamlin , jason robards and rip torn, imdb score: 4,9 (181), releasedate: 15 november 1987.

This movie is not available on US streaming services.

This movie is not available on UK streaming services.

Laguna Heat plot

Tom Shephard (Hamlin) becomes involved in the investigation of a twenty-year-old murder case. He is shocked to learn that his parents may have been involved.

Actors and actresses

Tom Shephard

Wade Shephard

Joe Datilla

Jane Algernon

Helene Long

Azul Mercante

Dr. Kroyden

Trailer & other videos.

Trailer Laguna Heat

Reviews & comments.

Opinion/Review

E-mail address

No comments are posted yet. Be the first to leave a comment.

Latest News

2024's biggest movies - Everything you need to know about Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia Streaming UK: How to watch

Mark Wahlberg confirms why he wasn't in Ocean's Eleven

WATCH: The terrifying new trailer for Speak No Evil starring James McAvoy

Trending movies.

Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver
Dune: Part Two
Deadpool & Wolverine
Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire - Part One
Late Night with the Devil
Dune: Part One

Trending Shows

The Spiderwick Chronicles
For All Mankind
Baby Reindeer
The Sympathizer

Corporate & Media

About MovieMeter

MovieMeter aims to be the largest, most complete movie archive with reviews and rankings, in the World. Our team of journalists delivers the latest news for movies and TV shows. Click here to read more about us .

Social media

MovieMeterReviews
moviemeter__
@MovieMeter_

Popular top lists

Top 250 best movies of all time
Top 250 best scifi movies of all time
Top 250 best thriller movies of all time
Top 250 best action movies of all time
Top 100 best movies released in the last 3 years
Top 50 best family movies of all time

MPAA Rating

Produced by, laguna heat (1987), directed by simon langton.

AllMovie Rating 5
User Ratings ( 0 )
Your Rating
Overview ↓
User Reviews ↓
Cast & Crew ↓
Related ↓

Synopsis by Jason Ankeny

Characteristics, related movies.

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

Start a new list…
Add all films to a list…
Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

Laguna heat.

1987 Directed by Simon Langton

Tom Shepard returns to his home town of Laguna Beach to escape his turbulent past. But the tranquility is shattered when he gets involved in the investigation of a series of grisly and bizarre murders.

Harry Hamlin Jason Robards Rip Torn Catherine Hicks Anne Francis James Gammon Jeff Kober Dehl Berti Clyde Kusatsu Rutanya Alda Gary Pagett Fred Ponzlov Tom Pedi Peggy Doyle Peter Brocco

Director Director

Simon Langton

Producers Producers

Fred Baron Bill Badalato

Writers Writers

Pete Hamill David Burton Morris D.M. Eyre

Original Writer Original Writer

T. Jefferson Parker

Casting Casting

Joseph D'Agosta

Editor Editor

Bernard Gribble

Cinematography Cinematography

Fred Murphy

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Sharon Mann Robert D. Nellans

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Lighting lighting.

Steven R. Mathis

Production Design Production Design

Joseph T. Garrity

Art Direction Art Direction

Pat Tagliaferro

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Jerie Kelter G. Roger Abell David Brace Shari Griffin Marco López Stuart Shaw

Special Effects Special Effects

Robert G. Willard Mike Menzel

Stunts Stunts

Bill M. Ryusaki Justin De Rosa Debby Porter Jeff Ramsey Debbie Lynn Ross Randy Peters Karen Price Mike Tillman Carol Neilson Mike Johnson Buck McDancer

Composer Composer

Patrick Williams

Sound Sound

G. Michael Graham A. David Marshall Dean Okrand Joe Melody Gary C. Bourgeois Chris Carpenter Greg Schorer Dave McMoyler Carey Lindley Lenny Jennings Rusty Beith Mark Friedsen

Costume Design Costume Design

Karen Patch

Makeup Makeup

Lance Anderson

Drama TV Movie Thriller

Releases by Date

15 nov 1987, releases by country.

