THE SECOND ANNUAL BURTDAY, ONE INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE.

Screening in 35mm courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive.

Opening with Burt Reynolds getting beat up by someone half his size, HEAT gets into the muck of Las Vegas sleaze with a Christmas backdrop. Mex, an ex-mercenary now acting as a “chaperone” in Vegas, yields to the plea of his friend Holly after she is brutally attacked by a very wealthy and very sick man-child named DeMarco. She wants his balls in her hands, and she needs Mex’s help to get them there. Simultaneously, Mex’s services are sought out by Cyrus, a guileless millionaire who wants to learn to be tough. Mex puts his skills to work to help both, all with his eyes on the goal of making enough money to move to Venice. HEAT shows the Reynolds easy charm (even when he looks rather tired and over it) and includes one of the most wildly unrealistic bad guy deaths because that’s what movies are for.