Dead Heat (1988).

Review #2584: Dead Heat.

Cast: 

Treat Williams (Roger Mortis), Joe Piscopo (Doug Bigelow), Lindsay Frost (Randi James), Darren McGavin (Dr. Ernest McNab), Vincent Price (Arthur P. Loudermilk), Clare Kirkconnell (Dr. Rebecca Smythers), Keye Luke (Mr. Thule), Robert Picardo (Lieutenant Herzog), Mel Stewart (Captain Mayberry), and Professor Toru Tanaka (Butcher) Directed by Mark Goldblatt.

Review: 

Well, I suppose any film with the term "buddy cop action zombie comedy" is worth looking into, obscurity be damned. So, who's here and why are we here? Well, it was written by a first-timer with Terry Black (and yes, that is a sibling of Shane Black) that apparently saw uncredited work done by Darren Starr (the future creator of shows such as Beverly Hills 90210 and Sex and the City) and directed by a first-timer in Mark Goldblatt, who is more known for his editing (he later got an Academy Award nomination for Terminator 2: Judgement Day). What could go wrong? Oh, plenty, since this was a late-stage New World Pictures movie that basically screams "help!". Dead Heat didn't exactly gain a curious cult audience, at least when compared to Goldblatt's only other directorial credit with The Punisher [1989]; you can at least find the movie on formats beyond VHS nowadays. Black subsequently wrote for Tales from the Crypt, and he dabbles nowadays as a column writer.

I'm sure you get the picture of the buddy movie with at least two of the following: the wiseass, the no-nonsense guy, the loose cannon, the "new partner", and so on, and so on. Some are better than others with, say, 48 Hrs. (1982) over, well, stuff like this. Sure, you get your bits of things that sound different: a lead character who actually does die in the first 25 minutes (to come back to life via go-go magic resurrection device). It maneuvers itself for 84 minutes with the energy of a zombie for middling jokes, has a storyline that doesn't really go anywhere, and is only bolstered by the occasional gooey effect and seeing name actors pop in for a brief moment. It's barely a buddy movie in general because Williams and Piscopo have the smallest semblance of chemistry together, which is barely preferable to say, being stuck next to the guy at the checkout line who really needs to tell you about the bird they saw in the ceiling*. It never feels worth it to actually experience the gears turning in "gee, dead bodies coming back to be used as henchmen" because it never actively feels exciting to be anywhere near these folks, especially with Frost and Kirkconnell, who basically only exist just to elevate the body-count (which ranges from rapidly decaying resurrected people to a body exploding). Williams (likely best known for Prince of the City [1981]) just feels like he is on autopilot with this film, as if the perils of knowing one is to die a second time feels like a stubbed toe more than a real crisis (to say nothing of that wise-ass final scene).

You might recognize Piscopo from his run on Saturday Night Live or perhaps that one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation or, well, those moments in time where he dabbled in films (being in an obscure Brian De Palma movie like Wise Guys [1986] is still noteworthy, at least when compared to Johnny Dangerously [1984], Sidekicks [1992], and, well, How Sweet It Is [2013]*). He...does not have it here to make the role anything other than an excuse to string lame one-liners together, as if he simply believes he can ride the macho wave out to be the next Mel Gibson. The highlight is seeing bits and pieces of McGavin, Luke, and Price in this shambling mess about trying to get as much money as possible from dead guys and, well, rich people because if you can't conjure a smile at ol' folks getting at least some sort of paycheck in exchange for basically the bare minimum of things to do, what's left? As a whole, Dead Heat might as well be an apt title for the whole experience: middling action, a lack of real charm for anything going on with its main two guys, and a general feeling that you can find better things to do. So it goes.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*In fairness, I do go to an H-E-B that does actually occasionally attract birds to fly inside. 

*Or being name-dropped in that one Tom Petty song - "Jammin' Me"