Rent The Heat (2013)

The Heat review by Alyse Garner - Cinema Paradiso

Taking a twist on the buddy-cop comedy drama genre the Heat sees Sandra Bullock as the uptight FBI agent paired with a loud mouthed partner who ultimately helps her to grow, the key of course being that for once both cops are women.

With Bullock as Sarah Ashburn and Melissa McCarthy as Shannon Mullins the film follows the same general outline as one would expect of the genre; suddenly paired together the two cops can’t help but clash due to their incredibly different personalities. But forced to work together to catch an infamous drug lord these two begin to realise perhaps their not quite so chalk and cheese after all. With a sprinkling of humour and action in for good measure the Heat is a good attempt at feminizing this overly masculine genre, ultimately however there just aren’t enough fresh ideas brought to the table to make the Heat stand out from a crowd of daft Sandra Bullock movies.

Bridesmaids director Paul Feig lets the actors do much of the work here, which thanks to both Bullock and McCarthy, leaves the film as at least reasonably enjoyable. However the rather ambling story could have done with a stronger directorial hand to bring some imagination to its predictable outcome; what do you expect however from a TV screenwriter, who despite her successful small screen credits (Katie Dippold is best known for writing and producing MADtv and Parks and Recreation) doesn’t manage to write in enough meat to hold up the extended runtime of a feature film.

The Heat isn’t bad, and it might please a few in the female audience to see a popular genre like this given a bit of feminine grace, but as someone who remembers when Sandra Bullock was in Speed rather than Miss Congeniality I can’t say this girl was particularly impressed.