Over the years the number of buddy cop movies has been quite substantial, many misses but also a number of hits. Lethal Weapon and The Other Guys instantly spring to mind. And now, not since Cagney and Lacey have we had such a female pairing. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy team up for the first major female buddy cop movie and its safe to say its certainly not a miss.
An FBI special Agent (Bullock) who has a rather large poker shoved up her ass teams up with a Boston Cop (McCarthy) who’s primary method of communication involves the word fuck, team up to take down a ruthless drug lord.
Directed by Paul Feig of Bridesmaids, The Heat will genuinely have you in stitches throughout. And while some of the gags miss the mark, you are nano seconds away from another popcorn choking moment. The majority of the laughs comes from Melissa McCarthy who is genuinely putting in the best comedic performance of her career. Her carefree look and constant F-Bombing make her insanely watchable and completely hilarious. On the complete opposite side of things, Sandra Bullock plays the all too straight good girl role very well and is as convincing as you’d expect.
Unfortunately the two stars are on such opposite ends of the personality scale that at times they are very hard to watch on screen and seem to have little chemistry together. And while this changes as the movie reaches its climax, its quite noticeable and is a little off putting in the opening chapters. Marlon Wayans and especially Tom Wilson are really likeable and Wilson puts in one of his best performances in quite some time.
The story itself is straight forward but trips over itself at times by attempting to run a few different sub plots concurrently. As a result, things feel a little bit dragged out in places.Shortcomings aside, The Heat is an incredibly hilarious watch and will certainly provide an enjoyable night at the cinema.
