It's 1930s Kansas City. Private investigator Mike Murphy (Burt Reynolds) loses his partner who is brutally murdered after trying to blackmail a mobster with his secret accounting records. When a rival gang boss goes after the missing records, he is forced to team up with his ex-partner cop Lieutenant Speer (Clint Eastwood) to fight both gangs before KC erupts in a mob war.

From a Blake Edwards story, this takes place when both Burt Reynold and Clint Eastwood was hitting a slow patch after being red hot. Clint would recover, but Burt never did. With the people involved, you would think this could be something incredible. But there is nothing but disappointment. Burt is playing his usual self, smirking thru his fight. Clint has no chemistry with Burt. The style is too stiff and weak. It has none of the grittiness required. It looks completely fake. Worst of all, it moves at a snails pace, dragging its feet. The dialog is stilted. There is no jokes, at least none that worked. In fact, none of it really worked.

The weight of expectation for City Heat was massive, two iconic Hollywood actors together in a buddy buddy cop movie, one with nods and homages to film noir and old school gangster movies, it wasn't unreasonable to expect a movie to sit with the best on Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynold's then CV's circa 1984. Unfortunately it's no masterpiece or close to being in the upper echelon's of each actor's respective works. But that doesn't make it a bad film.

A change of director saw Blake Edwards replaced by Richard Benjamin after Eastwood and Edwards, ahem, couldn't see eye to eye, so that immediately put the film on the back foot in many critic's eyes. Ironically Benjamin does OK - working from Edwards' script (there's a whole bunch of back stories and tittle-tattle assigned to this film if you care to search for it). Lots of fun here, though, as Clint and Burt, one a cop, the other an ex-cop turned PI, reluctantly team up to cut a swathe through the gangsters ruling the roost in prohibition era Kansas City.

Eastwood does his straight backed machismo act, throwing awesome punches along the way, while Reynolds is wonderfully cheerful as a tough guy who all things considered, would rather not get hurt! The script is full of zingers, delivered with customary sardonic self parody by the stars, while the roll call of supporting actors is not to be sniffed at. Period detail is high end, with Nick McLean's photography carrying the requisite neo-noir impact, while the music tracking is pleasingly nostalgic.

It's over the top of course and needlessly convoluted as per its yearning to be noirish, yet if you can cut back your expectation levels? And you can simply enjoy the sight of Eastwood and Reynolds having fun romping in this period? Then you just might enjoy this more than you dared to believe. 7/10

In 1984, Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood were two of the biggest box office draws in Hollywood. So, teaming them in "City Heat" seems like a no brainer...a sure fire hit. However, inexplicably, the film isn't particularly good and I would go so far as to say it is a pretty full picture overall...which is odd for a gangster movie.

Mike Murphy (Reynolds) is a private eye who used to be a cop. His partner is foolish...and tries to blackmail some gangsters. Not surprisingly, he's soon killed and these same folks think Murphy knows about the blackmail...and decide to kill him. However, he is totally in the dark on all this and just wants to be left alone. At the same time, a tough but laconic cop, Lt. Speer (Eastwood) just happens to be hanging out and eventually gets involved as well.

The biggest problem with the film is the lack of chemistry between Eastwood and Reynolds. Instead of teaming them up at the start, they don't start actually working together until late in the movie. Additionally, Reynolds' dialog is clichéd and Eastwood's is practically non-existent (zombie-like I might venture to say). It's crazy but halfway decent writing AND some sense of enthusiasm and fun by the two stars would have helped this one a lot! As it is, it's a film I'd only recommend to folks who love the two actors and simply watch anything and everything they made. Otherwise, it wouldn't be hard to do better.

By the way, the idea of a black and white man working together as partners is nice...but it's also a 1980s idea...something you simply wouldn't have found in the 1930s when this story is set. Also, the shootout scene is incredibly dumb. They were only standing about 50 feet apart and fired hundreds of shots...yet NO ONE is shot?! Huh?! A whole lotta effort but no connection...it sounds like the plot and characters as well.