Pairing up sexist cop, Michael Parks, with lesbian partner, Denise Crosby, produces stereotypical results, in this buddy cop movie. Parks enormous ego often gets in the way of logical police work. The psycho cop killer is so obvious from the git-go, that there is zero suspense. In addition to the requisite car chases and explosions, there are sexual innuendos flying all over the place, after Parks fails to seduce his new gay partner. There is just enough sexist dialog to keep the pathetically weak story mildly interesting. I cannot recommend sitting through this, except perhaps for dire fans of Michael Parks................ - MERK
9 Reviews
Arizona Heat is a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full situation.
tarbosh220009 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Larry Kapinski (Parks) is a man perfectly suited to be named Larry Kapinski. He's rude, crude, and has a bad attitude. He's a male chauvinist pig and naturally he thinks he's God's gift to womankind. His favorite hobbies include drinking beer and womanizing. He's also a cop, and when his WYC (White Yelling Chief) teams him up with his new partner Jill Andrews (Crosby), they are, to quote the great Collision Course, "As different as hot dogs and sushi!", but instead of being American and Japanese as in that film, in this case it's American and Lesbian. Well, you know what we mean. We don't want to be accused of being as sexist as Larry Kapinski.
While Jill and Larry are constantly bickering back and forth about the nature of men and women in society, an evil, insidious cop killer is roaming around Arizona. Will they be able to get along long enough to catch the baddie? Or Will Kapinski's actions finally send the well-meaning Jill over the edge? Will anyone be able to stand the ARIZONA HEAT?
Arizona Heat can fall neatly in the "mismatched buddy cop" drama/thriller/action/comedy vein of the aforementioned Collision Course or perhaps Red Heat (1988). Even both titles include the word "Heat". On the one hand, we want to applaud Arizona Heat for including a lot of un-PC dialogue.
On the other hand, a lot of other dialogue in the movie is juvenile and sophomoric. It becomes very repetitive after a while. It spins its wheels and loses momentum. "Yes! We get it! You two are different!" you may be yelling at the screen as the movie is still drilling this point home at around the 80 minute mark even though we as viewers understand the conflict right from the jump.
To be fair, Arizona Heat does have some good qualities as well besides the lack of political correctness (although the fact that the Chief is in a wheelchair, and the fact that he teamed Kapinski up with a lesbian just for the sake of it would seem to indicate otherwise).
The soundtrack features the time-honored wailing electric guitar riffs we've come to expect of 80's actioners. There's a quality (although silly) car chase scene and some shootouts. It was a change to see Michael Parks in a rare non-baddie role, and it's always nice to see Denise Crosby. There's a peppering of goofy humor throughout the whole thing, and the bottom line is they just don't make movies like this anymore. It may be worth seeing for archival value alone.
Arizona Heat was director John G. Thomas's next effort after Banzai Runner (1987). Perhaps the video store era should've been kinder to Thomas, because he didn't direct anything after 'Heat until 1994. Part of the reason for that might be Republic Pictures's awful VHS box art.
Whoever designed this cover completely failed when it came to highlighting the movie's strengths, or really making it eye-catching in any way. While it was distributed well throughout the U.S., no one had any reason to take this generically-packaged tape off the shelf. That error was very much corrected by the fantastic European art. Not too many paintings feature a guy giving you the finger. Much less a likeness of Michael Parks. Much less next to Denise Crosby giving him the thumbs-down. Now that's how you do fantastic artwork to promote your movie.
The end-credits song, "Caught In the Heat", by Gary Stockdale, is a winner. So much so that they should have used it in the movie proper, perhaps a scene of Crosby and/or Parks training or working out. They could have taken out a scene of them bickering and put that in. That would have improved things.
In the end, Arizona Heat is a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full situation. You could either see it as a movie with a lot of silliness and some unpleasant dialogue and situations, or you could see it as an 80's artifact with some redeeming qualities. Either way, however, it's the type of film that will never be made again. Let's all concentrate on that aspect of it all.
