This story couldn't have survived a single viewing if it took itself seriously. The atmosphere is light and everyone seems to be having fun. It's a case of opinion and/or taste more than anything else. With more gunplay than there is kicks you have to decide if that's a good or bad thing for a Van Damme flick. A bunch of dirty people try to wax him and leave him for dead and he swears to make them pay in blood. What happens shortly after that is pretty basic, but fuels the rest of the story. He believes he's got nothing to live for anymore and when we met up with him he's ready to commit suicide and end his life. This one finds Van Damme as a man at his emotional end. The strangest thing is Desert Heat while it isn't made of gold is leaps and bounds ahead of Universal Soldier 2 that got a theatrical release and Van Damme is actually pretty good when he's relaxed and having fun with a few familiar faces in the supporting cast helping out. So it wasn't the biggest surprise when Van Damme's latest Desert Heat went straight to video. It's been awhile since Arnold really pulled in the audiences and even longer for the likes of Stallone, Norris and even good 'ol Steven Seagal. I guess the hindsight is you could say that about any of the other big action stars. It's no secret Van Damme has lost much of what clout he once held at the box office when he's now reserved to doing leads in straight-to-video action flicks. Avildsen's director's cut was never released, although he did have copy of his workprint he didn't get a chance to release it before his death, like he did with his director's cut/workprint of Rocky 5 (1990), and according to him he always felt that his Coyote Moon version of the film would have been more successful. Then it was shelved, and over a year later it was re-titled into Desert Heat and released straight to video in September of 1999. Jean Claude Van Damme didn't like Avildsen's version of the film so he went and re-edited the film and cut it down to 95 minutes. Danny Treyo said in one interview how originally his character was meant to be something like a guardian angel to Eddie, but that part of the story was some of the ones which were cut from the film.
This version of the film also had more of a ambiguous and different tone, with some supernatural elements to it, like in original version of the scene where Eddie talks with Rhonda after Johnny dies, and she tells him how that's impossible because he already died ten years earlier. It was test screened to an audience and the screening went really well, at one point there was even standing ovation and Avildsen said how only other time it happened to one of his films was with Rocky (1976).
Avildsen: Rocky, The Karate Kid and Other Underdogs" book by Larry Powell and Tom Garrett, it's mentioned how Avildsen's original cut of the film, which was filmed between June 15 and August 15 of 1998, was titled Coyote Moon. His real name appears in the end credits as the director of the film, but he is credited as "Danny Mulroon" on the poster, DVD case and beginning credits of the film. Due to too much tampering of his work he asked for his name to be removed from the film. Avildsen, director of Rocky (1976) and The Karate Kid (1984).