Review: Paul Feig’s ‘The Heat’

Paul Feig is doing it for the girls. After breaking records and making me laugh really, super hard with Bridesmaids, he’s back with a female buddy-cop movie that isn’t as good as Bridesmaids but is just as important.

2013 has been a very big year for movies. We’re on our way to a record breaking summer. But, it’s been pretty slight year for the ladies. We’ve had Mama. We’ve had Safe Haven. We…haven’t had much for women. Not that girls can’t go see the summer blockbusters that are mainly geared towards men, they can and they should except if it’s Man of Steel because no one should see that, but sometimes girls just want to have fun – with other girls (unintentional sexual innuendo that is sticking). And The Heat is very much that.

Directed by Feig and written by Katie Dippold (Parks & Recreation, MadTV), you kind of know what your getting yourself into with The Heat. It’s super, super silly and ridiculous and just a fun time. The script is solid, if repetitive. There are moments where there seems to be a lot of riffing and improv happening, especially from McCarthy. Feig is improving as a director as this is a tighter movie than Bridesmaids (though that film is superior), but he still has issues with pacing and length because this could have easily been 20 minutes shorter.

The strength of the film is, of course, the chemistry between McCarthy and Bullock. It’s as conventional as a buddy-cop movie like this gets, and you know exactly how it will end, but that doesn’t mean that watching these two characters grow isn’t a blast because it is. Bullock plays it a little too straight at first and McCarthy plays it a little too grand, but they come together quite nicely by the end of the movie and there’s even a few touching scenes between the two characters (touching both emotionally and physically). I wish there was a bit more character development that happens with their characters, though. That is the real strength of Bridesmaids; the fact that each character is wonderfully developed by the end of the movie. But that’s enough comparing the two. There are some genuinely hilarious moments in this film and some great one-liners (“Get your finger out of my areola! Tattletits!”) that will allow this to be more memorable than it could have been with a weaker script and leads. The supporting cast is fine but overshadowed by Bullock and McCarthy, who, realllllly just own the entire thing. With that said, I support Taran Killam the movie star.

But here’s why the film is extra important. Bridesmaids reminded us that the girls could be just as funny and raunchy as the boys. The Heat reminds us that the girls can do action-comedy just as well at the guys. The movie is hilarious, yes, but as a very, very, very light action movie – it also works. And that is more important than you can imagine because if there’s going to be a Fast 7, I want there to be a a The Heat 2 – 7 as well. Please and thank you.