@RCH2288 said:

I would like to add The Town to the Pantheon of bank robbery/heist movies. Great movie......and it had 3 great bank robbery and heists in it.

happy that someone mentioned The Town, as Heat showcases some of the same themes... honor among thieves, relationships vs going it alone and the complications of both Some really intense dialogue in both films...

I wouldn't call this a heist movie. There's one heist at the beginning, a sort of prologue, then a heist that is called off, and then a bank robbery that goes sideways. It's more of a pursuit drama.

There are plenty of good heist movies. It's a genre that Hollywood has a good track record with. The Thomas Crown Affair (the original) would be up there, and for all round fun, The Italian Job (again, the original).

A Better Tomorrow (1986) https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11471

A Better Tomorrow (2010) https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/58959 (Korean remake)

The film below is a trilogy, so try to see all three

Infernal Affairs (2002) https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/10775

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11647-ii (part 2)

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/14310-mou-gaan-dou-iii-jung-gik-mou-gaan (part 3)

Asphalt Jungle

White Heat

@Jacinto Cupboard said:

The Thomas Crown Affair (the original) would be up there, and for all round fun,

The Thomas Crown Affair remake with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo is one of my fave movies. I've tried to get into the original, but watching it has always felt like a slog to me — I can't remember getting all the way through it yet! Your positing that the original is better encourages me to dry again with the original. (I remember it took a while for me to get into the original Ocean's Eleven and, while I still prefer the remake, I did come to appreciate the original which had plenty of its own magic :-)

The Italian Job (again, the original).

I saw the remake - don't remember much of it except to say, "sure, that was fun". I should probably also check out the original.

@Markoff said:

Please someone prove me wrong, this movie is maybe in my TOP5 (together with Fight Club, American Beauty, maybe Falling Down and Se7en).

Pacino vs De Niro, you sympathize with both sides,
amazing soundtrack,
amazing supporting characters,
amazing action (already opening one),
realistic scenes with reloading guns and real gun sound in streets of city,
everything just clicks, let me check if I gave it 5/5...

Can you recommend anything on par or close to Heat?

I'm not sure why this has to be about proving you wrong. If you think this movie is the best crime/heist movie, enjoy!

After a long time hearing about Heat and being told how awesome the movie is for reasons in addition to it putting Pacino and De Niro together on screen (unlike Godfather II), I finally sat down to watch it. I remember thinking, "yep, this movie is solid." It's sad, tragic, and realistic...but there was one issue with it that always bugged me (although it's likely so insignificant as to not be worth making a mountain of that mole hill). The issue was having a guy on the team that had proven he couldn't be relied on to stay cool. In my past, I've had to deal with planning scams and the key thing you really want is control, you want to eliminate as many unknowns and unpredictables as possible. Once a guy shows how flaky they are, can't work with them again, and it's not a discussion, it's done. How these "pros" let themselves get into that situation made me think "WTF, I thought this guy was a pro?" However, it does show that all humans have flaws, perfection is hard to achieve let alone maintain, and crime is often foiled not by law enforcement but simply by humans making silly mistakes. As such, again, this mole hill deserves a pass, because these characters were indeed just humans, and humans make mistakes.

When it comes to heist movies, I absolutely love The Thomas Crown Affair 1999 remake (of course, @Jacinto Cupboard has already mentioned elsewhere in this thread a clear recommendation for the 1968 original).

Another that doesn't get enough love is aptly titled Heist (2001). It's led by Gene Hackman, Delroy Lindo, and Danny De Vito, who all worked together a few years before in Get Shorty (1995). It would appear they had so much fun together in that comedic romp that they jumped at the chance to work together again on this more serious project.