Ya Sully, I saw that truncated edit of BIG RED ONE awhile back on cable TV.....and ya, thank god we have the Reconstructed edit on DVD now.

Oh and irishman.....you're wrong. FANTASTIC FOUR is equal in the quality of say SIN CITY or BATMAN BEGINS. That is, if you then took it, shoot it with 100 bullets, beat the shit out of it, throw it off a cliff, flush down the toilet, take a good dump of human solid mineral waste on it, and then light it in fire. Then you're right. :p

HEAT (1995)

****1/2 out of 5

A near-masterpiece of the cop and crime genres, Writer/producer/Director Michael Mann's crime saga in Los Angeles is one that does suffer from the many storylines presented by Mann without smooth resolution...but you know what? That is oddly one reason why I love this movie. Truely Dennis Haysbert's minor subplot is short but effectively sad for what it is. Not to mention that the legendary bank heist sequence is so influential and awesome. Enough action and adrenaline in those scenes that is much more than wimps like Michael Bay could wish to ever equal. Funny enough, many police forces in America study that sequence in how to possibly combat such high firepower battles with bank robbers...and yes, bank robbers have indeed followed that sequence religiously to usually higher-than-normal success, especially one in Baltimore back last year.

If anything, Michael Mann's HEAT is among the most influential movies for me.