The Heat – Funniest comedy of the summer? REVIEW

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he modern cop buddy picture has been around started with the release of 1982’s 48 HRS starring Nick Nolte and then film newcomer Eddie Murphy as mismatched partners that must work together to solve a crime. The film spawned a dismal sequel and countless remakes. It seemed like box office gold, just get to popular stars and pair them together and watch the sparks fly. The typical plot of a buddy cop film is as follows. Introduction of a crime and and/or bad guy. Intro of the “lead character” typically the “straight-laced one”. Separate intro of the wilder “loose cannon” character. Two leads discover that have a mutual enemy in the bad guy and discover that they must work together usually. Both are resistant to the idea and think they can do the job alone. They bicker, they fight and during the course of the film they discover a mutual respect for each other. They defeat the bad guy and by the time the credits roll they are not only friends they are ready to return for a sequel. Take a look at the list of buddy cop films here: Buddy Cop Films. There have been all types of pairings in this genre of film but rarely have there been a female buddy cop film. COPYCAT is the only one that comes to mind but that was not a comedy. Well now we have the first female buddy cop pairing with THE HEAT starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.

The late Roger Ebert can up with the term “wunza” as any film using a plot which can be summarized by saying “One’s a…” This film follows the classic buddy cop formula almost to the letter. One is a straight laced FBI agent (Bullock) and one is loose cannon Boston detective (McCarthy) who find that they must team up to take down a drug dealer. Plot does not matter in these types of film and I won’t spend time talking about it. This film is played for laughs and it is extremely funny and the interplay between the two is top notch. I am not aware of the history of the film but this could have very well have been a straight forward action film that was modified to be an action-comedy much like the original BEVERLY HILLS COP. In fact this film has very little action and it definitely falls into the comedy category almost to the point of parody.

While Bullock seems to be having fun playing off of her squeaky clean image this film belongs to McCarthy. She provides about 90 percent of the films laugh out loud moments and there are plenty of them to many of them to name. I would venture a guess that a large part of her dialogue came from improve. Now I am typically not a fun of bloopers over closing credits but here I was disappointed that they were not featured here. One can only imagine the amount of fun the two of them had while making this film and it shows on screen. Their chemistry does not seem forced at all and they bounce off each other with ease.

I really enjoyed this film and in fact it was the film that I was looking forward the most to seeing this summer. It did not disappoint in anyway. It is flat out funny and it is one of the funniest movie of the year (21 & OVER being the funniest) I hope that guys do not shy away from this film due to the fact that it has two female leads. The audience I saw it with was mostly couples and there was audible laughter from both sexes. I resist the urge to say that this is the “funniest comedy of the summer” because as of now it is the ONLY comedy playing right now. However I have seen the other comedies that are opening soon and I can honestly say it is the “funniest comedy of the summer” It is a credit to credit laugh riot! Don’t miss it!!

******Parental Note******

The film is rated R and it has VERY strong language but nothing really objectionable and contains no nudity or sex and the violence is very mild for this type of movie. I would say it is suitable for older teens.