Although The Heat may seem like just another cop movie, Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy make the film absolutely hilarious and completely worthwhile.
Special Agent Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) works for the New York branch of the F.B.I. One of the top agents, she’s arrogant about her success and highly demanding of her colleagues. When a promotion opportunity becomes available, she seeks out her boss to market herself for the position. While he knows she’s successful, he also knows that she is impossible to work with – and tells her to travel up to Boston to help find a drug lord. Not knowing anything about the Boston neighborhood she’s working in, she meets a tomboy, potty-mouthed local Police Officer – Officer Mullins (Melissa McCarthy). Although they butt heads at first many times, eventually they find a way to work together to solve the mystery – and become friends.
Although the overall general plot is somewhat of your standard cookie-cutter cop movie – and the title is pretty stereotypical as well, it provides an ample amount of genuine laughs and is one of the funniest films yet this year – a close second to This is the End. Although generally formulaic, the plot is raunchy, full of profanity, and at times, downright ridiculous in the best way possible with a somewhat surprising twist. So, take this as your warning in case grandma suggests this would be a “cute” film to see with her grandchildren.
This is Katie Dippold’s first feature-film script, as her previous writing credits have been some episodes of Parks and Recreation and MADtv, and I’d be interested to see what else she writes in the future. This is the second film that director Paul Feig and McCarthy have worked on together – the first being Bridesmaids – and clearly the two have natural chemistry to create great films. I’d only hope that they’d continue to collaborate in the future.
Bullock is obviously a fantastic actress, but she’s played the same character far too often – the super smart, socially awkward, can’t work with anyone, gets-stuff-done character who has-no-friends/love-but-eventually-overcomes-that is overly done for her. While fabulously portrayed, we’ve seen her play that part in Two Weeks Notice, The Proposal, Miss Congeniality, and probably more that aren’t immediately coming to mind. While her film history show’s that she’s has a breadth and depth of both films and characters, she needs to continue exploring a wide breadth of characters moving forward from here.
The Heat is a hilarious movie that, titled appropriately, is a fantastic kickoff to the summer. While it’s not completely your typical cop movie, it’s also not a film that I’d rush to the theaters to see, but if you aren’t into zombies or superman or just want to have a few good laughs this weekend, The Heat is definitely worth it.
Grade: B
Rated: R (for pervasive language, strong crude content and some violence)
The Heat opens in theaters on June 28.
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