The Heat Reviews

It's down to the two leads to charm their way through the clichés. They half manage it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The Heat may be the most tragic blunder since Pryzbylewski gunned down that plainclothes cop in Season 3 of The Wire.

Full Review | Original Score: C

Standard-issue for the point-and-shoot style that trains a camera on improvising actors. The outtakes might be hilarious.

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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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

You're left with an above average buddy cop movie, a few sharp gags and the conclusion that there must be a better way to get men laughing with women than have them inhabiting written-as-male roles.

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Writing jokes is hard. Writing potentially funny situations is marginally easier, but only because the potential doesn't have to be realized before the paycheck is cashed.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/4

The screenplay, by Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold, is gunning to be a female Lethal Weapon or 48 Hours. Unhappily, this includes slovenly plots about tracking down drug lords to warehouse hideouts, and jackhammer banter.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

You know what would have been funny? If Bullock and McCarthy had switched roles... Instead, we got Miss Congeniality 3: Boston Boogaloo.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5

A stumbling, aggressively loud and profane cop buddy picture in which Bullock and McCarthy struggle to wring 'funny' out of a script that isn't.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

But it's heartbreaking to watch McCarthy and Bullock work so hard to such little profit ... This is a movie that doesn't once do the unexpected thing.

Full Review | Original Score: 79/100

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.

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With the film, Melissa McCarthy definitively cements her status as a legitimate comic talent, leaving her co-star stumbling behind in her wake.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

No, "The Heat" didn't miss a single cop-buddy cliché. All it did was place two women in the roles instead of two men. Kudos for doing that, but give the women something to work with. Yuk!

Full Review | Original Score: D

You can walk out for popcorn and not miss a thing. You can also simply walk out and not miss a thing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3

Unfortunately, beyond the gender shift, The Heat's principal characters aren't particularly funny creations.

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With a screenplay so childish it might as well have been written in Crayola, The Heat is at its best when it simply gives the tremendously talented McCarthy room to improvise.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

You've seen a lot of this before. These actors deserve better.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

An uninspired formula comedy that wastes every iota of that talent on a movie genre that should have been retired at least five years ago.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/10

The good news is that McCarthy and Bullock are often hilarious together, so you don't have to worry about the story. The filmmakers didn't.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

At half an hour, it would rip your bloody guts out. At almost 2 hours it looks more like a one note joke that doesn't know whether it's a black comedy or a plastic comedy with lots of swearing

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