While Jill and Larry are constantly bickering back and forth about the nature of men and women in society, an evil, insidious cop killer is roaming around Arizona. Will they be able to get along long enough to catch the baddie? Or Will Kapinski's actions finally send the well-meaning Jill over the edge? Will anyone be able to stand the ARIZONA HEAT?
Arizona Heat can fall neatly in the "mismatched buddy cop" drama/thriller/action/comedy vein of the aforementioned Collision Course or perhaps Red Heat (1988). Even both titles include the word "Heat". On the one hand, we want to applaud Arizona Heat for including a lot of un-PC dialogue.
On the other hand, a lot of other dialogue in the movie is juvenile and sophomoric. It becomes very repetitive after a while. It spins its wheels and loses momentum. "Yes! We get it! You two are different!" you may be yelling at the screen as the movie is still drilling this point home at around the 80 minute mark even though we as viewers understand the conflict right from the jump.
To be fair, Arizona Heat does have some good qualities as well besides the lack of political correctness (although the fact that the Chief is in a wheelchair, and the fact that he teamed Kapinski up with a lesbian just for the sake of it would seem to indicate otherwise).
The soundtrack features the time-honored wailing electric guitar riffs we've come to expect of 80's actioners. There's a quality (although silly) car chase scene and some shootouts. It was a change to see Michael Parks in a rare non-baddie role, and it's always nice to see Denise Crosby. There's a peppering of goofy humor throughout the whole thing, and the bottom line is they just don't make movies like this anymore. It may be worth seeing for archival value alone.
Arizona Heat was director John G. Thomas's next effort after Banzai Runner (1987). Perhaps the video store era should've been kinder to Thomas, because he didn't direct anything after 'Heat until 1994. Part of the reason for that might be Republic Pictures's awful VHS box art.
Whoever designed this cover completely failed when it came to highlighting the movie's strengths, or really making it eye-catching in any way. While it was distributed well throughout the U.S., no one had any reason to take this generically-packaged tape off the shelf. That error was very much corrected by the fantastic European art. Not too many paintings feature a guy giving you the finger. Much less a likeness of Michael Parks. Much less next to Denise Crosby giving him the thumbs-down. Now that's how you do fantastic artwork to promote your movie.
The end-credits song, "Caught In the Heat", by Gary Stockdale, is a winner. So much so that they should have used it in the movie proper, perhaps a scene of Crosby and/or Parks training or working out. They could have taken out a scene of them bickering and put that in. That would have improved things.
In the end, Arizona Heat is a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full situation. You could either see it as a movie with a lot of silliness and some unpleasant dialogue and situations, or you could see it as an 80's artifact with some redeeming qualities. Either way, however, it's the type of film that will never be made again. Let's all concentrate on that aspect of it all.
Bland
Leofwine_draca26 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
ARIZONA HEAT is a typically nondescript action thriller of the late 1980s, one that takes the form of a mismatched cop duo hunting for a serial killer. One of the heroes is played by Michael Parks, later to find fame in Tarantino flicks, while the other is STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION actress Denise Crosby. The story has some merit but the execution is merely so-so, with the occasional burst of action in the form of a car chase in the desert to liven things up a little. There's nothing here at all that stands out in any way, shape or form, leaving it entirely bland.
