The Heat
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: June 28, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
11
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
NPRJoel ArnoldJun 28, 2013
If The Heat is about more than being a well-oiled delivery system for impressive and effective comedy, it's in part about what it means to be a good cop — including the question of how gender does or doesn't factor into that. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 27, 2013
This is one of the most entertaining movies of the year. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 3, 2013
A good cop/bad cop action comedy with the funniest two-women-above-the-title pairing in memory. Read full review
79
Film.comLaremy LegelJun 27, 2013
A bawdy and belligerent comedy, meant mostly for folks looking for nothing more than to enjoy a few laughs. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJun 28, 2013
The Heat is violent, with some pretty gruesome moments and some questionable police work. That's part of the fun. Cagney and Lacey these two ain't. When they finally join forces, they go rogue with a gusto that is refreshing. Read full review
75
The PlaylistGabe ToroJun 27, 2013
One character dares to open up a debate about sex roles in the workplace; because he does so indelicately, Feig expects you to cheer when he takes a bullet to the head. To his credit, he is correct. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 27, 2013
The Heat is the best female buddy-cop movie since, well, ever. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickJun 27, 2013
The Heat, which provides enough opportunity for wholesale mayhem as well as laughs, is pretty much a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 27, 2013
Don't believe the weak coming-attractions trailer. The inspired pairing of Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy makes for a successful action comedy.
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJun 27, 2013
With Bullock doing a variation on her Miss Congeniality geek-tomboy-who-has-to-bloom character, and McCarthy letting her acidly oddball observations rip, the two actresses make their interplay bubble. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 27, 2013
At its sharpest, The Heat actually moves and banters like a comedy, with sharply timed and edited dialogue sequences driven by a couple of pros ensuring a purposeful sense of momentum. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 27, 2013
After watching the trailers, I was expecting torture, but this smart, subversive movie made me laugh. So shoot me. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 27, 2013
If you’re going to make a dopey, bawdy, foul-mouthed, predictable lady-buddy-cop movie, you might as well make it funny. And until it overstays its welcome in the final half-hour, The Heat is shamefully funny. Read full review
70
The DissolveScott TobiasJul 10, 2013
As a buddy-cop movie, The Heat seems almost deliberately generic, with boilerplate plotting carried across with zero panache. It wagers that McCarthy and Bullock’s comic energy will make all the difference—a smart bet, as it happens. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJun 27, 2013
At times The Heat gets messy, and the comedy is not always pitch perfect. But they're cops. They're enemies. They're friends. They're opposites. It's funny. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 27, 2013
Breaking it down, The Heat has been engineered to deliver the laughs, and the result certainly does, despite coming alarmingly near to botching the procedural elements along the way. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJun 27, 2013
The script's simpleminded shenanigans notwithstanding, the two stars sync up better than their characters do, especially with some rough-and-tumble physical slapstick, resulting in a crude, low-brow audience-pleaser that will hit the funny bones of both performers' fan bases. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianStephen WhittyJun 28, 2013
If the film takes too long to wrap itself up --and hints, predictably, at a sequel -- the funky soundtrack is fun and McCarthy's South Boston relations are a scream. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 27, 2013
When director Paul Feig — who revitalized feminine comedy with "Bridesmaids" — allows McCarthy's improvisational instincts to take over because, honestly, nobody else in the cast can stand up to her. McCarthy is the best thing about The Heat. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJun 26, 2013
More often than not The Heat is just stupid-funny, which circles us back to McCarthy, motor-mouthing four-letter fury like an operatic aria. She sells Mullins as delightfully unhinged and fairly radiating with rage, and it’s irresistible. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 8, 2013
McCarthy is a force of comic nature. And she and Bullock mix it up like pros. In this dead-battery of a movie, these live-wires miraculously ignite sparks. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJun 28, 2013
This profanely hilarious and tonally erratic spoof of buddy movies is funny as it begins in "Miss Congeniality 2" territory, funnier still as it zooms into "Lethal Weapon" climes. But it stops dead, and I mean that literally, when it takes a U-turn into a "Pulp Fiction" sinkhole of slapstick violence. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerJun 27, 2013
With the film, Melissa McCarthy definitively cements her status as a legitimate comic talent, leaving her co-star stumbling behind in her wake. Read full review
60
Total FilmEmma JohnstonJul 19, 2013
Following the buddy-cop handbook to the letter, The Heat is derivative stuff, but McCarthy gives it the kick it needs to keep rolling along. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJun 27, 2013
Scenes go on too long. Jokes outwear their welcome. The plot, though perfunctory (it’s no more complex or intriguing than the average hourlong television crime procedural), gets muddled. Even though McCarthy keeps the laughs coming, The Heat doesn’t really pack enough. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJun 27, 2013
The Heat is kind of a mess, but it’s a funny mess. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichJun 27, 2013
They (Bullock/McCarthy) deserve a much stronger showcase than this Laurel & Hardy Go Policin’ vehicle. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJun 27, 2013
Every foul-mouthed joke [McCarthy] cracks, every unexpected physical gag she underplays, is so funny you forget how often we’ve seen this setup. Or, when it comes to women, how rarely. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 28, 2013
It’s not really such a great achievement to have women cops in the movies acting as boorish and rowdy as their male counterparts, especially since the movie seems designed for a sequel. But then again, what movie these days – or at least this summer – isn’t? Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergJun 26, 2013
Part of the point here is to stake a claim on a genre that’s traditionally been a boys’ club, and in that regard, The Heat delivers: In a bonding moment, this odd couple goes on a bender as epic as anything in "The Hangover." Their enthusiasm with weapons should alarm viewers across all demographics and species. Read full review
50
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 1, 2013
The movie -- too much of it -- is spent testing the boundaries of how loud and obnoxious McCarthy can be. Feig doesn't hand this able comic actress the gift of freedom; he simply gives her enough rope, which isn't nearly the same thing. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 1, 2013
What is the point of making a movie that’s just like the dopiest, broadest and most reductive grade of guy-oriented comedy, except with women? Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJun 27, 2013
If this were funny, The Heat would add up to your average buddy-cop comedy. Except that it’s not funny, at least not very and not often. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 27, 2013
The volatile chemistry between Ms. McCarthy and Ms. Bullock is something to behold, and carries The Heat through its lazy conception and slapdash execution. Read full review
38
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJun 27, 2013
Give it up for Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. You’ll never see them work harder at a comedy than in The Heat, a stumbling, aggressively loud and profane cop buddy picture where they struggle to wring “funny” out of a script that isn’t. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 27, 2013
Bullock and McCarthy and the chemistry they generate are far more compelling than the movie they’re in. Too often the sketches go on too long, and the coarse, abrasive tone quickly begins to feel repetitive and off-putting. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 27, 2013
Grotesque doesn't begin to describe Ms. McCarthy's new character. Scarily insane comes closer; repulsive occasionally applies. Mullins's insanity can be extremely funny from time to time, but her anger grows as punishing for the audience as it does for the victims of her unrestrained police work. Read full review
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