Top 10 Schwarzenegger Movies (#10)

Red Heat
Character: Capt. Ivan Danko
Year: 1988

Let's get this out of the way right now, I have nothing against James Belushi.  Most people do.  Sure, John was and always will be the 'better Belushi', and Jim will always live in his shadow as a result.  But that's no reason to hate the guy.  A lot of people seem to form strong opinions based on very little actual personal experience.  For example, a person hears that haggis is sheep guts, cooked in the animal's stomach, and immediately they have formed a vehement hatred of it without having researched the actual ingredients or, god forbid, having tried it for themselves.

The same seems to be true of Jim Belushi.  I don't know how many people have actually seen his shows or movies, but a lot of people really dislike him.  I've never seen According to Jim.  I probably would hate it, and perhaps even him, if I did.  But I haven't, so I'm not going to jump to conclusions.  I remain indifferent to him.  I think the world would be a much better place if more people just remained indifferent to the things that have absolutely no effect on them.  But that's a topic for another, much more serious day.

Today's decidedly non-serious topic, however,  is Red Heat.  And the whole point of the last two paragraphs was to preemptively put a stop to any comments of the "Eww, how can you like a Jim Belushi movie?" variety before you bother even making them.  Because I kind of liked this movie.  Sure, it's just a mountain of cliches (buddy cop, fish out of water, we're not so different after all, etc...) and it doesn't even do any of those cliches particularly well, but it was still fun, dammit.  Sprinkle in a young Gina Gershon, a pre-fame Laurence Fishburne and Arnold at the top of his game, and you have all the makings for a cinema classic.

It didn't end up being one, but that's beside the point.