Heat : Too Much of a Good Thing?

Of course it was a great movie, but its length seemed to make it drag on at times. It would have had more of an impact if some slower scenes were removed and it became a two hour film. At home the length is bearable with breaks, but in a theater not so much.

The character arc for Vincent Hannah with his prescription drug addicted post modernistic deadtech L.A. wife needed more buttoning up. They also didn't need Natalie Portman's character as she was primarily used as a plot point to contrast Vincent's turmoiled family life with Neil's precarious courtship of Edie. What made it look imbalanced to me was that the rest of Hannah's crew were virtually ignored and they stayed in the background. I would have preferred seeing Vincent fight the internal politics of the LAPD while getting closer to capturing Neil, with tidbit scenes of his wife swigging white wine and popping pills.

This movie should've been longer. A lot of the story was undeveloped (Shiherlis and his wife, most notably)