DIRECTOR: Paul Feig
CAST: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Demián Bichir, Marlon Wayans, Thomas F. Wilson, Michael Rapaport, Dan Bakkedahl, Taran Killam
RUNNING TIME: 117 mins
CERTIFICATE: 15
BASICALLY… A high-strung FBI agent (Bullock) and a boisterous Boston cop (McCarthy) must work together to find an elusive drug lord…
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NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
Paul Feig clearly has a thing for funny women; otherwise he wouldn’t have been the man behind the camera for Bridesmaids and now The Heat, both of which feature perfect roles for actresses to bring out their funny side in the most entertaining ways possible.
The Heat, however, appears to be more flawed than Feig’s directional predecessor because it constrains itself more to a certain formula, namely the “buddy cop” kind. In fact, the only thing that can be said that makes this one stand out among the rest is that it features women in the primary roles. Other than that, anyone hoping for this film to add something that’s truly new to the sub-genre may walk away disappointed because almost every done-to-death trope is used in this film: the mismatched law enforcers who don’t get along at first; the scene where both parties bond over a shared flaw; the “break-up” which only wastes time before they inevitably get back together again; the all-out action climax with explosions and the like, and so on. Most if not all of these were parodied in Hot Fuzz, where they worked because it was done with a tongue-in-cheek approach to it all. In a more straightforward film of the genre like The Heat – where the comedy is definitely present, but is in no way a farce of any kind – it’s met with mixed results.
But that’s not to say that the film isn’t entertaining, and it definitely has the power to make you laugh whenever it wants through various uses of visual gags and the obvious influence of Apatow-ian (yes, that’s a word now) improvisation that every single actor seems to be having a ball with. One scene that sees Melissa McCarthy’s Mullins search her captain’s office for his “really, really tiny, little girl balls” is a highlight only because it’s one of many moments that flexes the actress’s talent for improvisation and being genuinely funny at the same time.
Thankfully, the strong comedic performances by McCarthy and a humorously dry Sandra Bullock are enough to mask its obvious use of tired clichés as well as the fact that the actual plot of finding and capturing a wanted drug lord is actually not that interesting. Actually, you almost forget about it entirely because Bullock and McCarthy are so much fun together that you don’t care what happens as long as you’re laughing with or at them. Although to give it some credit, the eventual reveal of the main villain and especially who it ISN’T does come as a bit of a surprise although not to everyone, perhaps.
If one were to nit-pick at other elements of the film, it would be that there are many unneeded speeches about the prejudices against women on the force, of which there are a few brief ones. The film makes it out to be kind of a big deal, but it would have honestly been preferable to not bring it up at all because these characters need to be defined by their personalities and not by their genders. If the whole point of the film was to show that there can be successful female buddy cop comedies as well as the standard male ones, don’t lower your shields by acknowledging your most obvious difference. It’s completely unnecessary to bring the sexism argument up in a film that has already proven that lead female parts are just as funny as the standard lead male parts. But it’s a personal niggle, and again is one that does little to no harm to an already fun and funny movie.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Although one can’t deny that it sticks heavily to the buddy cop formula – which makes it more predictable than it should be – The Heat is still an entertaining ride fuelled by huge laughs and an undeniable chemistry between established comediennes Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.
