When I was the tender age of fifteen and I saw Dead Heat for the first time I loved its mix of "buddy cop" movies, action, and a whole slew of undead zombie mayhem. Seeing it today, in 2005, I can't muster the same enthusiasm as I once did as the movie really hasn't dated that well and, well, Joe Piscopo just sucks ass in this, but it's still a mild guilty pleasure and has enough entertaining moments in its 84 minute running time to make for a so-so timewaster.

Dead Heat opens up with a high-adrenalin action sequence that has two masked thugs robbing a jewelry store with machine guns. In come our two cop partners: the straight-laced Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and the wisecracking, quite annoying, Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo). After dealing with the thugs quite efficiently, despite the fact they just don't seem to die no matter how many bullets are pumped into them, they end-up on the trail of why these robbers (and the rash of others doing the same things around the city) seem immortal. This leads them to a nearby pharmaceutical company and when they're attacked by an ugly, oversized biker zombie, Roger ends-up being locked in a compressor room and all his air is sucked out effectively killing him. Lucky for him then that they've found a machine that can reanimate dead flesh and soon he's back on his feet again - sure, he doesn't have a heartbeat and he only has twelve hours to live, but that's just a few minor bumps in the road.

On the trail of his killers they go which leads to a whole slew of action set pieces as they're attacked by some more zombie thugs, they end-up in Chinatown in a butcher shop being assaulted by animals brought back to life (like a side of beef and a zombie pig!), and eventually back where they begin for a final showdown. Along the way, Doug is killed (much to my delight as it stopped Piscopo's constant barrage of mostly groanable one-liners), but you can't as the saying goes, "keep a good cop down".

Packed with lots of seemingly random gun battles, alright creature effects from Steve Johnson and his crew, and a tongue-in-cheek attitude; Dead Heat marked the directorial debut for always busy editor Mark Goldblatt and he does okay with the material here (his only other directing job would be 1989's The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren). Williams fares the best here, Vincent Price is briefly on hand to add some class to the movie, and Lindsay Frost makes for alright eye candy. In fact almost the whole cast handles this comic book flavoured material well, but there is one glaring hole in the cast and that, my friends, is Mr. Piscopo. With his cloying swagger, incredible mullet, and steroid enhanced looking frame (which is shown-off by his tight T-shirts) he manages to get under your skin early and stay there - the original storyboards show his character as a chubbier, less muscular character and I would've preferred that.

Dead Heat isn't spectacular and gets much too silly for its own good, but you have to give it credit because of its unconventional mixing of genres and the fact there hasn't been much like it since (of course the fact it made nearly no money at the box-office might be a reason why). (Chris Hartley, 8/30/05)

Directed By: Stephen Kay.
Written By: Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden, Stiles White.

Starring: Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Tory Mussett.