The Heat

The Melissa McCarthy character is so! over the top, so! unbelievable and obnoxious it destroyed any chance for this movie. Why would Sandra Bullock sign on to this? I enjoy most Sandra movies but I couldn't make it to 15 minutes in. So glad this was a cheap Tuesday rental. I truly feel sorry for those that paid at the box office. American humour at its' worst! Blunt, in your face stupid and simply not funny! Do your self a huge favour and miss this altogether. Also, for as much of it as I saw, Bullocks character in this is the same as her "pre-makeover" character in Miss Congeniality. A butch FBI agent out on a limb! Sorry Sandra I love most of your stuff but like Speed 2 this is a disaster.

I'm not sure about these bad reviews, I really found a lot to enjoy here. Plot In A Paragraph: FBI Agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is a very skilled investigator in New York City, but is despised by her fellow agents for her arrogant attitude. On a brief assignment in Boston, she meets Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) a foulmouthed and rebellious police officer with the Boston Police Department. Ashburn's by-the-book philosophy clashes with Mullins' rugged and violent style of police work. Under pressure from her FBI boss Hale, Ashburn reluctantly agrees to team up with Mullins. Whilst the plot is nothing special, and certain amounts of the humour revolve around police brutality and bad language, Bullock is an effective straight to the foul mouthed McCarthy and I found some serious lough out loud moments. Enjoyable and I'll definitely watch it again.

Female Special Agent with the FBI is relocated from New York City to Boston to ferret out international drug lord, but runs afoul of a local detective who considers Boston her turf; they begrudgingly work together to crack the case. Although the buddy-cop movie has been around for decades, the one film "The Heat" resembles is "Outrageous Fortune" from 1987, a similar distaff-odd couple pairing with mercenaries, explosions and a winking/naughty dirty mouth. But, whereas "Outrageous Fortune" had Bette Midler as the resident hellion and Shelley Long as the uptight prig, "The Heat" bottoms out with an unfunny Sandra Bullock as the fed (not so much miscast as she is misused) and bulldozing comedienne Melissa McCarthy as slovenly-living Detective Mullins. An early scene, with McCarthy parked too-snugly between two other cars and having to crawl through the open windows, is an embarrassing example of how using an actress's weight for easy laughs can quickly turn into exploitation of the ugliest kind (Mullins is so pig-headed, she won't park in another space, while it isn't made clear why her usual parking slot is so small or if this predicament has happened before). Illogical, amped-up star-vehicle with embarrassment and dissatisfaction at its core. A real turn-off, exemplified by the grueling 'comic' sequence wherein Bullock attempts a tracheotomy on a choking man in a restaurant. We're supposed to see Sandra's no-nonsense/all-nonsense character learning a lesson about being a supposed know-it-all, but, with blood spurting and diners immobile (like wax figures), "The Heat" suddenly cools, becoming an ice-cold travesty. * from ****

"The Heat" is violently hilarious. There is a sad side to police officer Shannon Mullins, played by Melissa McCarthy. But then there is also the mean, funny, cursing side that keeps the movie very, very real. Also there is a serious FBI agent, Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock), desperately trying to get a promotion. She at first wants nothing to do with Melissa McCarthy but when her boss insists she work with Mullins, Ashburn's feelings for her investigation partner change. The two become partners in the Larkin case. They have to rely on each other a lot because they are only two people going up against a whole entire dangerous gang. Also, Mullins's family is in danger. Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock entertain you throughout the whole movie . I give this movie a five out of five, ten out of ten, and one million out of one million.

The Melissa McCarthy character is so! over the top, so! unbelievable and obnoxious it destroyed any chance for this movie. Why would Sandra Bullock sign on to this? I enjoy most Sandra movies but I couldn't make it to 15 minutes in. So glad this was a cheap Tuesday rental. I truly feel sorry for those that paid at the box office. American humour at its' worst! Blunt, in your face stupid and simply not funny! Do your self a huge favour and miss this altogether. Also, for as much of it as I saw, Bullocks character in this is the same as her "pre-makeover" character in Miss Congeniality. A butch FBI agent out on a limb! Sorry Sandra I love most of your stuff but like Speed 2 this is a disaster.

The last time Sandra Bullock played an FBI agent was in 2005's Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, you know, the dreadful sequel that absolutely wasn't. The Heat is worse. Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is an uptight, humourless, winy FBI agent who is forced to work with local, disgusting, don't-give-a-damn cop Mullins (Melissa McCarthy). Ashburn wants a promotion, Mullins wants to get around to eating last week's sandwich, while Ashburn's boss, Hale (Demian Bichir), just wants them to get along. It's a fairly typical buddy cop set-up that is a blend of Bad Boys and Bridesmaids and, no, the combination doesn't work here. Billed as a comedy, it's very obvious what its intentions are and, to be fair, a few people did chuckle occasionally. If I'm honest, I also laughed quietly twice. It just took almost two hours to reach the funniest line ("I left the kid in the car." – it's all in the delivery) and the amusing final scene that followed it. Is it just that I don't have a sense of humour? Nope. I watched the original The Hangover three times in a week with different friends and laughed out loud every time. Sightseers absolutely rocked my boat. The Guard, In Bruges, Moonrise Kingdom… Okay, I accept some of those might be regarded as 'black' or 'quirky' but if you want slapstick, puerile comedy that gels, The Goon worked perfectly. The Heat just isn't funny most of the time. Mostly it's codswallop that tries too hard to be funny rather than relying on the natural skills of the performers who can be funny. Everything is so staged, so obvious and has all the panache of a frying pan in the face. In one tragically awful scene, the injured Ashburn attempts to control her wheelchair in an empty corridor with one hand while holding a gun in the other. Rather than put the gun in her lap and use both hands to move at speed, she opts to slither along the floor while pushing the gun ahead of her a couple of feet at a time. What was director Paul Feig thinking? It's not funny, there is not thought given to reason. It's just plain stupid and that was reflected by the silence of the audience. Predictably, there are rumours of a sequel. God help us. The Heat may be at McCarthy's level but Bullock is worth a great deal more than this. Here's hoping the impending Gravity, with George Clooney, doesn't pull her down further. For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page.