Synopsis
L.A. vice detective dreams of becoming a cowboy hero.
L.A. Heat
1989 Directed by Joseph Merhi
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Alternative Titles
Death Fighter - Ein Bulle sieht rot, C.O.P.S. - Die Bullen von L.A.
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Theatrical
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USAR
Physical
18 Feb 1989
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Germany16
Releases by Country
Germany
18 Feb 1989
- Physical16
USA
18 Feb 1989
- TheatricalR
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🎵He’s a complicated man, but no one understands him but his woman (Jon Shaf…uh…Chance! )🎵
The synopsis on Letterboxd and IMDB for L.A. Heat says the same thing:
L.A. vice detective dreams of becoming a cowboy hero.
This is literally the first scene in the movie and has nothing to do with the plot. It’s like whoever was in charge of this write up watched the first five minutes and was like ‘NOPE!’
Actual plot of the movie:
Bad-ass, drug-selling, cop-killer hides from the authorities and only one man (the aforementioned Jon Chance) will do what needs to be done for Justice!
Doesn’t sound too bad, right?
Well, on paper the story is actually half decent, but the writing/directing/acting make for a slog-fest.
Can’t wait for more, they put out four (movies about Jon Chance)!
Next up: Angels of the City (at some point in my life).
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The first of six films that former Welcome Back Kotter star Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs would appear in for Joseph Merhi & Richard Pepin's PM Entertainment, four of which as Det. Jon Chance. This makes Hilton-Jacobs their first attempt at a studio star and recurring franchise character. The only problem is, they hadn't quite perfected their action formula, and while screenwriter Charles T. Kaganis keeps the kitchen sink roving plot approach that the company excels at, this is an inauspicious start...
But first, THE START. L.A. Heat begins with a dream sequence in which Hilton-Jacobs is a cowboy involved in a gun fight with PM Bard, Jastereo Coviare - and I'd be lying if I didn't say it was the eleven stars cathartic…
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Jon Chance (Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs) is on the hunt for Clarence, adept cop-killer and drug-dealer extraordinaire. His Captain (Jim Brown) is on his case for losing another partner and as Clarence disappears into L.A.'s underworld, trying to avoid the kingpin who wants him dead, Chance has a tendency to disappear into his own dreams of being a gunslinger in the old west.
It's little stuff like that which makes me enjoy P.M. Entertainment films. They're not always the most well executed things, but they do usually have something interesting going on.
L.A. Heat is a fairly standard cop tale, and sets the stage for the Jon Chance stories to come. The formula for how these movies are supposed to look and…
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I can't tell if this is so bad it's secretly entertaining, or so bad it's completely inept. It looks like it was shot on an old camcorder, and the result of that is that the movie looks like it was made by non-professionals who got together to make a movie like I used to in high school on occasion with my friends. (or you know like "Threat Level Midnight") The only thing is this was one of the very first films made by auteur DTV action director Joseph Merhi and his production company PM Entertainment, so I know he knows how to make a movie...yet this still plays so very, very amateurishly. I can't quite decide if Lawrence Hilton Jacobs…
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"Whatever happened to human rights? Phone calls and all that bullshit on TV?"
Goddamn I fuckin LOVE early PM Entertainment. Keeping it totally real: blowing away cops in the first five minutes, Lawrence Hilton Jacobs imagining he's a cowboy in the old west with PM stalwart Jastereo Coviare as the outlaw (who also sings the theme song like all good early PM fare), gratuitous sex scene, Jim Brown collecting a paycheck like William Smith, and to top it off, John Gonzalez on the buttons.
as a side note, I seriously cannot understand why John Gonzalez is not better recognized for his work, he is the MASTER of scoring action films.
anyways, as always, the story is largely inconsequential to the…
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Jon Chance was so cool that her got two sequels, and two seasons worth of a show.....
That said, he is also a man full of inner turmoil, love, and the want to be a cowboy. While I probably prefer L.A. Vice to L.A. Heat, Heat does have some fun Merhi nonsense. Like a street thing named Spider who helps Chance to kill some mobsters and avenge his brothers death. Pamela Dixon shows up and that’s always nice. Jim Brown was the police captain.
Grime filled violence topped with a little sleaze. Worth my time, maybe worth yours.
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When you start your movie with a cowboy dream sequence, and someone is wearing boots like these, you really have no option but to follow it up with some real insanity because anything else would be a disappointment. Too bad Merhi and Co. didn’t get the memo. This could’ve been a classic, but it isn't.
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Early PM Entertainment and they hadn’t quite developed their house style yet. No nudity and all the profanity is weirdly blanked out. But fortunately they hit the ground running with the hilariously over the top violence! This film features some of the funniest massacres you’ll ever see, due to the fact that LA Heat checks the biggest PM box of them all: it’s terrible. But in that pure, unself-aware way that only the best of the worst have going. I’m guessing Jim Brown was on set for about 2 hours total and they paid him with the loose cash the crew had in their pockets that day.
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Another crime death dream, notable here for being a really interesting rendition of the African American experience - Black folks in this movie are good, bad, and fill a variety of roles in a way that doesn't feel limited nor tokenizing. It's always refreshing to see an otherwise trashy slimey insane movie be non-toxic about race. This cast is really fantastic.
There's lots to dig here, from the Western fever dreams to the periodic freaky anti-cop tirades (prescient!) made by random characters that pop up. This one gets really really loopy, then settles in for a raucous conclusion.
Love the weirdly blotted out curse words. Stripclub pinball.
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Wildly inept, but it has that certain something. Bad script, editing, performances... but the camera work is so static, & using long takes that it legit reminded me of early Fassbinder. If Fassbinder was a shitty hack making 80s cop movie trash. Recommended.
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Imagine for a moment that Detective Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), from NBC's "Miami Vice," was a real person.
Now imagine that one weekend in August of 1988 Detective Tubbs and a few of his friends went on a cocaine binge and made their own movie with two video cameras and the clothes they were already wearing. When they were finished, they gave the video cameras to Tubbs's 15-year-old nephew to edit into a completed motion picture.
Imagine what this might be like, and you'll have some idea of what to expect from Joseph Merhi's "L.A. Heat."
This is one of the most stunningly incompetent pictures I have ever seen. The script and dialogue are bad, but the direction and…
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There's something special about these PM Entertainment films that keeps me coming back to them. Maybe it's the shots of early 90s Los Angeles, the light jazz soundtracks, or maybe it's the fashion of the time.
I think they deserve a blu ray release.