Directed by Paul Feig; Starring Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Marlon Wayans, Demián Bichir. 15 cert, 117 min. Released 31st July, 2013 in the UK.

In a nutshell… it’s an easy-going film that brings out both the beauty and the butch…

A female combo that originally looks like water meets fire, later goes together more like cherry and pie. Sandra Bullock plays sour tight-upper-lip FBI Agent Ashburn, who meets Boston cop Mullins, played by Melissa McCarthy, with similar mannerisms to her role in Bridesmaids. (Also directed by Paul Feig) Forced to make it work together, they pair up on a drug case that they’re determined not to let drop. It’s pure chemistry!

To catch their leads, they embrace Ashburn’s unknown female powers by stripping her of her militant formal wear in a nightclub to bug a phone. Though Fieg’s intentions of balancing gender has really been achieved as female masculinity is later restored with them raiding Mullin’s fridge of bullets and ball-blasting weapons. In one scene Mullins fiercely literally threatens to blow off a guy’s testicles. Men squirmed!

Some say this anticipated comedy with an easy plotline is shocking, while the cinema audience laughed up the vulgarity, violence, one profanity after another and the odd squeamish scene with blood. And the soundtrack isn’t half bad. Though as a pre-warning, a sequel sounds a good idea, it would be risky of failure.

Melissa might be a one trick pony playing similar manly characters in other flicks such as Identity Thief where she plays a criminal, but this un-ladylike version of Hot Fuzz proves to be a step forward for two women playing the masculinised leading roles such as foul-mouthed cops, Ashburn and Mullins… 8/10