Theatrical R

110 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Jacob Knight ★★½

Entertaining enough HBO Films programmer where Harry Hamlin’s righteous, disgraced cop moves back to Florida after being pushed out of his own department, only to get caught up in a long buried web of deceit and corruption, possibly involving his heroic father (Jason Robards!) and a local business titan (Rip Torn!). Plays out almost exactly how you’d expect and is a touch too slow, yet captures a languid, sleazy vibe similar to old Charles Willeford or John D. MacDonald pulp novels. Plus, James Gammon shows up and croaks a bunch of profanity as Hamlin’s cranky murder dick colleague, and I’m never gonna turn that down.

Review by mattstechel ★★

Really wish this had been better as it starts out promising with Harry Hamlin as a cop who transfers from LA to Laguna Beach where his dad used to be a respected cop and is now a retiree. Reason he transfers is because his partner gets murdered and he apparently froze in terror so naturally nobody on the force wants to partner up with him after that, so he transfers to what he hopes will be a much lighter workload. No sooner then he gets there tho does a murder happen, this time to someone with a connection to his dad....And then another murder happens with a victim with yet another connection to his dad. Could these two seemingly random…

Select your preferred poster

Laguna Heat (1987)

Join or Sign In

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy .

TV Listings

Cast & Crew

Laguna Heat

1 hr 55 mins
Drama, Suspense

A cop (Harry Hamlin) visiting his father (Jason Robards) gets involved in the search for a killer. Datilla: Rip Torn. Jane: Catherine Hicks. Helene: Anne Frances. Grimes: James Gammon. Mercante: Dehl Berti.

Loading. Please wait...

My cable/satellite provider:

There are no TV airings over the next 14 days. Add it to your Watchlist to receive updates and availability notifications.

Cast & Crew See All

Harry Hamlin

Tom shephard, jason robards, wade shephard.

Joe Datilla

LAGUNA HEAT

by T. Jefferson Parker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 1985

Knockout debut by a Southern California cloth-of-Chandler thriller writer who keeps his metaphors tingling amid smart dialogue and whose style already has the ripe, heady grip of a salted margarita. Tom Shepard, 32, is the new homicide detective in Orange County's wealthy, tennis- and boat-loving Laguna Beach, whose 100,000 population graphs a .5 annual murder rate—or one body every two years. Not much work for the hometown returnee—until the Fire Killer appears, a murderer who announces his coming with gift Bibles to his victims, each book's title page red-lettered with an aphorism such as LIARS BURN AND LITTLE LIARS BURN FIRST, and who then pours turpentine over their bodies and ignites them. Newly divorced by his upward-mobile actressy wife, Shepard is impotent and drinking far, far too much following his being hounded out of the Los Angeles Police Department by the press for having killed a 16-year-old black teenager who had just stabbed Shepard's partner. Complicating his return to Laguna is the fact that his father, now a TV preacher with a drive-in movie church, is that town's former police chief. When Tom was only four months old, his father Wade found his tennis friend Azul Mercante raping Tom's mother, and in a fight over Wade's pistol she was killed and Mercante later given a long jail term. Or was she being raped? Now, when a heavy-drinking old stable-owner and gambler is found with his head bashed in, a thousand dollars in bills stuffed down his throat and his outer body burned black, Shepard approaches the victim's chilly daughter Jane for help. Once he overcomes her archness, he begins uncovering motiveless malignancies that seem to lead him directly into his own past, his father's earlier alcoholism and born-again recovery and that tie to a fabulous beach club. . . While the story is grippingly plotted and has an aura of ancestral horror, its real hook comes from brilliantly original dialogue and Shepard's reactions to the varied violence he meets: he bleeds, gets concussions, is repelled and made watery-kneed by both the dead and the living and is always intensely present on the page. He's not at all sure he's cut out for this work. Not the least of the story's merits is its utter familiarity with police work and the absorbing logic of detection. Then there are the pungently defined, sometimes movingly human characters (especially his father, a solid-gold Christian in a Sophoclean darkness), the mid-August heat and glittery scene-painting of chic Laguna Beach under turquoise California skies. Writerly and memorable.

