The Heat

The Heat

Overall Rating: 4 stars.

Mightily crude and at times mildly offensive, The Heat will nevertheless prove to be a funny journey, mostly thanks to it's promising director and well-matched leads.

The Good

It's damn funny. This is mainly due to Bullock and McCarthy. Their chemistry is astounding, which is obviously a key success in a buddy-cop film. Their comic stylings in the film are pretty much polar opposites, but that brings out more of the humour. The script is tight enough to entertain most people, even if it doesn't stretch to making the entire film a blast, like The World's End or Airplane! However, I found the majority of the jokes funny and enjoyed participating in the running gags.

They're chemistry is efficient enough to disguise the worn plot points, particularly during the final act.

The Bad

Both McCarthy's sweary, crude Mullins and Bullock's goody-goody Ashburn go through predictable narrative arcs, which are nothing new to the genre. They're redeemed slightly just because they bring so much humour to the film in the first place.

The humour won't appeal to everyone too. There are some funny bits which aren't crude, but a lot of the humour relies on McCarthy swearing like a trooper and Bullock being reliably disgusted. Perhaps a bit more comic variety would enhance the film.

To Conclude

The Heat is funny, predictable and slightly over the top at times, but it's great cast and decent script compensate. It also shows that director Paul Feig is able to replicate the success of his previous efforts, particularly when working with experienced leads.