Very Bad
jlsanchez017 May 2001
I bet that, back in the 1980's, the makers of this film thought that pairing a veteran sexist cop (Michael Parks) with a young lesbian partner (Denise Crosby) and turning them loose in Phoenix, Arizona, to catch a cop killer was an original idea. Problem is, all the rest is so unoriginal that you can constantly foresee the nest scene. In addition, Parks makes his character awfully irritating from the very beginning. Only near the end he starts to show his softer side, but by then it is too late, since you are already wishing that he gets killed. Crosby, on the contrary, gives one of the few OK performances in her career (I wonder if that is the reason why she has played so many cops and lesbians ever since), though she is constantly harassed by Parks, who even tries to rape her when she finds out that he has slept with her girlfriend. In spite of this, she can´t help falling in love with him (!!!). Frankly, though the idea of a woman like Denise Crosby (when she was still young and beautiful) being a lesbian seems like a terrible waste to me, I think this is just a piece of misogynist trash about how a though, independent homosexual woman is tamed and brought back to heterosexuality by a sexist moron. Add to this a lame direction work, totally unexciting (and few) action sequences and the fact that anyone can tell very soon who the bad guy is. What you get is just another boring ultra-low-budget thriller not worth the 85 minutes you need to watch it.
Not as dubious as I expected, yet unquestionably frail and unconvincing
I_Ailurophile24 November 2022
This is no major studio production, and it definitely has the appearance of being low-budget. The opening scene, a minor action sequence, struggles with basic authenticity; I suppose it's fair to say that one produces "effects" by whatever means is available to them, but I can't help but wonder if the "lightning" we see a few minutes later was created by physically making jagged cuts into the film footage with an X-Acto knife. With the relatively few credits that John G. Thomas has under his belt in the industry, his comparative inexperience does come across here with direction that seems, shall we say, soft. It's also noteworthy that this seems to be the only credit for writer Daniel M. Colmerauer, and it very much shines through that he, too, came into this with no prior experience. Dialogue and scene writing is astondingly thin, as is the narrative - we can predict within minutes who the killer is going to turn out to be. We're treated to further excruciatingly blunt beats and plot development, like the moment that Kapinski and Andrews respond to a radio call relative to a location that's directly across the street from where they already are. Pair such unsubtle, flimsy writing with Thomas' mostly meager direction, and it's safe to say that 'Arizona Heat' is well short of a must-see blockbuster.
This isn't to say that the feature never had a chance to worthwhile. Elsewhere in the picture some of the action and stunts are kind of fun; there are scant instances of cleverness scattered about. Let's suppose for a moment that Thomas and Colmerauer just wanted to take a stab at the genre on their own terms and have fun with it, whatever that might mean. Even at that, though, to be frank it's at best a very baseline level of entertainment on hand. If we take the plot at face value the situation doesn't improve, for here we have the classic trope of a loudmouth, unlikable cop, with a reputation for recklessness on the job, assigned a partner who is theoretically his perfect foil and is supposed to rein him in. With all this firmly in mind - the plot, the writing at large, the direction - the cast only have so much to work with. Stars Michael Parks and Denise Crosby both have solid records; in this they are rather reduced to an unimpressive shade of what we've seen of them elsewhere. Other cast members in smaller parts faced even greater like difficulty.
All this is more than enough to shove 'Arizona Heat' into a small corner, no more than average and sadly not especially interesting. Unfortunately, that's not quite everything. Kapinski is a rotten person as written: crude, boorish, sexist, lacking empathy or seemingly any human decency. Like other supporting characters, though, he's also appallingly homophobic - a trait that is rather significant to this movie since, as any basic premise informs, new partner Andrews is a lesbian. In fairness, credit where it's due - the movie grants Andrews agency, hurling Kapinski's words back at him and pointedly countering the anti-gay nonsense that he spews, an echo of real-life bigotry. The screenplay puts clear effort into shutting down the myths, misinformation, and hostile verbiage with which queer folks are attacked, and this is certainly far better than I anticipated. Cynic that I am, I assumed the feature would double-down and broach awful 'Goldfinger' levels of homophobia; I'm pleased that it did not. On the other hand, the effort only goes so far. The flagrant abuse that the writing allows Kapinski to throw around is given disproportionate favor over Andrews' responses, the difference between a Labrador retriever and a house cat. I don't know what factors are behind that imbalance, or whether it's intentional or incidental, but the result is that even if it's not as ugly as one would fear, 'Arizona Heat' has a hard time escaping the vortex of the tired, antiquated "values" its worst characters are written with.