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 1985

ISBN: 0312952058

Page Count: 340

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: April 5, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1985

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

Share your opinion of this book

More by T. Jefferson Parker

BOOK REVIEW

by T. Jefferson Parker

A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

More by Kathy Reichs

by Kathy Reichs

by David Baldacci ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 2, 1997

Irritatingly trite woman-in-periler from lawyer-turned-novelist Baldacci. Moving away from the White House and the white-shoe Washington law firms of his previous bestsellers (Absolute Power, 1996; Total Control, 1997), Baldacci comes up with LuAnn Tyler, a spunky, impossibly beautiful, white-trash truck stop waitress with a no-good husband and a terminally cute infant daughter in tow. Some months after the birth of Lisa, LuAnn gets a phone call summoning her to a make-shift office in an unrented storefront of the local shopping mall. There, she gets a Faustian offer from a Mr. Jackson, a monomaniacal, cross-dressing manipulator who apparently knows the winning numbers in the national lottery before the numbers are drawn. It seems that LuAnn fits the media profile of what a lottery winner should be—poor, undereducated but proud—and if she's willing to buy the right ticket at the right time and transfer most of her winnings to Jackson, she'll be able to retire in luxury. Jackson fails to inform her, however, that if she refuses his offer, he'll have her killed. Before that can happen, as luck would have it, LuAnn barely escapes death when one of husband Duane's drug deals goes bad. She hops on a first-class Amtrak sleeper to Manhattan with a hired executioner in pursuit. But executioner Charlie, one of Jackson's paid handlers, can't help but hear wedding bells when he sees LuAnn cooing with her daughter. Alas, a winning $100- million lottery drawing complicates things. Jackson spirits LuAnn and Lisa away to Sweden, with Charlie in pursuit. Never fear. Not only will LuAnn escape a series of increasingly violent predicaments, but she'll also outwit Jackson, pay an enormous tax bill to the IRS, and have enough left over to honeymoon in Switzerland. Too preposterous to work as feminine wish-fulfillment, too formulaic to be suspenseful. (Book-of-the-Month Club main selection)

Pub Date: Dec. 2, 1997

ISBN: 0-446-52259-7

Page Count: 528

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1997

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

More by David Baldacci

by David Baldacci

Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

Laguna Heat (1987 TV Movie)

Full cast & crew.

Directed by

Writing credits (in alphabetical order) , cast (in credits order) verified as complete , produced by , music by , cinematography by , editing by , casting by , production design by , art direction by , set decoration by , costume design by , makeup department , production management , second unit director or assistant director , art department , sound department , special effects by , stunts , camera and electrical department , casting department , costume and wardrobe department , editorial department , location management , music department , script and continuity department , transportation department , additional crew .

Release Dates | Official Sites | Company Credits | Filming & Production | Technical Specs

Contribute to This Page

Full Cast and Crew
Release Dates
Official Sites
Company Credits
Filming & Production
Technical Specs
Plot Summary
Plot Keywords
Parents Guide

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits
Alternate Versions
Connections
Soundtracks

Photo & Video

Photo Gallery
Trailers and Videos
User Reviews
User Ratings
External Reviews
Metacritic Reviews

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

There is a sequence at the center of Michael Mann's "Heat" that illuminates the movie's real subject. As it begins, a Los Angeles police detective named Hanna ( Al Pacino ) has been tracking a high-level thief named McCauley ( Robert De Niro ) for days. McCauley is smart and wary and seems impossible to trap. So, one evening, tailing McCauley's car, Hanna turns on the flashers and pulls him over.

McCauley carefully shifts the loaded gun he is carrying. He waits in his car. Hanna approaches it and says, "What do you say I buy you a cup of coffee?" McCauley says that sounds like a good idea.

The two men sit across from each other at a Formica table in a diner: Middle-aged, weary, with too much experience in their lines of work, they know exactly what they represent to one other, but for this moment of truce they drink their coffee.

