Heat ★★★★½
MICHAEL Mann is one of my favourite film-makers.

It’s a long list – maybe 20 – but, despite making only a dozen or so films, Mann is in there.

His best is arguably the 1995 crime thriller Heat starring acting titans Robert de Niro and Al Pacino.

The former plays Neil McCauley, the leader of a highly successful group of thieves.

They are highly organised, disciplined and careful, as McCauley is in his personal life, ensuring every heist is meticulously planned and professionally executed.

Pacino is LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna, a far more outgoing personality but just as much a professional, sometimes willing to adapt based on his gut instincts.

In contrast to McCauley, Hanna’s personal life is a mess due to his focus on the job rather than the relationship and fatherhood.

When McCauley’s team make an uncharacteristic mistake, after involving a fill-in for one of their heists, Hanna discovers who they are and a fascinating cat and mouse game ensues.

Heat is best known for its incredible automatic weapons gunfight in a busy Los Angeles street after the thieves are surprised outside a bank.

It’s an amazing sequence, perhaps the best of its type, that warrants watching the film alone.

But Heat is much more than action; it’s full of relationship studies that add depth and meaning to not just the characters but the entire structure and narrative.

While the coffee shop scene between Pacino and De Niro is singled out my most critics, my favourite comes in the final act which encapsulates the entire film in one gesture.

If you haven’t seen Heat, watch it right now. If you have, watch it again.