I love Sandra Bullock – I think she’s an awesome actress. I also loved her in Miss Congeniality where she places the “tough” FBI agent turned “beauty pageant queen”… I relate to her. I loved her in Blind Side.
The Heat – Sandra Bullock & Melissa McCarthy
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
The Heat is her latest movie and she teams up with the one and only Melissa McCarthy (who I know and love as Sookie St James from the Gilmore Girls). McCarthy plays tough Boston Detective, Shannon Mullins – foul mouthed, quick tempered but she gets the job done. Bullock plays the smart, savvy but socially naive FBI agent, Sarah Ashburn. These ladies ROCK THIS MOVIE.
“The Heat” follows the typical Hollywood “buddy-cop” formula – high strung or high performing officer teamed with a seeming deadbeat. Despite their differences, the two officers go after and beat the “bad guy” and become friends. What’s different, is that the two cops are female and they don’t spend the entire movie talking about their men or their love lives… According to Women’s Agenda, this movie crushes the Bechdel Test (a “gender bias” test that asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man).
I found it interesting that both women were confronted by the typical “stereotypes” that most women are. Ashburn (Bullock) is a smart, savvy investigator who takes profiling to the next level – and is reviled by her male counterparts for it. OK, OK, maybe she’s a little cocky about it – but it doesn’t change that if a bloke behaved as she did, he would probably be congratulated for it… not so for Ashburn, so snide comments made by the males on a crime scene about “imagine being married to that” or similar. For Mullins (McCarthy), she has terrorised her Captain into compliance but that doesn’t stop the rude and debasing comments from others in the precinct… For me, it hit home – as a woman you have to be twice as good to be considered half as good. The way the movie addresses this, is very very good.
Overall, it’s a good movie. In the audience tonight, there were titters; guffaws and outright belly laughs…. from all ages. Just the right mix of humour and action and a decent level of predictability where the scene is carried off well.
I’m still amazed at what a physical actress Sandra Bullock is – she uses physical stunts in such a great comedic way.
Well worth the watch – and one for all young women to see… it’s cool to be tough and you definitely do not need a man to help you ‘make it’.
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