This is a bizarre Canadian production that openly steals not just style, characters and scenes but even entire lines from the Michael Mann movie, Heat.
The plagiarism is so blatant that I would encourage Mann to sue the pants off Neil Mackay and his writer, wait for it, Sean McAulay. Yep, that's right Neil/McAuley (the very name of the lead protagonist/antagonist in Heat).
After the weak set up introducing the Vietnam vet, we are treated to a somewhat exciting presentation of the bank robbers fleeing the scene of their crime in... an ambulance. One of their number is shot. The group dump the ambulance for a getaway car (Mackay - assuming that's his real name - falls short of having them plant an explosive on the ambulance and set it on fire). It's like someone took the script of Heat, chopped it up and replaced bits and pieces to make something new but extremely familiar.
Several shot compositions are not just reminiscent of Heat but are IDENTICAL, from the way the lead role speaks to the way he holds the handset at the public phone booth. "What happened out there?" - "don't ask," I mutter to myself, "you don't wanna know" the guy on screen says. WTF?! If you know Heat (which is a superior production to this pile of tripe in virtually every possible sense) you'll be struck dumb by what is basically an initial copy, stealing bits and pieces of that film before embarking on a pointless and ill-focused killer-in-the-woods set up. Ridiculous.
The plagiarism is so blatant that I would encourage Mann to sue the pants off Neil Mackay and his writer, wait for it, Sean McAulay. Yep, that's right Neil/McAuley (the very name of the lead protagonist/antagonist in Heat).
After the weak set up introducing the Vietnam vet, we are treated to a somewhat exciting presentation of the bank robbers fleeing the scene of their crime in... an ambulance. One of their number is shot. The group dump the ambulance for a getaway car (Mackay - assuming that's his real name - falls short of having them plant an explosive on the ambulance and set it on fire). It's like someone took the script of Heat, chopped it up and replaced bits and pieces to make something new but extremely familiar.
Several shot compositions are not just reminiscent of Heat but are IDENTICAL, from the way the lead role speaks to the way he holds the handset at the public phone booth. "What happened out there?" - "don't ask," I mutter to myself, "you don't wanna know" the guy on screen says. WTF?! If you know Heat (which is a superior production to this pile of tripe in virtually every possible sense) you'll be struck dumb by what is basically an initial copy, stealing bits and pieces of that film before embarking on a pointless and ill-focused killer-in-the-woods set up. Ridiculous.