February 5, 1996 -- ``Heat,'' one of the better films of 1995, finally came burning into Laramie. It was worth the wait.

``Heat'' features a very high-powered cast with Al Pacino as detective Vincent Hanna, Robert De Niro as career criminal Neil McCauley and Val Kilmer as McCauley's partner Chris Shiherlis.

There's also the talented, but seldom seen, Jon Voight as Nate, a sort of criminal gopher, who fences stolen goods and obtains documents, plane tickets, what have you. Amy Brennaman (formerly of NYPD Blue) plays McCauley's girl friend. There have been plenty of cops and robbers stories like ``Heat'' over the years, but seldom has the formula been done so well. Writer-director Michael Mann puts a lot of energy, excitement and human interest into this nearly 3 hour film (174 minutes). It holds the viewer's attention every second.

The plot unfolds as several parallel stories. The point seems to be that both cops and robbers can become addicted to the adrenaline rush, and preoccupied with their jobs, at the expense of personal relationships.

The main parallel story is between Pacino and De Niro. In a key scene, the two meet face to face and reveal their feelings about their lives. It is very well acted by both men. While De Niro's performance is dead-on during the entire film, Pacino goes over the top from time to time, seemingly reverting back to his character in ``Scent of a Woman.'' Mann also tends to beat the viewer over the head with that parallel story, when it could have been done a bit more subtly. The movie would have been better had a couple of the minor characters had a little less screen time.

For the most, part, however, this is a very good movie. The cinematography, by Dante Spinotti, and editing, by Dov Hoenig and Pasquale Buba, are expertly done. The script is very literate and shows a good nuts and bolts understanding of criminal capers. Also, the characters are intelligent adults and they are articulate, which puts them light years ahead of most characters in this genre.

This film rates a B+.

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