McCauley is a professional thief, skilled and gifted. When Hanna subtly suggests otherwise, he says, "You see me doing thrill-seeker liquor store holdups with a 'Born to Lose' tattoo on my chest?" No, says the cop, he doesn't. The conversation comes to an end. The cop says, "I don't know how to do anything else." The thief says, "Neither do I." The scene concentrates the truth of "Heat," which is that these cops and robbers need each other: They occupy the same space, sealed off from the mainstream of society, defined by its own rules.

They are enemies, but in a sense they are more intimate, more involved with each other than with those who are supposed to be their friends - their women, for example.

The movie's other subject is the women. Two of the key players in "Heat" have wives, and in the course of the movie, McCauley will fall in love, which is against his policy. Hanna is working on his third marriage, with a woman named Justice ( Diane Venora ), who is bitter because his job obsesses him: "You live among the remains of dead people." One of McCauley's crime partners is a thief named Shiherlis ( Val Kilmer ), whose wife is Charlene ( Ashley Judd ).

McCauley's own policy is never to get involved in anything that he can't shed in 30 seconds flat. One day in a restaurant he gets into a conversation with Eady ( Amy Brenneman ), who asks him a lot of questions. "Lady," he says to her, "why are you so interested in what I do?" She is lonely. "I am alone," he tells her. "I am not lonely." He is in fact the loneliest man in the world, and soon finds that he needs her.

This is the age-old conflict in American action pictures, between the man with "man's work" and the female principal, the woman who wants to tame him, wants him to stay at home. "Heat," with an uncommonly literate screenplay by Mann, handles it with insight. The men in his movie are addicted to their lives. There is a scene where the thieves essentially have all the money they need. They can retire. McCauley even has a place picked out in New Zealand. But another job presents itself, and they cannot resist it: "It's the juice. It's the action." The movie intercuts these introspective scenes with big, bravura sequences of heists and shoot-outs. It opens with a complicated armored car robbery involving stolen semis and tow trucks. It continues with a meticulously conceived bank robbery.

McCauley is the mastermind. Hanna is the guy assigned to guess his next move.

The cops keep McCauley and his crew under 24-hour surveillance, and one day follow them to an isolated warehouse area, where the thieves stand in the middle of a vast space and McCauley outlines some plan to them. Later, the cops stand in the same place, trying to figure out what plan the thieves could possibly have had in mind. No target is anywhere in view. Suddenly Hanna gets it: "You know what they're looking at? They're looking at us - the LAPD. We just got made." He is right. McCauley is now on a roof looking at them through a lens, having smoked out his tail.

De Niro and Pacino, veterans of so many great films in the crime genre, have by now spent more time playing cops and thieves than most cops and thieves have. There is always talk about how actors study people to base their characters on. At this point in their careers, if Pacino and De Niro go out to study a cop or a robber, it's likely their subject will have modeled himself on their performances in old movies. There is absolute precision of effect here, the feeling of roles assumed instinctively.

What is interesting is the way Mann tests these roles with the women. The wives and girlfriends in this movie are always, in a sense, standing at the kitchen door, calling to the boys to come in from their play. Pacino's wife, played by Venora with a smart bitterness, is the most unforgiving: She is married to a man who brings corpses into bed with him in his dreams. Her daughter, rebellious and screwed up, is getting no fathering from him. Their marriage is a joke, and when he catches her with another man, she accurately says he forced her to demean herself.

The other women, played by Judd and Brenneman, are not quite so insightful. They still have some delusions, although Brenneman, who plays a graphic artist, balks as any modern woman would when this strange, secretive man expects her to leave her drawing boards and her computer and follow him to uncertainty in New Zealand.

Michael Mann's writing and direction elevate this material.

It's not just an action picture. 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 cliches. Of the many imprisonments possible in our world, one of the worst must be to be inarticulate - to be unable to tell another person what you really feel. These characters can do that. Not that it saves them.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Simon Abrams

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Glenn kenny.

Little Wing

Marya e. gates.

Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces

Brian tallerico.

Under the Bridge

Cristina escobar.

The First Omen

Tomris laffly, film credits.

