Fantastic!

Awesome Movie

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I am amazed that this spicy, action-full movie, received such bad reviews. I loved it so much that when the excellent MGM DVD wound up, I watched it again.The plot engages our interest right from the start. The movie is chock full of action. The director makes great use of his real locations. All the players, especially Tiana Alexandra and Rod Steiger, deliver excellent, hard-hitting performances.Best of all, the movie was lensed on a top budget, making great use of all the fascinating, real-life settings.In fact, all the action at the climax must have cost a fortune to film. The many stunts we see are just incredible!The script holds the attention all the way from the tense opening scenes to the rousing climax.I thought that Tiana Alexandra was a real find. No angel could be more super-beautiful or more skilled in both attack and defense in the movie's many fight scenes.

If it were not for spunky heroine, "Checkers Goldberg", played by Tiana Alexander, "Catch the Heat" could be dismissed as just another mindless shoot em up to fill the drive in theaters. Her performance is so upbeat and entertaining however, that it overcomes the "I've seen it all before" plot. The first hour is the best part of "Catch the Heat", with "Checkers" kicking and killing "Professor Toru Tanaka". The late David Dukes is along for the ride as Alexander's partner, but his performance is completely forgettable. The same could be said for Rod Steiger, who plays a geriatric villain. The movie is not to be taken seriously, and comes across as more or less mocking itself. - MERK

"Catch the Heat" tells the story of top narcotics cop Checkers Goldberg - no kidding, that's really what they call her, played by Tiana Alexandra. After a bust she and her partner Waldo Tarr (David Dukes) get the name of a major drug supplier, Jason Hannibal (Rod Steiger), who doubles as a talent scout. They travel to Buenos Aires to take Hannibal down as well as any other criminal scum with whom he associates. The movie, incredibly, was written by Oscar winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, who was married to the Saigon-born Alexandra at the time and wrote the movie basically as a vehicle for her. It has a knowingly tongue in cheek, cheesy quality about it, which may satisfy some B movie lovers, but the truth is that "Catch the Heat" doesn't offer much that people haven't seen in numerous other B action movies. Still, it's not without its moments. Just witness as Checkers, in a fury, decides that opening a door by twisting the door knob isn't nearly as much fun as kicking the door down. The dialogue is often pretty priceless, and one has to believe Silliphant was parodying the genre at times. As a vehicle for Ms. Alexandra, it works well enough; whatever she lacks in acting chops is made up for with her spunk and sex appeal. (She looks cute and sexy wearing various revealing outfits). Dukes's performance is positively goofy, but Steiger ends up wasted in a rather boring villainous part. Still, it's fun to note the number of familiar faces in supporting roles: Brian Thompson, John Hancock, Brian Libby, and Professor Toru Tanaka. None of this is ever particularly exciting, but it manages to be oddly watchable just the same. The location shooting is one asset, and the obligatory pop theme song is good for some chuckles. One would have to be a pretty undemanding and easygoing genre fan to really dig this, especially as its ending isn't all that satisfying. Overall, it's not exactly "good", but not all that bad either. Six out of 10.

At some point in the 1980's I guess the Shoot 'em up genre was considered to be guaranteed box-office gold. That fact must have been on the minds of the producers of this horribly made 1987 action movie. Instead of gold what we have here is pure Hollywood hokum. At its best, it is an extremely dated, nonsensical, wholly unappealing movie with the flimsiest of plots. At worst, it's downright racist with the female's lead stereotyping Asian women and their 'in-abilitee to no-talk-ee good EN-grish.' Rod Steiger does nothing to help, sleepwalking through his role as a South American drug smuggler / talent scout (yes,...really). The inane "A-Team" style, rock 'em - sock 'em, kung-fu action interspersed throughout the film does nothing to salvage this sinking ship. Neither does the attempt at a love story between the male lead and his Asian co-star. Even a hot, kung-fu kicking babe can't save this rambling, boring, beast of a movie from the weight of its own lumbering storyline, painful dialogue and grindhouse acting. Don't waste your time.It would be more entertaining to go down to the local Chinese deli and spend the evening watching the clerk clean the meat slicers.