Once again to emphasize: this title actually is better than I thought it was going to be, if only in one specific way. Set this aside, and it's not abjectly terrible across the board; there is a modicum of enjoyment to be had, despite all its deficiencies and shortcomings. I can't imagine distinctly recommending it to anyone, but it possibly has the best chance at amusing diehard fans of Parks, Crosby, or others involved. Still, the fact remains that Thomas' direction and Colmerauer's writing are all too feeble, barely enough to even carry the movie forward; forget evincing meaningful excitement or thrills. If you happen to come across 'Arizona Heat,' well, one way or another it's an Experience. It's an Experience best reserved for the direly bored or extremely curious, however, and given the rancid behavior exhibited by one of its primary characters, a content warning may actually be appropriate. Watch if you like, but there are countless other works of cinema that are far more deserving of your time.
This isn't to say that the feature never had a chance to worthwhile. Elsewhere in the picture some of the action and stunts are kind of fun; there are scant instances of cleverness scattered about. Let's suppose for a moment that Thomas and Colmerauer just wanted to take a stab at the genre on their own terms and have fun with it, whatever that might mean. Even at that, though, to be frank it's at best a very baseline level of entertainment on hand. If we take the plot at face value the situation doesn't improve, for here we have the classic trope of a loudmouth, unlikable cop, with a reputation for recklessness on the job, assigned a partner who is theoretically his perfect foil and is supposed to rein him in. With all this firmly in mind - the plot, the writing at large, the direction - the cast only have so much to work with. Stars Michael Parks and Denise Crosby both have solid records; in this they are rather reduced to an unimpressive shade of what we've seen of them elsewhere. Other cast members in smaller parts faced even greater like difficulty.
All this is more than enough to shove 'Arizona Heat' into a small corner, no more than average and sadly not especially interesting. Unfortunately, that's not quite everything. Kapinski is a rotten person as written: crude, boorish, sexist, lacking empathy or seemingly any human decency. Like other supporting characters, though, he's also appallingly homophobic - a trait that is rather significant to this movie since, as any basic premise informs, new partner Andrews is a lesbian. In fairness, credit where it's due - the movie grants Andrews agency, hurling Kapinski's words back at him and pointedly countering the anti-gay nonsense that he spews, an echo of real-life bigotry. The screenplay puts clear effort into shutting down the myths, misinformation, and hostile verbiage with which queer folks are attacked, and this is certainly far better than I anticipated. Cynic that I am, I assumed the feature would double-down and broach awful 'Goldfinger' levels of homophobia; I'm pleased that it did not. On the other hand, the effort only goes so far. The flagrant abuse that the writing allows Kapinski to throw around is given disproportionate favor over Andrews' responses, the difference between a Labrador retriever and a house cat. I don't know what factors are behind that imbalance, or whether it's intentional or incidental, but the result is that even if it's not as ugly as one would fear, 'Arizona Heat' has a hard time escaping the vortex of the tired, antiquated "values" its worst characters are written with.
Once again to emphasize: this title actually is better than I thought it was going to be, if only in one specific way. Set this aside, and it's not abjectly terrible across the board; there is a modicum of enjoyment to be had, despite all its deficiencies and shortcomings. I can't imagine distinctly recommending it to anyone, but it possibly has the best chance at amusing diehard fans of Parks, Crosby, or others involved. Still, the fact remains that Thomas' direction and Colmerauer's writing are all too feeble, barely enough to even carry the movie forward; forget evincing meaningful excitement or thrills. If you happen to come across 'Arizona Heat,' well, one way or another it's an Experience. It's an Experience best reserved for the direly bored or extremely curious, however, and given the rancid behavior exhibited by one of its primary characters, a content warning may actually be appropriate. Watch if you like, but there are countless other works of cinema that are far more deserving of your time.