Heat (1995)

Rated R For Violence and Language

174 minutes

Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley

Jon Voight as Nate

Al Pacino as Vincent Hanna

Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis

Produced, Written and Directed by

Michael Mann

Latest blog posts

Ebertfest Film Festival Over the Years

The 2024 Chicago Palestine Film Festival Highlights

Man on the Moon Is Still the Cure for the Biopic Blues

Part of the Solution: Matthew Modine on Acting, Empathy, and Hard Miles

Laguna Heat (1987) Movie News

Movie Recommendations

Movie reviews.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare poster

Follow Moviefone

Movie trailers.

Skip to main content
Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Consider This from NPR

LISTEN & FOLLOW
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Amazon Music

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

Is this fictitious civil war closer to reality than we think?

You're reading the Consider This newsletter, which unpacks one major news story each day. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to more from the Consider This podcast .

(L-R) Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny Murray Close/A24 hide caption

(L-R) Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny

1. A civil war for the silver screen

Civil War, the new A24 film from British director Alex Garland, imagines a scenario that might not seem so far-fetched to some; a contemporary civil war breaking out in the United States.

In this world, the U.S. has split into various factions. The president, played by Nick Offerman – has given himself a third term, and he's hoping to fend off an assault from one of the more powerful groups.

In what might seem like the most unbelievable narrative twist, California and Texas form an alliance to become the "Western Forces" and fight against Offerman's regime. Sure, I guess!

Some independent candidates start their own political parties to ease ballot access

2. how far are we from reality.

NPR movie critic Bob Mondello says the movie doesn't do a lot of explaining to help us understand how the U.S. got to this moment. But he says that makes it stronger.

"What became much more interesting in the moment was what it looks like to transpose things that we've always associated with other countries – the bombed out helicopters and things like that – to place that in a J.C. Penney parking lot."

And while the film has taken heat for little mention of politics, the question of an actual civil war has everything to do with it.

Polling has shown a significant minority thinks a civil war is at least somewhat likely in the next 10 years. So what do the experts say?

Movie Reviews

'civil war' is a doomsday thought experiment — that could have used more thinking, 3. division in the u.s..

Amy Cooter is a director of research at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Her work has led her to the question that Garland's movie has put in the minds of both moviegoers and political pundits: Could a second civil war really happen here?

Cooter wants to make one thing clear: "I don't think that civil war is imminent, but I think there are some people who wish we would have one, and wish that they could be effectively culture soldiers to re-enact a civil order that they see as better for them and their families."

In her studies of militias and political extremists, Cooter has observed a movement of groups similar to those who joined in on the January 6th riots who feel disconnected from the current political moment, or perhaps want to return to a previous version of society, that they feel served them better.

And while Cooter doesn't think a civil war will be happening anytime soon, she does say this:

"I think we are at a moment of extreme political division that may get worse before it gets better."

This episode was produced by Marc Rivers. It was edited by Jeanette Woods, Jonaki Mehta and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

far-right extremism
political divide

Disneyland | Disneyland excludes disabled people with…

Amusement Parks

Theater & Arts

Things To Do

Disneyland | disneyland excludes disabled people with discriminatory policy, group says, a das defenders letter to disney executives and a change.org petition call on disneyland to revise its disability access service policy and reverse recent updates to the program..

A group representing the disabled community is urging Disneyland and Disney World to reconsider recent “discriminatory” changes to the Disability Access Service program that exclude people with a wide array of disabilities.

A DAS Defenders letter addressed to Disney CEO Bob Iger, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock and a Change.org petition with 9,000 supporters call on Disney to revise its Disability Access Service policy and reverse recent updates to the program.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland threatens lifetime ban for disability cheats

“Historically, Disney has been a symbol of inclusion, acceptance and joy for disabled individuals who often face discrimination, lack of access and challenges in managing complex conditions,” according to the DAS Defenders letter. “However, with these recent changes, Disney has eroded that legacy by rolling back accommodations that have existed for years, leaving many disabled people feeling abandoned.”

In early April, the Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts updated the Disability Access Service programs to limit assistance to only theme park visitors with developmental disabilities like autism and other neurodivergent disorders.

