muratmihcioglu

I must have seen this on a flight a decade ago but it proved to be worthy of a rewatch yesterday. Almost anything with Melissa MacCarthy is enjoyable enough, and when you top that with Sandra Bullock, it just has to be too terrible an idea to flop. This was not bad at all for several reasons:

They have dedicated enough time to the gags to make the joke sink in. Obviously with a dose of improvisation along the way, the two protagonists blend and contrast perfectly well. One might think the scenes were too long but that didn't hurt at all because they were filled with enough jokes and trivia.

Sandra Bullock is totally different in this one. Not different only from her signature character in Speed, but also from Miss Congeniality, which in spirit might be the closest to The Heat where she also was an FBI agent. She's 100% Sandra Bullock in each of these three films, yet, 100% another character. Well, this is basically GOOD ACTING. None of the three are deep, hard-to-portray characters maybe, but it takes true talent and dedication to avoid repetition so well. Kudos to her.

Melissa MacCarthy is Melissa MacCarthy in all her movies. With slight differences in tone here and there. But that's okay. Her success is more about being her true colorful self under varying themes, rather than transforming into various characters.

The movie is set in Boston. The city which was once famous for Good Will Hunting, but nowadays bettter associated with Bill Burr, the greatest comic of our times, who was born and raised there. And we have him in the cast. A small role it may be, but still notable. Having such a legend among the stars is an honor for every movie and TV show.

The Heat could have been more enjoyable if Genocide Rapaport wasn't in it but I guess it'll take another decade for the copyright holders to need to replace his image and sound via AI.

Another downside was the overuse of gore. I think this movie could have been better if sight of blood was avoided. I have no idea why they took that road because it is not a "dark comedy" or something to that effect. It's a cop-themed action comedy after all. One that has (or had) the potential for a sequal, even a streaming show.

Built on the contrast of character between its heroines, The Heat deserves something between a solid 6 and a generous 8.

The film starts off in a promising way as we are introduced to the mind reader. It was ineresting to see how half a century ago landlines could be used to remotely check how a pacemaker was working. But of course, the most engaging asset is the amazingly hot Katharine Ross in her prime.

Though there are discrepancies and bits and pieces of lameness here and there, the story unfolds with notable twists and turns. A murder plan going awry is nothing new but this one gets into some kind of cosmic loop after a point, even at the risk of bordering comedy in an unexpected way.

To be honest, I think Williamson and Link have overdone the plot-within-a-plot thing in this one. Be it a victim or a killer, an all-knowing character hurts such scripts. The final scene was impressive and the overall experience was not bad at all but I doubt the mechanics and the justifications in this one would have hold water in a Columbo episode.

Compared at their great run on Columbo, this is a low bar. But still, it shows the two master writers in question handle things pretty well even when their signature story structure of "showing the murder first" is not at play.

I just wish it were possible to have access to a high resolution version of this. The beauty of Katherine Ross must be more charming than in some low quality YT uploads.

I tend to ignore IMDb scores when choosing what to stream. And I'm glad I ignored the pretty low score for this one because it turned out to be a stylish movie that was really worth a watch.

I have no idea why it was set in the 90s when laptops weren't around and mobile phones looked nothing like they do today. I don't think they went to all that trouble just in order for the story to function, because the way I see it, it CAN function pretty much the same also today. So, there was either something deeply personal, or those behind the decision went for the aura of the 90s, which pays off visually.

The acting was top notch. And the pacing wasn't bad either. I got pleasantly surprised as little turns and twists derailed what I imagined was going to be a small story of betrayal. The ultimate revelation caught me offguard as clues to it were not planted into the earlier parts of the script (great decision! I hate it when movies welcome their own spoilers!) but I think they failed to wrap the whole thing up in the best way possible.

I'm down with a movie changing its genre midway. Heck, I even love it! But the kind and level of undecidedness with the ending did not satisfy me. "Was it even real?" Well, for that question to make sense, there had to be some more solid outcome.

I don't think many people will love this movie. But I also don't think it would be fair to consider it a loss of time. Because it has that weird European feeling to it as Holland, Michigan provides a fresh breath to the very common American Beauty / Desperate Housewives / Revolutionary Road structure.

I'm not saying this is better than those well-known examples of this sub-genre. But it delivers something different along the way, even despite the ambiguity with the end game.