Review by Bob Ignizo
Everything about THE HEAT
is lazy and uninspired, from its generic title to a soundtrack that
feels like someone hit shuffle on their iPod and just went with the
first dozen or so tracks that came up. The “wunza movie”/buddy
cop premise at the heart of the film is as stale as most of what
passes for jokes, and none of the characters even remotely resemble people who exist in the real world.
Sandra Bullock is
Ashburn (“wunza arrogant by-the-book FBI agent) and Melissa
McCarthy is Mullins (“wunza street-wise Boston cop who bucks
authority”). In hopes of securing a promotion, the prim, uptight
Ashburn agrees to work with the slovenly, down-to-earth Mullins to
bring down a ruthless drug kingpin. Would you believe these two don't
much like each other at first? Or that they slowly and grudgingly
learn to respect each other's differing methods, each learning
something from the other over the course of the movie?
This
is the kind of movie where there's no need to preface any description
of the plot with “SPOILER ALERT” because
only someone who has never seen another movie would be
surprised by anything that happens. Outside of obvious factors like
the cast and one or two references to things like cell phones or the
Internet, this could almost pass for some lost eighties film, perhaps
bought by a distributor in an ebay auction ala MIAMI
CONNECTION. Only unlike MIAMI
CONNECTION, THE HEAT
is more mediocre than “so bad it's good”.
The
only thing that comes close to being original or laudable in THE
HEAT is the fact that it has
two women in leading roles, both of whom are over the age of 40. As
much as I appreciate that kind of casting in a movie climate where
female leads of any kind are in short supply, it
doesn't change the fact that these two ladies are stuck in a waste of
celluloid. It's not like Bullock is one of our great actresses, but she still deserves better than this.
For audiences who just want something that feels
comfortable and familiar (boy does it feel familiar), there may be
enough laughs here to make it worth their time. For anyone whose
tastes are more demanding than that, however, watching THE
HEAT is likely to be a long and
tedious two hours. 2 out of 4 stars.
I'd never heard the term "Wunza Movie" before. I just cruised on "Mismatched-Buddy-Cops Action-Comedy" for 20 years. Is that at Ebertism, a Harry Knowles spawn, a Kevin Smith excuse for COP OUT or an Ignizio exclusive?
ReplyDeleteThat's one of Roger's.
ReplyDelete