COMEDY; 1hr 57min
STARRING: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy
Hot stuff! from left, Bullock and McCarthy
New York City FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Bullock) and Boston detective Shannon Mullins (McCarthy) are alpha femmes with an ironclad sense of their own importance. They also make a comedically golden team as they unwillingly attempt to work together in nailing a drug baron. Their natures and methods are, of course, poles apart: Sarah is a pernickety and stitched-up know-all while Shannon is slobby, pugnacious and a chapter of nutty accidents waiting to happen.
And here we go! The ladies have their straight-playing timing totally sorted, which is terrific since Katie Dippold’s screenplay, directed by Bridesmaids’ Paul Feig, gives them a mother lode to mine. It was always an established fact that once the girls got their contrasty act together, they’d be quite the crime-busting twosome. The Heat isn’t so much concerned with where Sarah and Shannon are going as how they somehow manage to get there, via one wisecrack-packed speed bump after another. There’s a sweet streak, as well, with both of them being lonely, defensive and more needing of each other than they’d care to admit. We like them all the more for that, but we love them when they’re funny.