“By limiting the DAS program to developmental disabilities only, Disney is effectively telling us that we are not welcome or recognized in their parks anymore,” according to the DAS Defenders letter. “The new policy fails to meet the genuine needs of all disabled guests. It is ableist and belittling.”

ALSO SEE: Disneyland replaces lamp posts as precautionary measure

The changes go into effect May 20 at the Walt Disney World resort and June 18 at the Disneyland resort with the goal of limiting the Disability Access Service program to only guests who require the services, according to Disneyland officials.

“Disney is dedicated to providing a great experience for all guests, including those with disabilities, which is why we are so committed to delivering a wide range of innovative support services aimed at helping our guests with disabilities have a wonderful time when visiting our theme parks,” according to Disneyland officials.

According to DAS Defenders, recent revisions to Disneyland’s DAS program excludes disabled people with:

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Multiple sclerosis
Parkinson’s disease
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
Rheumatoid arthritis
Fibromyalgia
Ulcerative Colitis
Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS)
Ehlers-Danlos
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome
Dysautonomia
Low vision and blindness
Brain, heart or lung conditions
Panic disorders
Immune disorders
Severe allergies
Heat and sun sensitivity
Rare diseases

The Disney parks are attempting to rein in the unwieldy Disability Access Service that have bogged down attraction queues and backed up Genie+ lanes as a result of a tripling in usage of the program ripe with misuse and abuse.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland’s Autopia cars to go fully electric by 2026

DAS use has exploded in recent years in part because more people have become aware of the service. Social media hacks have exploited DAS as a free way to avoid paying for the Genie+ line-cutting service and have led to abuses.

“Punishing disabled individuals for the actions of able-bodied individuals who abuse the system is not a solution,” according to the DAS Defenders letter. “These changes fail to adequately address abuse. People who abuse the system will still lie. This only punishes the disabled people who truly relied on DAS and will not be able to attend the parks at all without it.”

All of Disneyland’s accessibility options will not be available to all guests with disabilities, according to Disneyland officials. Disneyland hopes a wide suite of options will offer solutions for everyone.

Visitors who do not qualify for DAS will be directed to other options like Rider Switch passes, Stroller as a Wheelchair tags, Location Return Time passes for older non-ADA compliant queues, wheelchair transfer options, handheld devices for the visually impaired and sign language interpreters.

Changes to the DAS program put disabled individuals at risk and subject them to unnecessary challenges and humiliation, according to DAS Defenders.

DAS Defenders wants Disneyland and Disney World to open the revised Disability Access Service programs to a wider range of disabilities and provide free or low-cost wheelchairs, mobility scooters and Genie+ access.

Newsroom Guidelines
Report an Error

More in Disneyland

Disney Legend Rolly Crump built the kinetic sculpture for the It’s a Small World attraction at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.

Disneyland | Disneyland pays tribute to Tower of the Four Winds during Pixar Fest

Video: Watch as we eat our way from Galaxy's Edge to Tomorrowland during the Season of the Force.

Disneyland | Review: Disneyland chefs turn up the heat with spicy Star Wars food

Three Disneyland visitors were injured in November when a Town Square lamp post fell during high winds.

Disneyland | Disneyland replaces lamp posts as precautionary measure

Closing and reopening dates have not yet been set for the Autopia update.

Disneyland | Disneyland’s Autopia cars to go fully electric by 2026

an image, when javascript is unavailable

site categories

‘kingdom of the planet of the apes’ still on track for $54m+ u.s. opening – box office update, breaking news.

‘Civil War’ Brings Audiences Together With $11M+ Second Weekend Win – Sunday AM Box Office Update

By Anthony D'Alessandro

Anthony D'Alessandro

Editorial Director/Box Office Editor

Meet Alisha Weir, The 14-Year-Old Breakout Star Of Universal’s Vampire Flick ‘Abigail’

The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare movie

‘The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ Review: A Down And Dirty Henry Cavill Leads Unorthodox Mission Against Nazis In Guy Ritchie’s Swell WWII Adventure

Fourth belongs to Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire at 3,658 locations with a Friday of $2.3M and fourth weekend of $8.5M , off 45%, for a running total of $170.66M . By Sunday, if those figures hold, the latest Legendary Monsterverse title will be pacing 8% behind 2014’s Godzilla , the only installment to click past the $200M mark stateside with $200.6M. It will also officially make New Empire the second highest-grossing installment in the Monsterverse at the domestic B.O., overtaking Kong: Skull Island ‘s $168M.

