Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The Heat: Awfully Funny, Awfully Crude

by Pa Rock
Film Fan

I had the opportunity to see the new lady cop / buddy flick, The Heat, last week.   I saw it just one night after watching The Lone Ranger, a film the whole family could enjoy.   One thing that can be said with relative  certainty regarding The Heat, it is not intended for the whole family - or at least not any family harboring young children.

But that doesn't mean it isn't funny.

The Heat stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, and has an interesting cameo by veteran actress and Saturday Night Live performer, Jane Curtin.   Bullock's character is a very bright, by-the-book, uptight FBI agent who has difficulty attracting men and has many insecurities brought on by growing up in the foster care system.  McCarthy plays a local Baltimore cop who has trouble operating within established police department procedures.  She is on the outs with her large family because she arrested her own brother on drug charges.  Bullock and McCarthy cross paths while each is working the same case from different ends of the law enforcement spectrum.

Bullock and McCarthy work well together on the screen.  This movie contains some excellent physical comedy - such as when McCarthy parks her car in a space that is too narrow and has to get out by crawling out of her car's window and then through the adjacent vehicle.  The verbal comedy is also first rate, with lots of snappy dialogue and very funny lines.  The language, however, is problematic, and would have been more appropriate in a film about life in a Marine Corps Boot Camp.   The colorful vocabulary could have been dialed down a notch or two and the movie would have remained just as funny.

I liked this move, a lot, and have no qualms about recommending it to open-minded adults - but leave the kids at home.

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