THE HEAT Review

The first thing to notice about Paul Feig's "The Heat" is that it's the first female buddy cop since, well, ever. The one disappointing part might be these two, Secret Agent Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) and Officer Mullins (Melissa McCarthy), can't just exist in a world where women in this line of work can be the norm. It's definitely brought up that they're in a man's world. But if any of the guys on the force have anything mysogonistic to say about it -- wise cracks about estrogen and vaginas -- they're always shot down. And sometimes, in the case of one guy, literally shot right in the head. These two over-40 actresses work it and make Paul Feig's follow-up to "Bridesmaids" something to see. The fact that it's easily topping Channing Tatum in a wifebeater ("White House Down") this weekend is a great thing indeed.

A raucuous scene with "Veep"'s Tony Hale soliciting a prostitute introduces us to the crude and relentlessly angry nature of McCarthy's Mullins. She still reigns as this generation's comedic queen, and here she plays a better, hard-edged, more insane version of her identity-stealing Diane from earlier this year's "Identity Thief." She cusses like a sailor and throws punches and insults in equal measure. Here's a woman who stocks her fridge with high-powered weaponry.

Opposite the buttoned-up, uptight professionalism of Ashburn, Mullins is even more of a loose cannon. As expected, the two polar opposite personalities clash immediately -- almost too harshly so for the audience at first. But once the script from Katie Dippold smooths out its rough edges, Bullock and McCarthy emerge with an inspired chemistry making it no wonder a sequel is already in the works.

And while there's hardly comparison to McCarthy's comic energy and timing, Bullock has never been funnier. She reprises a version of her ugly duckling from "Miss Congeniality" eventually learning to loosen up, especially during the obligatory getting drunk together, getting to know each other scene between the two female law enforcers. The actual police procedural (headed by a stern-looking Demian Bichir), gets clunky in its logistics, but that's not what's important here. While there are some comic misfires sprinkled throughout, they mostly deliver the laughs with a fun cast of characters along the way, and Mullins' outrageous Bostonian family that feels like something ripped out of "The Fighter." And as almost an homage to "Bridesmaids" gross-out food poisoning scene, there are moments of shockingly gruesome violence, which actually make for the movie's very funniest parts.

IDENTITY THIEF Review

Melissa McCarthy is the new queen of R-rated comedy. After her raucous bit in last year's "This Is 40," now "Identity Thief" and later this summer "Heat" opposite Sandra Bullock, we'll be seeing a whole lot of her. Unfortunately for this laugher in particular, the movie doesn't do the comic actress justice. The slapstick road movie from director Seth Gordon ("Horrible Bosses") is a fun teaming of McCarthy and Jason Bateman, but it ultimately harkens back to better attempts at the genre.

Bateman plays a mid-level accountant named Sandy Bigelow Patterson whose name, and entire identity, falls victim to McCarthy's female criminal, Diana. She makes a living by stealing people's credit cards, going on wild spending/drinking sprees and committing crimes in other people's names. When the Denver-based Sandy gets arrested for skipping his court hearing in Florida, he knows something isn't right. The cops explain his situation, which also threatens to ruin his job, and the only way to clear his name is to take matters into his own hand by collecting his identity thief from Florida and force a confession out of her.

Commence the road trip. McCarthy inhibits hilarious physical comedy, throwing herself around like a big rag doll. The initial brawl between Sandy and Diana is a hoot as he tries to bring her into his custody. And there are plenty of cameos sprinkled throughout to keep the journey interesting, including Eric Stonestreet as a rowdy cowboy named Big Chuck, Ellie Kemper as a southern belle waitress and Jonathan Banks of "Breaking Bad" as a hardened crook. The side plot of Sandy and Diana being chased by both a bounty hunter and a random pair of hot-headed criminals, however, grows tiresome and increasingly unfunny.

Some of the slapstick comedy later on also gets a little too outrageous, most notably a scene involving a snake in the woods that's downright fake and stupid. The movie is a string of weird encounters in the style of Gordon's Reese Witherspoon/Vince Vaughn holiday flick "Four Christmases." It also channels the Tina Fey/Steve Carrell comedy farce "Date Night" but with lesser results.

"Identity Thief" starts with great momentum, but the script provides meager material for the actors with a lot of gags falling flat. But then it also ends surprisingly well as McCarthy brings a sentimental soul to an otherwise seemingly brute and soulless criminal character. Thank god for her because otherwise the movie would be downright unendurable.

THIS IS 40 Review

Judd Apatow needs to learn to not be afraid of the editing room. Like his "Funny People," his latest personal project is a loose, meandering, messy and bit of an amorphous blob of a comedy. But it's also searing in its honest look at married life, dealing with parents, raising kids, getting older and maintaining a companionship that lasts. And if it takes his sloppy, imperfect style -- rolling, spontaneous, free-flowing improvisational riffs and scenes that sometimes are directionless -- to present us these truths he seeks, then so be it. It's worth it, and "This Is 40" is worth it. No other tighter Hollywood comedies today could squeeze so much out of its characters and show audiences what it's really like and take the risk of swapping out laughs for realness.