Fifth this weekend is Sony’s Crunchyroll anime title Spy x Family Code: White with $2M today and a $5M opening. RT critics are 96% fresh on the title while audiences give it a perfect score.

FRIDAY AM: Lionsgate is calling their all-in previews for Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare at $1.45M , however that includes around $600K in advance shows from last weekend in addition to Thursday’s cash. Which means Universal’s Radio Silence vampire movie, Abigail , won Thursday previews with $1M . Meanwhile, Sony Crunchyroll’s anime movie Spy x Family Code: White did $670K from shows that began at 4PM.

The weekend crown is expected to be a game of rock, paper, scissors between Abigail and A24’s second weekend of Civil War at about $12M+ apiece. Civil War led Thursday among pics in regular release with $1.6M, -14% from Wednesday, for a first week of $33.1M at 3,838 theaters.

Civil War is sharing Imax screens with Spy x Family Code: White, the latter which will do in the single digits.

Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire booked at 3,847 saw a third Thursday of $893K, -3% from Wednesday for a week of $19.7M and a running total of $162.1M.

Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire at 3,350 finished week 4 with $7.3M after a $372K Thursday, -1%.

Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 at 3,104 sites finished week 6 with an estimated $7.2M, running total of $175.3M after a $423K Thursday, +6% from Wednesday.

Legendary/Warner’s Dune: Part Two at 2,401 finished week 7 with $5.9M, after a $365K Thursday, -7% from Wednesday and a running total of $273.6M.

Must Read Stories

Renewal status on bubble dramas ‘all american,’ ‘homecoming’ & ‘walker’.

Opening Statements & First Testimony In Donald Trump’s Hush-Money Trial

Whcd preview: potus, media & showbiz converge for d.c. party-palooza, june diane raphael & paul scheer lead amazon mgm pilot ‘dinks’ from marta kauffman.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

laguna heat movie reviews

IMAGES

VIDEO

COMMENTS

Laguna Heat

Recommendations

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Movies / TV

Laguna Heat Reviews

TV Reviews; 'Laguna Heat,' On HBO

Explore More in TV and Movies

Laguna Heat (1987)

Laguna Heat plot

Actors and actresses

Tom Shephard

Wade Shephard

Joe Datilla

Jane Algernon

Helene Long

Azul Mercante

Dr. Kroyden

Trailer Laguna Heat

Latest News

2024's biggest movies - Everything you need to know about Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia Streaming UK: How to watch

Mark Wahlberg confirms why he wasn't in Ocean's Eleven

WATCH: The terrifying new trailer for Speak No Evil starring James McAvoy

Trending Shows

Corporate & Media

Realtimes | Publishing Network

About MovieMeter

Social media

Popular top lists

MPAA Rating

Synopsis by Jason Ankeny

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Add to your films…

Add to lists

Where to watch

Director Director

Producers Producers

Writers Writers

Original Writer Original Writer

Casting Casting

Editor Editor

Cinematography Cinematography

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Production Design Production Design

Art Direction Art Direction

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Special Effects Special Effects

Stunts Stunts

Composer Composer

Sound Sound

Costume Design Costume Design

Makeup Makeup

Releases by Date

Popular reviews

Select your preferred poster

Laguna Heat (1987)

TV Listings

Laguna Heat

My cable/satellite provider:

Cast & Crew See All

Harry Hamlin

Joe Datilla

LAGUNA HEAT

A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

Please select an existing bookshelf

Please sign up to continue.

Almost there!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Laguna Heat (1987 TV Movie)

Directed by

Contribute to This Page

Did You Know?

Photo & Video

Related Items

Recently Viewed

Movie Reviews

Roger Ebert