Director of the wildly successful and outrageously provocative Bridesmaids, Paul Feig, reunites with rapidly risen comedienne Melissa McCarthy and tags along the malleable Sandra Bullock for The Heat, a lighthearted romp that brings with it the director's penchant for border-pushing humour, but fails to land all of its many, many punches.
The story opens on uptight, career-driven Special Agent Ashburn's (Bullock) takedown of a couple of low-life nobodies, but when the case thickens, she is sent across the country on the hunt for a ruthless crime lord. Unbeknownst to her, she is paired up with the foul-mouthed Mullins (McCarthy), a streetwise Bostonian who has no problems taking extreme measures to keep her beloved community safe.
More so with comedies than perhaps any other genre, an excess of trailers runs the risk of giving away the film's best moments in a wry attempt to get people through the door. Refreshingly, The Heat is not one of those films. Courtesy of an innumerable number of F-bombs and sharply sexual humour, TV spots have been restricted to advertising only the most mundane of jokes in promos, which proves rather misleading.
This is no take-the-whole-family-plus-grandma day at the movies. A merciless barrage of crude and nasty comedy spews forth from the pen of writer Katie Dippold (Parks & Recreation), helped along in no small part thanks to energetic chemistry between the leading pair. Bullock and McCarthy do just enough to separate their relationship from every other buddy cop film ever, peppering their constant criticism of each other with a believable friendship that never crosses into corniness.
Despite this, the film lacks the real laugh-out-loud moments that all comedies persistently try to outdo each other with. Most of the film should have you chuckling (much of the physical comedy and the duo's drunken montage come to mind), but never roaring in your seat. What opens on a promising note eventually- or perhaps, inevitably- descends into vapidity, making for a fun and breezy experience during its runtime, but one that loses all rewatchability not long after.
*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review. If you're looking for a writer for your movie website or other publication, I'd also love to hear from you.*
The story opens on uptight, career-driven Special Agent Ashburn's (Bullock) takedown of a couple of low-life nobodies, but when the case thickens, she is sent across the country on the hunt for a ruthless crime lord. Unbeknownst to her, she is paired up with the foul-mouthed Mullins (McCarthy), a streetwise Bostonian who has no problems taking extreme measures to keep her beloved community safe.
More so with comedies than perhaps any other genre, an excess of trailers runs the risk of giving away the film's best moments in a wry attempt to get people through the door. Refreshingly, The Heat is not one of those films. Courtesy of an innumerable number of F-bombs and sharply sexual humour, TV spots have been restricted to advertising only the most mundane of jokes in promos, which proves rather misleading.
This is no take-the-whole-family-plus-grandma day at the movies. A merciless barrage of crude and nasty comedy spews forth from the pen of writer Katie Dippold (Parks & Recreation), helped along in no small part thanks to energetic chemistry between the leading pair. Bullock and McCarthy do just enough to separate their relationship from every other buddy cop film ever, peppering their constant criticism of each other with a believable friendship that never crosses into corniness.
Despite this, the film lacks the real laugh-out-loud moments that all comedies persistently try to outdo each other with. Most of the film should have you chuckling (much of the physical comedy and the duo's drunken montage come to mind), but never roaring in your seat. What opens on a promising note eventually- or perhaps, inevitably- descends into vapidity, making for a fun and breezy experience during its runtime, but one that loses all rewatchability not long after.
*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review. If you're looking for a writer for your movie website or other publication, I'd also love to hear from you.*