By Bob Garver<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/THE-HEAT-206x300.jpg\" "\\"THE-HEAT\\"")
Normally when I start off a review talking about a trailer, it\u2019s to say how much better the trailer was than the movie. \u201cWhy couldn\u2019t such-and-such have been as exciting as it looked in the trailer?\u201d I\u2019ll ask. I think my review of 2010\u2019s \u201cMachete\u201d was that thought stretched out to 600 words. But with \u201cThe Heat\u201d, it\u2019s a different story because I\u2019ve come to loathe the trailer.<\/p>\n
For the past six months, I have been subjected to one of the peskiest trailers of my lifetime. I\u2019m not sure how many times I\u2019ve seen it, but it\u2019s surely a double-digit number. I\u2019ve seen it enough times to have it memorized, which means that I know exactly where a lot of the jokes are going and I don\u2019t find them funny anymore. I don\u2019t think I liked them in the first place, but the frequency of the annoying trailer has needlessly turned me against the film before I\u2019ve even bought a ticket. And by the way, I know that most readers do not go to the movies every week, but the trailer has been attached to so many films that even people who only go once in a while can say that they\u2019ve had it shoved down their throats.<\/p>\n
The film is a formulaic buddy-cop movie with a professional, straight-laced FBI agent (Sandra Bullock) reluctantly teaming up with a sloppy Boston beat cop (Melissa McCarthy) to take down a drug lord. They don\u2019t like each other, which they each attribute to the detestable qualities in the other, though it really has more to do with both of them having poor social skills.<\/p>\n
Supposedly the Bullock character is good at solving cases and McCarthy is better at talking tough and fighting. We imagine that they can learn a lot from each other. But the lessons are lopsided; McCarthy schools Bullock at every turn. Far too many scenes see Bullock insist she can do something and fail, followed by McCarthy butting in, doing things her way, and getting results. I know the idea is that Bullock needs a lesson in humility, but it gets to a point where the premise of her being a competent agent becomes hard to accept.<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s humor is largely thrown to McCarthy, whose performance consists of constant swearing and other vulgarities. She gets in a few good lines \u2013 which is why I\u2019m giving the film a star and a half instead of just one \u2013 but a little of her goes a long way. \u201cBridesmaids\u201d (whose director, Paul Feig, also directed this film) had the good sense to make her one of a group of six instead of insisting that she basically carry the film.<\/p>\n
The action in \u201cThe Heat\u201d is about what you\u2019d expect from a generic action comedy. The humor is usually crude and mostly ineffective, not to mention that much of it has been spoiled by the trailer. Speaking of the trailer, now that the movie has opened I guess I won\u2019t be seeing it before first-run movies anymore. That thought in my head now is even more of a relief than the end of the movie in the theater.<\/p>\n
One and a Half Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n
NOTE: I also saw the hostage thriller \u201cWhite House Down\u201d this past weekend, but it didn\u2019t do well enough to warrant its own review. I actually liked it; it was dumb but a lot of fun \u2013 one of the better \u201cDie Hard\u201d knockoffs I\u2019ve seen in a while. Two and a Half Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Heat\u201d is rated R for pervasive language, strong crude content and some violence. Its running time is 117 minutes.<\/p>\n
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