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Heat on Net ix has a great story that is both simple and sprawling and its cast includes some of Hollywood’s nest actors

Heat’s director is one of the greatest directors working today Why Heat has stood the test of time

It’s one of Mann’s lms that, in this author’s mind, hold the title of “best action movie ever made.” His 1995 masterpiece, Heat, is lots of things: an action movie, yes, but also an epic crime drama, a Los Angeles mood piece, a story about the utter failure of modern relationships, an intense bank heist thriller, an indictment about the United States criminal reform system, etc.

Heat‘s plot can be boiled down to this: it’s a cops and robbers movie, but told in detail, with attention paid to character development, tension, and realism. Neil McCauley, played by Robert De Niro in one of his last truly great roles as a leading man, is a career thief based in Los Angeles. After a botched robbery that leaves multiple bank guards dead, McCauley and his crew decide to pull o one last score: robbing $12.2 million from a bank in downtown LA. at’s Heat’s story in a nutshell, but the genius of the movie is how it also contains a multitude of side stories that are delicately in- terwoven within the movie’s overall robbery plotline. ere’s Neil’s tender irtation with Eady, a lonely graphic designer he meets at a bookstore; Vincent’s crumbling marriage to Justine, who is angry for being passed over for Vincent’s obsession with his job; Vincent’s stepdaughter Lauren, who is quietly sinking under a wave of teenage depression; and Chris, Neil’s closest partner who has a tempestuous marriage to Charlene. ere’s a lot going on; for instance, the serial killer subplot! But Heat never feels overstu ed, nor do any of its stories feel underdeveloped. Everyone in the large cast is given a chance to shine, yet Mann always keeps the focus on the driving force of the narrative: the nal heist, and the key players who are involved in pulling it o or stopping it from happening. Heat’s cast includes some of Hollywood’s nest actors It’s not too much of a stretch to claim that everyone in Hollywood was cast in Heat, but it sure seems like it. In addition to Pacino and De Niro, Heat also starred Val Kilmer as bank robber Chris Shiherlis. Kilmer was at the height of his fame in 1995, having just starred as the Dark Knight in Batman Forever and was just cast in the 1997 action pic e Saint. As Kilmer’s wife, Ashley Judd was beginning her ascent into Hollywood stardom, having earned critical raves in Smoke the same year and lining up her next movie, A Time to Kill.

Hot on their tail is Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino, in peak Pacino form), a former Marine and LAPD cop who methodically pieces together McCauley’s plan and tries to stop him.

1. Air e easy-going lm tells the true story of Nike’s attempts to woo up-and-coming basketball player Michael Jordan in an e ort to convince him to sign a contract with them over sportswear rival Adidas. On paper that doesn’t exactly sound like the most compelling hook for a lm, but watching Nike exec Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) scramble as he attempts to put together a presentation for the athletics no-nonsense mother (the ever-excellent Viola Davis) is highly engaging.

Air joins the likes of e Social Network and Moneyball on the list of movies that sound conceptually dull but turn out to be extremely enjoyable. is Ben A eck directed sports drama is already a shoe-in to be among the year’s best movies.

2. A Beautiful Mind

Sweeping the 74th annual Oscars, A Beautiful Mind from 2021 scooped up Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted and Best Supporting Actor with further nominations in four more categories including Best Actor for Russell Crowe’s leading turn as celebrated mathematician John Nash.

Inspired by Sylvia Nasar’s biography of the same name, A Beautiful Mind opens with the brilliant but socially awkward Nash arriving at Princeton University in 1947. Flash forward a few years and Nash’s brilliance is noticed by the Pentagon who enlist his help studying encrypted telecommunications, but as his obsession over this top-secret assignment grows he becomes convinced that he is being watched and that sinister forces may be following him.

3. She Said e lm is centred on two dogmatic journalists, Jodi Kantor (Carey Mulligan) and Megan Twohey (Zoe Kazan), who worked tirelessly to expose Weinstein’s crimes and ensure that the women he took advantage of are given a platform to speak their truth. It’s all very powerful stu .

Based on the book of the same name, She Said recounts the New York Times investigation that exposed decades of sexual abuse and misconduct by famed Hollywood product Harvey Weinstein.

4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

One of the most consistently funny comedy alms of the 2000s, Forgetting Sarah Marshall sees Jason Segel play Peter Bretter, a composer for a popular crime drama show that stars the titular Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). Oh, and Peter’s also been dating Sarah for ave years, and she just dumped him to date a British Rockstar (Russell Brand) instead.

Flying to Hawaii in an e ort to escape his heartbreak, Peter winds up at the same resort that Sarah is staying at with her new rocker beau. It’s a situation ripe for comedy, and the lm gets great mileage out of some truly toe-curlingly uncomfortable situations.

5. Shutter Island

Standing out in a lmography as impressive as Martin Scorsese’s is a di cult task but Shutter Island (2010) manages to rank as one of the iconic director’s most thrilling movies because of its nerve-shredding tension and expertly plotted mystery.

Set in 1954, Shutter Island follows a U.S. Marshall named Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) who arrives with his partner Chuck (Mark Ru alo) at an institute for the criminally insane on the eponymous island. eir job is to investigate the strange disappearance of a patient in the middle of the night, but the duo soon starts to suspect that everything is a twisting tale that will leave you guessing until the very end.