Dead Heat (1988)

Ok, so Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo are cops, right? As in buddy cops, right? As in partners. And they have to solve a string of jewelry heists where the robbers take way too many bullets to drop, right? Ok, yeah, and then during an investigation at a pharmaceuticals company, Treat Williams gets killed, ok? You still with me? Now, what if I said Joe Piscopo uses a device found at that company to bring Treat Williams back to life, so that the two of them can then go and solve the case of who murdered Treat Williams the zombie cop? Would you want to see it? Because that is Dead Heat, the greatest zombie buddy cop movie ever made.

I’ve seen tons of buddy cop movies. I love it when they get into really weird pairings. You want a cop and a criminal? 48 Hours. Cop and a kid? Cop and a Half. Cop and a dog? Turner and Hooch. Cop and his mom? Stop! Or my Mom Will Shoot. Cop and a Soviet? Red Heat. Cop and an alien? Alien Nation. Other cop and an alien? The Hidden. Racist cop and a minority cop? In the Heat of the Night. Racist cop and a ghost? Heart Condition. Cop and a gay man? Partners. Cop and a gnome? A Gnome Named Gnorm. Cop with a psychic? Dredd. What?

But none of those movies involved a fight scene in a Chinese grocery where the Peking duck comes back as zombies. That’s what Dead Heat gives us. Gunfights where nobody can die. Bad guys that can’t be killed. A side of beef that busts its way out of a meat locker to try and eat a former Saturday Night Live star. This is what you get:

All this, and Vincent Price, too. If this doesn’t make you want to see this movie, you’re clinically dead and not coming back as a super cop.

I have wanted to see Dead Heat for years after learning that such a film existed. I was not disappointed. Joe Piscopo’s constant bad gags and jokes, the makeup of the steadily rotting dead people as they walk around trying to blow each other away, and near constant shooting because it seems that every criminal in town owns an uzi.

This is the reason why I watch movies. This is the film you have waited your whole life to see. Run, don’t walk, to wherever you get your movies and request Dead Heat today.