Rating :   69/100                                                                     117 Min       

From Paul Feig, director of 2011’s ‘Bridesmaids’, and starring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock, ‘The Heat’ is a comedy arising from a very traditional good cop/bad cop buddy routine, with Bullock’s FBI agent Ashburn and McCarthy’s local hard ass Boston cop Mullins forced to combine their various talents to close in on an especially violent drugland boss. The focus is on the comedy throughout, and it constantly delivers the goods – usually by way of the foul mouthed and fierily on form McCarthy. The character of the too straight laced and socially awkward/professionally unliked Ashburn grates on more than one occasion, with very obvious gags such as Mullins trying to loosen her up and make her appear ‘sexy’ to seduce one of the bad guys, and with the general feel of the character evoking memories of several in Bullock’s back catalogue (her Razzie winning role in ‘All About Steve’ 09 for example {although it really wasn’t bad enough to merit a Razzie}).

McCarthy continues to go from comedic strength to strength, using her strong screen presence and her mischievous wit to memorably amusing effect. Should prove both enjoyable, and slightly irritating, in equal measure for both sexes.