The only novelty in this buddy-cop comedy is that both partners are women. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy are the leads, one a by-the-book New York FBI agent with a reputation for smugness, the other a potty-mouthed Boston street cop who bullies suspects and superiors alike. No points for guessing who plays who. Forced together by circumstance, they’re trying to catch a drug dealer, and all credit to anyone who after seeing this, can remember much more of the plot than that. Since Boston has lately become a geographical representation of keepin’ it real (see Mystic River, The Town, The Departed, Gone Baby Gone), that’s where the action takes place. (Here, real should be understood as “working class/unpretentious” rather than “realistic,” which it ain’t.) It comes from director Paul Feig, best known for the overrated (but superior) Bridesmaids, and screenwriter Katie Dippold, best known for her work on the (far superior) sitcom Parks and Recreation
McCarthy, as she did in Bridesmaids, plays another out-of-control character (though not necessarily a similar one), but in this movie that makes her the heroine rather than the comic foil. Here, threatening suspects always gets truthful intelligence (and is always the best way to do so), and adultery (albeit with a prostitute) is an offense punishable via extrajudicial means. Not merely distasteful, the movie also isn’t that funny, though McCarthy makes the most of the material. Feig mixes and matches scenes in which the women clash and scenes in which they bond, including the standard get-blackout-drunk-together scene. Villains come and go. An albino character is also on hand for the purpose of being mocked. At some point, both women are about to be tortured, but there’s no feeling that they’re scared, because there are no real feelings here. Nor is the way they get out of it especially original, believable, or surprising.
There is nothing truly awful about the comedy here. The set pieces can be funny when they don’t feel forced. However, besides being an excellent argument for drug legalization, this is a pretty pointless and truly formulaic Lethal Weapon retread.
viewed 5/23/13 7:30 pm [PFS screening] and reviewed 5/24/13
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