Red Heat (1988)

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a big, dopey Soviet cop who treks from Moscow to Chicago to round up a Russian drug dealer.

It’s basically 48 Hours (1982) with Arnold in the weary, straight-faced Nick Nolte role and Jim Belushi replacing Eddie Murphy as his wisecracking sidekick, who calls the Commie juggernaut “Gumby.”

They run around breaking rules and wrecking the Chicago transit system, to the kind of soundtrack where every sock on the jaw is accompanied by what sounds like a ten-ton sack of cement thrown from a twenty-storey window.

There’s a definite rhythm:  Joke. Bones crack. Joke. Blood spurts. Joke. Glass shatters. Joke. A lot of people get maimed, chopped, machine-gunned and blown away before the fat lady sings.

For two-fisted philosophy, the incredible hulk from Red Square says he cleans up the mess back home by simply lining up all the drug dealers and junkies and shooting them in the back of the head.

Mr Belushi says it wouldn’t work in America – the politicians wouldn’t go for it.

Mr Schwarzenegger makes a small wrinkle in the meadow between his eyes that passes for acting and says: “Shoot them first!”

Ivan Danko
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Art Ridzik
James Belushi
Lou Donnelly
Peter Boyle
Viktor Rostavili
Ed O’Ross
Lt. Stobbs
Laurence Fishburne
Cat Manzetti
Gina Gershon
Sgt. Gallagher
Richard Bright
Salim
J.W. Smith
Abdul Elijah
Brent Jennings
Pat Nunn
Mike Hagerty
Streak
Brion James

Director
Walter Hill

Video