The Heat

Going into summer there were two movies I knew I would not be seeing. The first was The Lone Ranger and the second was The Heat. The trailers were so shockingly unfunny that there was no reason to believe it would be anything but stupid, dull and painfully void of humor. I was so adamant that I would not be seeing it, even though I typically like Melissa McCarthy (though not in her Bridesmaids schtik) and I enjoy Sandra Bullock doing her usual character of starting totally uptight and then loosening up. Essentially this movie was putting two women who are making careers playing one type of character and slamming together in a buddy cop film that looked terrible. Then my Facebook friends started talking about how funny it was and one Facebook friend whose cinematic opinion matters greatly really enjoyed it and I started to waver on my knowledge of not seeing it. This week a friend of mine wanted to see it and we were looking for a second a movie to see and The Heat fit the time, so my girlfriend, our friend, and I sat down and I had no idea what was going to happen. Was it going to be as bad as I decided it was going to be months ago, or was I going to be pleasantly surprised, or would it be somewhere in the middle?

Agent Ashburn (Bullock) is one of the finest Federal Agents in The Washington D.C office. She would be up for a promotion except no one likes her. She is a cocky know-it-all who does not play well with others. She is efficient, a staunch rule follower, and a brilliant mind, but she is alone all of the time. Even the cat she cuddles actually belongs to her neighbor. Her boss tells her that she needs to go to Boston and work with Boston P.D on finding a drug kingpin and if it goes well, he will consider promoting her. it takes Ashburn all off 30 seconds in Boston to piss off her would be partner, Detective Mullins (McCarthy). Mullins is brash, violent, a bit crazy and a rule breaker. She also gets along with no one, so of course, she and Ashburn are going to bump heads. Mullins loves her city and while they go about their business in different ways, Ashburn and Mullins need each other to get through this case. In order to catch a drug kingpin, Ashburn and Mullins will have to use all of their combined knowledge and skill and find a way to co-exist.

Let me be perfectly clear here, The Heat is absolutely hilarious. Not sure why the trailers were so incredibly dreadful, but they did not capture the sheer hilarity of this film at all. I think the problem is the trailer shows you Melissa McCarthy being crass and making her weight the butt of a series of physical comedy jokes because that is what people want to see, but it is not what I want to see. the reality is, McCarthy's physical comedy prowess, shown so well in Gilmore Girls, is used quite effectively and not because she is bigger, just because she is gifted. In context, the clip of her falling over the fence, is quite funny, but the best bit of physical comedy she does is when she has to park her car tightly between two cars and cannot open her door to get out. That scene had me rolling with laughter. McCarthy is a naturally gifted comedian and The Heat really shows a broad range of her skill set. She is funny in physical comedy and in one-liners and the film provides many one-liners for her. See, the reality is, the Sandra Bullock character's uptight nature is really the butt of most of the jokes. These two women have wonderful chemistry and while I would not like to see a sequel, if they did a series of these films, they could go down as one of the better buddy cop teams. hell, even with just one movie I think you need to stop having the conversation of best women buddy duos and just say, these two make one of the best buddy cop duos in film. They are that good together. it helps that on their own, both are good actresses with solid work in the genre of comedy and together they work so very well. I love playing Bullock's uptight character against McCarthy more loose nature.

The story often feels like it exists solely for jokes, but once Mullins' family gets involved the story starts to matter more. The scenes with the brash Boston family are hilarious, and it helps that all of brothers are actually from Boston. it makes the scene a loving tribute to a hard core blue collar town. They all play very well off of each other and the jokes come fast and furiously in their limited screen time. There is also a nice running gag with McCarthy running into dude she slept with once and then ditched. it shows McCarthy as a confident, almost sexy character and shows the Bullock character how to loosen up. I think the most memorable scene all the way through has to be the night club scene. You get this great chemistry between the two women as they hurry into the bathroom to give the Bullock character a clothing makeover, and you get phenomenal physical comedy from both ladies and it furthers the plot of the film incredibly effortlessly.

The Heat find the funny in every possible way, but it also shows McCarthy and Bullock to be talented actresses who excel when pushed by another funny person. It is hilarious without bordering into crude, and it provides a nice easy to follow story as the backdrop for the comedy. it does waste Taran Killam and Marlon Wayans into roles where they are not able to be very funny, even though they are both comic actors, but it is a minor squabble. I wish I could fire the guy who cut together the trailers and punch all of the focus groups who thought it was hilarious. It is a poor reflection of the actual film. Granted, the movie has made 143 million dollars, so clearly I was in the minority of that thinking anyway.

Final Grade: B+