The Heat (2013), R, 3 stars

Bullock and McCarthy in a pretty messed-up situation.

A buddy-cop action comedy is one of the most formulaic genres in the book of cinema. I mean, Lethal Weapon and 48 Hrs. are considered primal cop-buddy movies with a lot of chemistry between two opposite and different characters. Now, when a director and writer create their own story of the genre, it now depends on the plot, characters, style, dialogue, timing, and of course, action sequences. If it does not work, it will turn out to be a waste of time. In this movie, although it is not as great as Bridesmaids and not perfect, it is a pretty entertaining and enjoyable time, thanks to two funny performances.

FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is one of the most dedicated investigators on the forces despite being treated unfairly by her fellow agents for being condescending and trite. Hale, her boss, tells Ashburn to Boston to investigate a drug kingpin named Larkin (Taran Killam). If she successfully accomplishes the mission, she would be Hale's replacement as the boss of the NYPD office.

Ashburn moves to Boston and teams up with Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy), a skilled but ill-tempered and foul-mouthed police officer of the Boston police department. Both, Ashburn and Mullins' style clash and they do not particularly correlate real well. Ultimately, they do help each other thanks to Mullins' street-smart knowledge of Boston.

The movie goes into a little predictable route where Ashburn and Mullins go to bug a nightclub's owner and then they meet two DEA agents, Adam and Craig, and worried that the case will be compromised. Mullins and Ashburn talk about their problem and past situations about their families and in a funny bar scene, they bond and drink and talk about how hard and lonely it is for a woman to get into the police department of some sort.

Don't know what they are doing. Hmmm?

Paul Feig, the director, made a really funny female-driven movie called Bridesmaids and headlined Kristen Wiig's screenplay and Melissa McCarthy's Oscar-nominated and funny performance. There is some laugh-out-loud humor in this movie where the two police detectives do not get along and that relationship is reminiscent of Rush Hour with Chris Tucker's character meets and "babysits" Jackie Chan's character. The different routine styles do not correlate at the start and different buddy-cop comedies will have a stylistic and predictable ending.

Speaking of predictability, the story and case is not all that interesting because I could see the shortcuts and routes where the case is going. You could actually figure out who the killer is based on the timing of certain characters. Sandra Bullock is having another great year with this movie and Gravity and again, she turns out to a very charismatic actress. McCarthy gives another funny performance as the foul-mouthed cop delivering jokes with such comic skill and timing. She's no way  like her character in Bridesmaids.

No, this movie is not one of the marvelous and funniest movies of the year. But, this is comically entertaining at a B-level type. Also, I think cops who would want to watch this movie will get a kick out of this.

***