I was uncomfortable at first with how much a comedy was making me squirm. There are a lot of fights, a lot of arguments, and I thought to myself, "Well, this isn't very funny." But that's what makes Apatow brave as a filmmaker. He started back with 2007's "Knocked Up" re-envisioning what a comedy could do. He created his own sub-genre of comedy that was mimicked for years; that is until "Bridesmaids" set another new standard. And with this sort-of sequel to "Knocked Up," Apatow has done it again. He's given us a comedy that makes us look at the harsher realities of married life, of hitting that over-the-hill. It's not always pretty, that's for sure, with a lot of the gross-out comedy actually coming from droll everyday moments like having Pete (Paul Rudd) thrusting his legs in the air and wanting Debbie (Leslie Mann) to check for hemorrhoids.

Pete and Debbie we supporting characters, and we saw their marriage was less than perfect. Now, at the center, their marriage is dead in the water. They attempt to explain and negotiate to each other in therapy terms as their counseling has taught them, but they still sound like they want to kill each other. Pete's form of escape is hiding away in the bathroom sitting on the toilet to play Scrabble on his tablet. Debbie becomes obsessed with trying to make changes to the family dynamic: more healthy eating, and less Internet for the kids (played by Apatow and Mann's real life daughters, Maude and Iris get plenty of fun material to play with -- best is the older daughter's obsession with finding out how "Lost" ends).

While trying to be the best parents they can, Pete and Debbie have parent troubles of their own. Pete's dad, Larry (Albert Brooks), is too present in his life always asking for money to help support his younger wife and blonde triplet boys he can't tell apart. Brooks is a comedic cannon and scene-stealer in the fatherly role. Debbie's dad, Oliver (John Lithgow), is on the other end of the spectrum -- not present at all to the point of meeting his granddaughters for the first time. All of their drama comes to a head at a birthday bash where Apatow's loose narrative really packs its punch.

Aside from that, however, the crux of Pete and Debbie's issues stem from their financial problems. But they also live in the likes of Brentwood, Calif. which means they're actually still pretty well-off. It's hard to pity them when you're listening about Debbie's thrift store not breaking even as her hot employee played by Megan Fox might be stealing, or watching as Pete's record label flounders because he's signing has-been groups like Graham Parker (who plays a version of himself in the movie). Aside from the welcomed addition of "Girls" players Lena Dunham and Chris O'Dowd as employees of Pete's, this side of the movie -- which unfortunately takes up a large portion -- just feels like the grumbling of rich people problems.

The laughs are mostly hit-or-miss from all the movie's improvising, but one moment where Pete and Debbie get tangled in the politics of their daughters' school is an absolute knock-out from Melissa McCarthy. She plays a disgruntled mother, Catherine, who has an outrageous, mean-spirited, curse-filled tirade to why Pete and Debbie are horrible people; that is, however, after Debbie just got done unnecessarily yelling at Catherine's son in a moment of parental protection and vulnerability that perfectly captures Mann's character. She's the acting stand-out as a woman, wife and mother who's aggravating, kind, brash, sexy and insecure all in one, and she makes her Debbie breathable, living and oh so true.

18th Annual SAG Award Nominations

The announcement of the 18th Annual Screen Actor Guild Award nominations this morning threw a wrench into things. First and foremost were the snubs for Shailene Woodley for Best Supporting Actress and Albert Brooks for Best Supporting Actor. I'm pressed to say that the the SAGs have it wrong here, and the Academy will not overlook either of them.

The overall lack of love for "Drive" outside of Brooks was a bit surprising considering its prevalence elsewhere.  Also notable was the absolute love for "Bridesmaids" as Melissa McCarthy keeps gathering nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and the movie received a Best Ensemble nomination -- the SAG equivalent of a Best Picture nomination.

Among "Bridesmaids" for Best Ensemble were "The Artist," "Midnight in Paris," "The Descendants" and "The Help." This one will probably end up going to "The Artist" as both Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo received nominations in their respective categories. However, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer made it into their respective categories for "The Help" not to mention Jessica Chastain, as well. It could be a tighter race between the two.

One big surprise came in the Best Actor category which included Demian Bichir for "A Better Life" which baffles me because that film was included in last year's Oscars, which I thought meant the film would not be in contention for any awards this year.

Best Supporting Actor contained some surprises including Jonah Hill for "Moneyball" and Armie Hammer for "J. Edgar." This is also the first time "Albert Nobbs" has received acknowledgement with Glenn Close receiving her Best Actress nod along with Janet McTeer for Best Supporting Actress.

Check out the full list of nominations, and tune in to the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, January 29 at 8 p.m. on TNT and TBS.