The Heat

Breaking my prolonged critiquing silence to review a movie about an FBI agent and a Boston Detective? Yes. Yes, I am. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy headline this straightforward and, for me, highly anticipated comedy.

The Heat

Directed By - Paul Feig
Written By - Katie Dippold
Top-Billed Cast - Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, & Marlon Wayons

When an uptight FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Bullock) is given the opportunity to chase down a druglord in order to secure a sought after promotion, she does whatever it takes to make the unwanted partnership with Detective Mullins (McCarthy) work. Hilarity and violence ensues.

Pros - 

* Any time you have Melissa McCarthy on the bill, you're going to get laughs and lots of them. Her delivery is spot-on and knowing that a LOT of her lines are completely ad-libbed makes them that much funnier.

* This is rare for me so...get ready... I'm going to compliment the CGI. Wait! Before you click the X and assume that I must be crazy...hear me out. It's not that the CGI was incredible or anything, it's more that it wasn't as horrible as I expected. So it's a basically a backhanded compliment.

* There are a lot of sunglasses in this movie and, with that comes a lot of opportunities to see things you shouldn't in reflections. I didn't. Good job, post!

* Sandra Bullock's slow evolution from uptight to easy going really was nicely done.

* The supporting cast in this film were fantastic, especially Mullins' family. While occasionally over-the-top, they were supposed to be so the scenes involving them and Ashburn were great at showcasing the contrasts of the two detectives.

* It took a while to find the stride, to me, but once there, the jokes were hilarious and things you wouldn't necessarily even find that funny normally.


Cons - 

* For the first....thirty? minutes of the movie I was fairly certain I was watching the first half of "Miss Congeniality", so that was weird. Sandra Bullock as an uptight FBI agent? Seen it.

 * The end of the movie left some questions for me, which I won't spoil here, but it should be noted that there are loose ends. Sequel? Eh..

* There was a lot more violence than I expected to be in this movie. I don't really know if this is really a con...but that's where I'm putting it. In most comedies that I've seen, there might be violence, but it's usually not all on screen; they'll have the gun pointed at the bad guy, cut to the face of the shooter & then we hear the shot...we don't see it. We see it in this movie. A lot.

* While this movie is quite funny....it's a little slow getting there. I didn't seriously start laughing until probably 30-45 minutes in.

* I wasn't that impressed with Taran Killam's performance in this movie, and I really like him on SNL so I'm not sure what the issue was.

* The fact that I was aware of how far into the movie I started laughing sort of says a lot about the pacing and overall engagement-level of the movie on the whole.

* Sandra Bullock's character has magic blood-resistant clothing. That's all I'll say about that.

* Where "Bridesmaids" had a lot of sexual-based humor, this movie takes a more..linguistic approach so while some might argue that it is "cleaner"..if your ears are at all sensitive, you might find yourself wincing.

* I realize this is a comedy, and a comedy most likely involving the director just letting the actors roll with things..but I still expect everybody to keep a straight face when they're supposed to be serious. This isn't SNL.


Now Mother..
This movie is rated R and rightly so. There is a ton of language (with the "f" word being the vocab of choice) and quite a bit of on screen violence. With that said, I do think it's probably "cleaner" than "Bridesmaids" and, if you're not bothered by language, it's really pretty mild. It's not something I'd recommend to take your kids along with to see but, if you do, be prepared to discuss drug abuse, prejudice, appropriate means of communication, and cat theft.


Overall, I laughed. I thought it was funny and a fairly light comedy that I would see again. It wasn't as funny to me as some other comedies out there but I definitely enjoyed the Bullock/McCarthy duo and I would love to see them work together again. I'm giving it 3/5 stars.