Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
When there’s a choice between an action movie or a comedy, I will always pick the latter and end up disappointed with a mediocre film.
So when I encountered the predicament of choosing either White House Down (which has received rave global reviews) or The Heat, I had to make sure I made the right choice.
The trailer alone left me in stitches so I was expecting to experience belly laughs that would leave me in pain … which it did … and then some!
Take a plot about two law-enforcement officers who are hated by the masses. Spice it up by casting Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as the duo. Add in some frivolous action, a flawless script and Bridesmaids director Paul Feig.
Then sit back and laugh your butt off! I certainly did.
Imagine the movie Bad Boys, but replace Will Smith with Bullock and Martin Lawrence with McCarthy. OK, Bad Boys may have been a dent in the box office back in 1995, but this is the updated female version of it … and it’s all about girl power!
Laughter and knee-slapping echoed throughout the theatre for 117 minutes straight – but, needless to say – the laughter did lose its altitude in certain scenes. However, this newfound duo is a comic riot and, regardless, the humour never fell flat.
The film opens with Sarah Ashburn (Bullock), a stubborn and uptight FBI agent whose attitude makes her the bane of all her male colleagues with her ‘ugly pant suits’. When she finds out a promotion in her precinct is up for grabs, Hale (Bichir), Sarah’s boss, throws the opportunity out there for Sarah to prove she’s a team player.
Hale assigns her the task of tracking down a ruthless drug dealer in Boston. There’s just one problem … she has to do it with the assistance of police officer Shannon Mullins (McCarthy).
Normally, Sarah would take the lead and mind her own business but Mullins is her polar opposite. She is a hard as nails, proud, slobby and lazy detective who hides weapons including grenades and a rocket launcher in her refrigerator. Not to mention, her potty mouth doesn’t appeal to Sarah either, who refrains from profanity at any cost.
The rest of the story is cliché. They must put aside their differences and take down the drug lord in order to solve the case. It’s not really the plot that makes the movie work; it’s the characters alongside the witty script.
The formula for buddy-genre comedies usually involves male characters, like that in Bad Boys, Rush Hour and Hot Fuzz. But this time around the crucial change of using female leads works to an advantage. Feig understands women and he plays off the idea of how differently they react to situations than men do.
Bullock and McCarthy prove that they are both in their element when it comes to comedy. However, Bullock does get upstaged by McCarthy as it is clear that Feig left the camera rolling as McCarthy used her slapstick drills and one-liners as well as a couple of sentimental moments that showcased her versatility.
I’m still a fan of Bullock though and I believe that she was the perfect choice, as the two worked off each other perfectly. Yet, by comparison, her humour did not live up to the effortlessly uproarious McCarthy. However, she did a great job as an uptight and awkward FBI agent and was able to portray the gender dynamics in the workplace.
There are a number of supporting characters, including Dan Bakkedahl as an albino DEA agent, who becomes the joke of the film and Marlon Waynes as an FBI agent who helps the duo track down the drug dealers, that add moments to the film but don’t have enough air time to really leave the audience to care for them.
This is one of those movies you will re-watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon, when there’s nothing worth bothering with on TV. Bullock and McCarthy are double the fun and they definitely bring the heat!
*Showing in Cineco, Seef II, Seef I, Al Jazeera Cineplex, Saar Cineplex
