An uptight FBI Special Agent is paired with a foul-mouthed Boston cop to take down a ruthless drug lord.
Lukewarm.
Following Bridesmaids it marks another successful barge into Hollywood’s boys-only territory from director Paul Feig, who is proving to be the most significant director of women in Hollywood right now.
Bullock and McCarthy have terrific chemistry and elevate the simple-minded material with their riffing and adept physical comedy. If you’re bored of super-heroes, robots and explosions you might welcome a star-vehicle where the spectacle is provided by the talent and not technology.
When it sticks to its guns, The Heat is hot stuff indeed.
It takes a while for The Heat to warm up, but after about 30 minutes of straining-for-effect comedy, this buddy cop vehicle for Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy proves a much funnier proposition than the thinness of its premise suggests.
So, praise be, women have staked a claim on what was a male-dominated genre. That they have matched the blokes in every vicious and vulgar degree is somewhat less cheering.
Not all of it is awful – a sequence where Bullock and McCarthy get drunk in an old codger’s bar has potential. But the real drain lies in attempts to show that anything the guycan do, women can do too: swear aggressively, wave guns, and endure punchlines that are not so much transgressive as regressive.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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