Obviously not approved by the Phoenix chamber of commerce.
mark.waltz23 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Oh boy. If Michael Parks is one of Phoenix's finest, then Phoenix is in big trouble. If he isn't bedding a mother and daughter at the same time, then he's sexually harassing his new partner, Denise Crosby who is quickly revealed to be lesbian. We know that she's lesbian because she's got short cropped hair, even though she is rather feminine, and if it's not the hair, it's her mannish outfits. But at least she has a bit of professionalism, while Parks is completely crude. Their mission is to expose a cop killer, one who seems to use lightening to do the deed. Crosby gets a few amusing moments of giving an eye roll to their commander as to being stuck with him, and fortunately, the script doesn't make her a one dimensional feminist who hates men. She is only defensive and aggressive when Parks gets out of line which is frequent. He may be a cop here and not the villain, but he's far from anyone deserving of the logo "to protect and to serve".
The other issue for the city of Phoenix is that the whole atmosphere is presented as a miserable place to live, completely downtrodden, making it appear that the heat means that the city only attracts the lowest of the low. An early scene has Parks shooting several criminals, and rather than blood, what comes out of them looks like Jed Clampett once again struck oil. Chase scenes in the desert will keep your attention (most likely by waking you up), but you can't get past the hideousness of Parks' character and the feeling that something between him and Crosby is going to change the dynamics. This is cop trash cinema at its worst and Crosby manages to rise this above pure hideousness.
There are far too many homophobic discussions between Parks and Crosby, including a scene with a drunken old witness, which leads to a kiss between them. Then there's focus on a dead man who apparently was extraordinarily endowed, a pointless bit of plot detail that serves no purpose. Crosby being forced to question her sexuality is the unkindest cut of all because she is genuinely a decent person, and if she was to suddenly "change", she certainly wouldn't pick a jerk like Parks. There is absolutely nothing to like about most of this film with the other male cops outside of the chief being completely misogynistic and homophobic, and even if it were to ring a bit of truth, it's an unpleasant revelation about a major metropolis. Obviously if the only real nice character in a film set in Phoenix is actually lesbian, perhaps there should be more there. In trying to be clever with its anti-gay sexual innuendo, it just ends up being a crude slap in the face and an angry waste of time.
The other issue for the city of Phoenix is that the whole atmosphere is presented as a miserable place to live, completely downtrodden, making it appear that the heat means that the city only attracts the lowest of the low. An early scene has Parks shooting several criminals, and rather than blood, what comes out of them looks like Jed Clampett once again struck oil. Chase scenes in the desert will keep your attention (most likely by waking you up), but you can't get past the hideousness of Parks' character and the feeling that something between him and Crosby is going to change the dynamics. This is cop trash cinema at its worst and Crosby manages to rise this above pure hideousness.
There are far too many homophobic discussions between Parks and Crosby, including a scene with a drunken old witness, which leads to a kiss between them. Then there's focus on a dead man who apparently was extraordinarily endowed, a pointless bit of plot detail that serves no purpose. Crosby being forced to question her sexuality is the unkindest cut of all because she is genuinely a decent person, and if she was to suddenly "change", she certainly wouldn't pick a jerk like Parks. There is absolutely nothing to like about most of this film with the other male cops outside of the chief being completely misogynistic and homophobic, and even if it were to ring a bit of truth, it's an unpleasant revelation about a major metropolis. Obviously if the only real nice character in a film set in Phoenix is actually lesbian, perhaps there should be more there. In trying to be clever with its anti-gay sexual innuendo, it just ends up being a crude slap in the face and an angry waste of time.
Not a bad Actioner
johnt55-117 May 2005
When you consider when this film was made, it may have been ahead of it's time. Michael Parks seems to get better and better. Nice ending.
I think some of the chase scenes in the desert were damn good. As good as some I've seen made since then with CGI and all that stuff to help.
True, the plot seems dated now, but it's still worth seeing. Denise Crosby actually acts in this one! And not too bad either.
