The Heat
Screening Dates:
Fri 13 September 8:30pm
Mon 16 September 8:30pm
Wed 18 September 8:30pm
Director: Paul Feig
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock, Demian Bichir
Uptight but ultra-effective FBI agent Ashburn (Bullock) demands promotion from her jaundiced boss (Bechir), who as some kind of perverse test then teams her up with foul-mouthed, wantonly unconventional Boston detective Mullins (McCarthy) to capture a drug lord.
In the hands of director Feig, whose Bridesmaids was the breakout movie for both McCarthy and him, this becomes a sort of outrageously excessive buddy movie with feminist undertones.
As articulated by McCarthy in particular, Katie Dippold’s (Parks And Recreation) script is machine-gun hilarious, gradually transforming Ashburn into something approaching a mere mortal, and the cast of seasoned pros, including Marlon Wayans (playing it straight for once) and Saturday Night Live legend Jane Curtin, give their all throughout.
**** The Guardian
Critic: Christy Lemire
Date: 2013-08-08
Publication: ChristyLemire.com
Quote: Director Paul Feig, whose Bridesmaids upended notions of what a raunchy ensemble comedy could be, does it again here with another genre.
Critic: Cath Clarke
Date: 2013-07-30
Publication: Time Out
Quote: If you've never seen the point of Sandra Bullock, watch this.
Critic: Peter Travers
Date: 2013-07-08
Publication: Rolling Stone
Quote: There are only two reasons to see The Heat. But they are formidable reasons, and they go by the names of Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.
Critic: Stephanie Zacharek
Date: 2013-07-01
Publication: Village Voice
Quote: If you've never seen Sandra Bullock blow a peanut shell out of her nose, and you'd like to, The Heat is your movie.
Critic: Richard Brody
Date: 2013-07-01
Publication: New Yorker
Quote: The many formulas never mesh, and some formidable actors stumble trying to keep pace with its out-of-synch meters.
Critic: Rick Groen
Date: 2013-06-28
Publication: Globe and Mail
Quote: If this were funny, The Heat would add up to your average buddy-cop comedy. Except that it's not funny, at least not very and not often.
Critic: Andrew O'Hehir
Date: 2013-06-28
Publication: Salon.com
Quote: There's an edgy but rewarding chemistry between Bullock and McCarthy that makes me wish they were attached to a less foul-tasting premise.
Critic: Lisa Kennedy
Date: 2013-06-28
Publication: Denver Post
Quote: Laughter can be magical. It can also be crass. In the formidable person of Melissa McCarthy it is typically both. And no director seems to know what to do with that tension quite like Paul Feig.
Critic: Peter Rainer
Date: 2013-06-28
Publication: Christian Science Monitor
Quote: It's not really such a great achievement to have women cops in the movies acting as boorish and rowdy as their male counterparts.
Critic: Kate Erbland
Date: 2013-06-28
Publication: MSN Movies
Quote: ... a rapid-fire script and the inspired pairing of Bullock and McCarthy make 'The Heat' one of the funniest films of the year so far.
Critic: Joel Arnold
Date: 2013-06-28
Publication: NPR
Quote: The Heat come, they conquer, and they leave you laughing.
Critic: Tom Long
Date: 2013-06-28
Publication: Detroit News
Quote: Bullock has played this role so many times you wonder why she's bothering. And while McCarthy can be brilliant in small doses, her foul-mouthed tough gal bit wears thin quickly.
Critic: Stephen Whitty
Date: 2013-06-28
Publication: Newark Star-Ledger
Quote: [Feig] clearly enjoys the spectacle of women behaving badly, and gives his stars - and particularly McCarthy - plenty of room and improv time to knock back shots, bust a move and beat up men until they squeal like little girls.
Critic: Ann Hornaday
Date: 2013-06-27
Publication: Washington Post
Quote: Give these ladies a genuinely smart, funny script -- and give McCarthy more to play than what has become a tiresome tomboy shtick -- and there's no telling what liberated heights they can reach.
Critic: Barbara VanDenburgh
Date: 2013-06-27
Publication: Arizona Republic
Quote: It's disappointing that "The Heat" doesn't do more than take an established film template - in this case, the buddy-cop flick - throw in a Tarantino-size helping of F-bombs, cast a couple of women and call it a day.
Critic: Betsy Sharkey
Date: 2013-06-27
Publication: Los Angeles Times
Quote: Bullock specializes in awkward and uptight, McCarthy in aggressive and unfiltered. "The Heat" makes the most of those differences.
Critic: Claudia Puig
Date: 2013-06-27
Publication: USA Today
Quote: The Heat is the best female buddy-cop movie since, well, ever.
Critic: Peter Howell
Date: 2013-06-27
Publication: Toronto Star
Quote: The cookie-cutter plot might have worked if the jokes were good.
Critic: Joe Morgenstern
Date: 2013-06-27
Publication: Wall Street Journal
Quote: One wonders ... what the future holds for Ms. McCarthy's career if every new film is going to exploit her more shamelessly than the previous one.
Critic: Keith Uhlich
Date: 2013-06-27
Publication: Time Out New York
Quote: As in any buddy comedy, chemistry is key-and Bullock and McCarthy have it in spades.
