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
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