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Monday, July 1, 2013
MOVIES
The University Daily Kansan
Feig's 'The Heat' burns through buddy cop clichés
Paul Feig's cheerfully profane lady cop comedy "The Heat" is the latest example of why it's never a good idea to judge a film by its trailer.
A neurotic FBI agent (Sandra Bullock) teams up with a coarse Boston policewoman (Melissa McCarthy) in Paul Feig's comedy "The Heat."
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION
One of two disconcertingly similar Melissa McCarthy vehicles initially set to debut in early 2013, the first trailer for "The Heat" undersold Feig's eagerly awaited follow-up to "Bridesa maids" as a middling mélange of odd couple slapstick and police procedural clichés. McCa-rthy's other project, "Identity Thief", conversely attracted viewers with ads promising a rollicking road comedy in the tradition of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles".
Yet quality – or lack thereof – is seldom the determinant factor of a
film's success. Even though "Identity Thief" ended up being, to quote my own review, a "lazy, obnoxious belch of a movie" that was greeted with almost universal critical disdain when it was released last February, it still managed to turn a hefty profit at the box office. In fact, its reception may have played a part in convincing 20th Century Fox executives to
move "The Heat," whose advance screenings had been generating considerably more positive buzz, from its original April 5 release date to the butter-clogged heart of blockbuster season.
Well, Fox's gamble is our gain,
because "The Heat" is actually one
of the summer's sturdier tent-poles:
a wickedly funny buddy cop spoof that capitalizes on the unlikely chemistry of its two leading ladies. Like "Bridesmaids," this is also a movie that seems bound and determined to prove that women can be every bit as raucous and raunchy as their male counterparts, subjecting McCarthy and her co-star Sandra Bullock to all manner of violent pratfalls, gross-out sight gags and a near-constant stream of genitalia references. Hooray for progress!
Bullock, essentially reprising her endearingly awkward "Miss Congeniality" character, plays Sarah Ashburn, a high-strung FBI agent tasked with hunting down an infamous South Boston drug lord. While interrogating a
low-level dealer (YouTube celebrity Spoken Reasons), Sarah runs afoul of Officer Shannon Mullins (McCarthy), a sailor-mouthed Boston-Irish cop who proudly wears her badge under several layers of biker denim and conveniently reversible t-shirts. Would it surprise you to learn these two eventually become the ultimate crime-fighting duo?
.
Let's be honest: the buddy cop flick is one of screenwriting's stalent formulas. Recent examples like "Cop Out" and "Showtime" lowered the industry's already low standards for rote, cynical storytelling. "The Heat" distinguishes itself not by breaking the mold but by acknowledging the set-up's inherent limitations, pepering its familiar plot with savvy, irreverent dialogue that knowingly parodies the hyper-masculine excesses of films like "Lethal Weapon" and "Bad Boys," particularly during a scene where McCarthy goes on an improvised tirade while searching her captain's office for his missing testicles.
McCarthy, a talented actress resigned to playing coarse, loud
mouthed eccentrices, nevertheless imbues the movie with an infectious sense of fun and confident charm, especially whenever she's taking Bullock to task for being too arrogant or socially awkward. Bullock, meanwhile, proves herself a worthy foil, taking the brunt of her co-star's insults while occasionally letting loose with a few memorable barbs of her own. A running gag involving her one-sided friendship with her neighbor's cat is oddly inspired.
"The Heat" also benefits from a supporting cast of comedy notables, including Michael McDonald (MADtv) as a knife-wielding mob assassin and Dan Bakkedahl as a misogynistic DEA agent who quickly becomes McCarthy's sworn enemy (and the target of a seemingly inexhaustible number of albino jokes). In the end, though, the success of "The Heat" can be largely attributed to McCarthy, a freewheeling comic presence whose appeal transcends typecasting.
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