Plus there's some awfully FUNNY lines too.
The music is done by the same guy who been doing music for Penn and Teller over the years.
It's worth a rental...if you can find it.
I think some of the chase scenes in the desert were damn good. As good as some I've seen made since then with CGI and all that stuff to help.
True, the plot seems dated now, but it's still worth seeing. Denise Crosby actually acts in this one! And not too bad either.
Plus there's some awfully FUNNY lines too.
The music is done by the same guy who been doing music for Penn and Teller over the years.
It's worth a rental...if you can find it.
Az Heat
vivalden20 December 2005
This flick has some quirky twists, with a plot of police chasing a murderer. It stars Michael Parks of 'Then Came Bronson' from 1969 TV. Denise Crosby delivers a good performance. She went on to star as Lt. Yarr on the inaugural season of Star Trek: the Next Generation. Good supporting actors, some were very quirky and some were just creepy. Hugh Farrington plays a police captain as he did on TV's TJ Hooker (starring William Shatner). Crosby plays a lesbian, not new, but in 1988, that was not a common topic. She is partnered with Parks and his character, of course, tries to hit on the lesbian. The result is thought provoking. This is a very watchable film. Be sure to sit still for the opening, it is pretty funny. It is a 'B' movie that never went to the theater but is certainly a good video pick for a group of friends.
Offbeat look at a couple of cops on a case
lor_26 March 2023
My review was written in June 1988 after watching the movie on Republic Pictures video cassette.
In the midst of a trend of mismatched cop pics and tv shows, "Arizona Heat" presents a novel variation on the theme. Like filmmaker John Thomas' previous feature "Banzai Runner", this 1986 production is going direct-to-video Stateside, though both films mark him as ready for the big show.
Michael Parks toplines as Kapinski, an Arizona cop with a "manic" reputation due to the level of violence generated on his cases. His boss teams him up with female detective Jill Andrews (Denise Crosbly) who's a pretty but a tough cookie, and duo sets out to find the killer of a string of cops.
Key plot peg is that Jill turns out to be a lesbian, with Kapinski reacting predictably. What's unpredictable is that he goes to bed with her lovely, live-in girlfriend and the already battling partners are really at each other's throats when Jill finds out. Of course, a crisis unites them in the end.
Mystery plot isn't very interesting and the killer's identity is telegraphed from the outset, but director Thomas displays a wry sense of humor and enough odd details to keep the film interesting. Parks and Crosby team effectively, while the Phoenix and Scottsdale locations offer some novelty from the usual screen police beats. Music also helps, with pic atmospherically opening a la "Easy Rider" with Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher' performed by Steppenwolf and closing with Gary Stockdale's excellent out-theme "Caught in the Heat".
In the midst of a trend of mismatched cop pics and tv shows, "Arizona Heat" presents a novel variation on the theme. Like filmmaker John Thomas' previous feature "Banzai Runner", this 1986 production is going direct-to-video Stateside, though both films mark him as ready for the big show.
Michael Parks toplines as Kapinski, an Arizona cop with a "manic" reputation due to the level of violence generated on his cases. His boss teams him up with female detective Jill Andrews (Denise Crosbly) who's a pretty but a tough cookie, and duo sets out to find the killer of a string of cops.
Key plot peg is that Jill turns out to be a lesbian, with Kapinski reacting predictably. What's unpredictable is that he goes to bed with her lovely, live-in girlfriend and the already battling partners are really at each other's throats when Jill finds out. Of course, a crisis unites them in the end.
Mystery plot isn't very interesting and the killer's identity is telegraphed from the outset, but director Thomas displays a wry sense of humor and enough odd details to keep the film interesting. Parks and Crosby team effectively, while the Phoenix and Scottsdale locations offer some novelty from the usual screen police beats. Music also helps, with pic atmospherically opening a la "Easy Rider" with Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher' performed by Steppenwolf and closing with Gary Stockdale's excellent out-theme "Caught in the Heat".
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