THE HEAT

2013 / Director. Paul Feig.

If you've seen the trailer for THE HEAT then you can walk away satisfied that you've seen the film. The stuff in between (ie the extra 100 minutes) is a laboured attempt to recreate a classic formula. They want you to think that the gender angle makes it special and/or original but it comes across as a desperate, try-hard movie using its hook to carry it through. It's a buddy-cop movie starring Sandra Bullock & Melissa McCarthy as two cops. One's a stuck up, line-toeing FBI agent while the other is a reckless, foul mouthed and slobbish detective. They're forced to work together to catch an elusive drug boss and that's about all there is to it. They hate each other, they argue... the find common ground, they get along... then they love each other. It's a tried and true formula but THE HEAT just tries that bit too hard. The first mistake they made was their biggest... the casting. These two women just don't have any dynamics with one another. There's no chemistry and it's an awkward marriage of personalities. Even when they're supposed to "click", it feels weird. I like Melissa McCarthy. I think she's got something... but her schtick is being exploited. Since her propulsion to stardom after Bridesmaids she's only ever done the same thing. She's looking like a one-trick-pony and it's boring. In THE HEAT she bursts onto the screen mouthing off one obscenity after another and it feels so forced. As for Sandra Bullock - this has become formula for her too. There's no questioning that she IS a versatile actress but the character she's playing here is more or less her MISS CONGENIALITY routine. It's not the type of performance I enjoy from her. There's also an ugly undertone to the film with McCarthy's character persistently ridiculing an albino character. One or two jabs might have been vaguely amusing but his affliction provides her with an endless collection of lame insults - oh and they made this guy a misogynist, as if that makes it okay. I might be overreacting to THE HEAT but it really didn't do anything for me. Giving some kudos to the film, it does begin to find its direction in the stronger final act but by this time care factor was zero. Could have been great. Wasn't. 

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