There’s no shortage of reasons to complain about life right now, but the lack of a sequel, spin-off or any further follow-up to Paul Feig’s 2013 buddy cop movie is sheer criminality, and reason enough to for anyone to write to their Congressman or woman. Teaming a typically abrasive Melissa McCarthy with sweet Sandra Bullock for a roistering mix of action and pratfalls, this doubles down on McCarthy’s brand of in-your-face humour. It also gives Bullock, who left unchecked can lead to the utter horrors of All About Steve, someone worthwhile to play off.
Straight out of Quantico, Sarah Ashburn (Bullock) is forced to team up with Shannon Mullins (McCarthy) to nail down a drug syndicate. One does things by the book, the other gets things done her way, taking pretty much everyone down to Chinatown her way in an old-school Boston style. Of course, the two cops, one FBI, one street, hate each other at first, but bond as sisters in the face of car-bombs, torture and general mayhem.
Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold wrote The Heat as a spec script, and it shows; it’s by the numbers as plotting, and Feig, hot from Bridesmaids, doesn’t bother taking things too seriously. But what makes this worth Smithsonian preservation is the chemistry between the two leads; the scenes where the girls attempt to adjust their outfits to pass muster in a sleazy nightclub, or do some heavy-day drinking in a dive bar, are amusingly played out. It’s hard to imagine that McCarthy once played so wholesome and innocent as Sukie in the Gilmour Girls, but she nails her foul-mouthed character here, rambling about ‘window blankets’ (curtains) and asking rhetorical questions like ‘What kind of person closes the door before they use a toilet?’ ‘Humans,’ is Ashburn’s curt answer
There a stream of warm humour here that makes The Heat the female cousin of 21 Jump Street, a franchise mentioned by name here. Essentially, this is a cop movie parody from a female perspective, and celebrates the way that Sarah and Shannon bond together to outsmart the macho, dumb guys around them. We need more female buddy copy movies, and the laughs keep coming while The Heat is on.
Thought this worked pretty well and remember enjoying it at the time. Both women are producers so perhaps the sequel got tangled up in power politics.
There was a proposed spin-off film about Mccarthy’s Boston family which sounds like the worst idea ever, but it was never made….
Well…sorry but I’m going with Fraggle on this one. But well…that’s not because of the film itself, it’s simply because I’m not a fan of comedies. But hey, that’s me, and plenty of people who will enjoy this film anyway. Glad you did as well…also…I’m in for a buddycop revival!😃😃😃
Tough crowd! No comedies at all?
🤔🤔🤔 Well lol…..not very much no😂😂 There are a few though: Plains, Trains and Automobiles is one that springs to mind 😊
That’s a funny film. So you do have comedy in your heart! Turn that frown upside down!
Haha…I always do😊😊
Nope.
There’s always one who spoils it for everyone else. After I left you such thoughtful comments too!
I know, must try harder. 😀
I’ll be paying special attention from now on…
Didn’t they make a sequel to this where McCarthy teamed up with muppets . . .?
No, but I liked The Happytime Murders too, so feel free to complain….
I thought the buddy-cop genre was dead in the water. Do we really want a revival of it?
Yes. I love a buddy movie, and there’s plenty of cliches which need truned inside out. I can only handle so many elves and vortexes.
What about sharks and tornadoes though? Doesn’t the world cry out for more movies like that? Imagine this movie, with sharks and tornadoes. It would have been 10 thousand times awesomer!
Have there ever been any movies about sharks or tornadoes? I’m struggling to think of any. Great idea, why don’t we put them in the All New Constitution?
I don’t know. What with all the werewolves, do you really think we have room for such a novel idea as sharks and tornadoes? I mean, I wouldn’t want to completely shock everyone with such originality and pure awesomeness….
This consitution will be so epic, there will be room for all of these things. I DO want to shock everyone with originality and pure awesomeness, in fact, that’s my mission statement in life.
I’m wondering if we need to set ourselves a page limit on this thing, just so “we” (and I’m looking at YOU when I say “we”) don’t turn this into an epic.
Ok, I’ll set a limit. One page. OK?
One really long page? in teensy tiny font?
😉
With pictures and graphs. How long is the old one?
I have no idea. It has a lot of amendments, so it’s pretty long now.
Let’s shoot for pretty long. I guess if people are going to stick it on fridge doors and stuff, it needs to be reasonably short. So long, but short, that’s the brief.
I agree. I like that idea of just the right length. The Goldilocks length. And sticking it to the fridge? Genius! We should look into taking over the magnet business…
My vision is that it should be magnetic, like paper dipped in metal.