Review of The Heat (2013) by Gavin S — 19 Jan 2014

There's some funny stuff here, but really, were it not for Bullock and McCarthy, this would be unbearably bad. It's definitely the chemistry between the 2 leads that makes it worth watching, especially McCarthy, as Bullock is just playing her Miss Congeniality character again with slight tweaks. In many ways, McCarthy's character is a female version of Mel Gibson's Briggs from the Lethal Weapon franchise, more on the comedic side than the angry violence side. The surprising fact is that, this could make a decent franchise if they play off the chemistry enough. Get a bit more effort in the storyline, and flesh out some supporting characters (like the family of McCarthy's Boston Cop, and the Boston FBI agent played by Marlon Wayans) and you could do it. That being said, there's hardly any female buddy comedies, especially not buddy cop ones, yet you can see hundreds of male ones. Hopefully this ushers in more female buddy/cop movies, to build from this one here (which is in many ways a lazy rehash of Lethal Weapon/48 Hrs/Beverly Hills Cop, etc. franchises. This is, like some reviewer said already, more in the area of 21 Jump Street with girl cops.

Not nearly as good as the hype, but not bad either.