Now that Bridesmaids has proved that women can be more than a match for men when it comes to raunchy comedy, Hollywood clearly feels it’s time for another traditionally male preserve to be given a female-friendly makeover - the buddy-cop crime comedy.
Instead of the likes of 48 Hrs' Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte as the story’s mismatched duo, The Heat gives us Sandra Bullock’s tight-ass FBI agent and Melissa McCarthy’s bad ass Boston cop as its chalk-and-cheese heroines. Predictably, when they’re forced to work together on a case, they can’t stand each other. Equally predictably - as the genre’s rules dictate - they end up bonding before they bring down the bad guy (a fearsome drug lord).
Helmed by Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, The Heat is crude and rude, and its plot is pretty ropey, but as Bullock’s by-the-book prissiness collides with McCarthy’s slobbish street savvy, its leading ladies strike scintillating comic sparks off each other.
In cinemas from Wednesday 31st July.
