This is a movie that was going to live or die by the chemistry of the two stars because the premise harkens back to the good old days of the Lethal Weapon series and 48 Hours, only this time the two leads are women instead of men. I will say this the chemistry between Bullock and McCarthy hold up remarkable well and made this one of funniest movies I've seen in a long time. Both women do a great job. Bullock plays the by the book, no rules breaking FBI agent (essentially playing the Murtaugh role) with the likableness that's expected of her. McCharthy plays the crazy, wild, hard as nails cop (essentially the Riggs role) that's filled with fire. She really enlightens every scene she's in with the same amount of energy as Mel Gibson brought to his role as Riggs in Lethal Weapon.
The story line is one told countless times: two polar opposite cops team up, they start out disliking each other but become friends by the end of the movie. All of that is alright, I don't mind a recycled story line but just give me something to care about with the characters. The Heat does as it interjects a lot of personality and little depth into the two main characters, believe me this goes a long way into helping these two characters bond. One of the absolute best things is how they incorporate McCarthy's character's family into the movie because it really helps to flesh out her character while adding some side splitting hilarious scenes.
This movie doesn't rely on over-the-top actions instead most of the movie reminded me of 48 Hours which also relied on the chemistry between Nolte and Murphy, not explosions and fight scenes. The Heat is all the better for doing that, as it really creates two characters for the audience to care about and root for while the movie moves along. Most of the comedy in this movie is not over played but is paced just right never letting things go for a long time but staying focused on the characters and the story line. None of the scenes seemed added just for adding the scene just to be funny but they all were connected with the character or story line in some way xx, so they were funny but were important to what was going on. This has become a hard thing to balance in a lot of comedies now-a-days, as the improvisations of comedians seem to outweigh storytelling and character. There are a lot of comedies where ad-libbing makes scenes, pacing, and the movie seem longer than they need to be and really disrupt things. This hurts they over all the product being sold. The Heat is the polar opposite of this and it was refreshing to see a movie that made me care about the characters and not only care about them but want to spend more time with them because there is going to be a sequel. Much like the Lethal Weapon movies the story lines became secondary as it was fun watching the characters and their family grow throughout that series. I can this series doing the same thing if they stay focused on the characters and let them grown throughout the series and I for one would welcome that. It would be fun to watch.
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