Tough Girls

A stellar track record and an almost unnatural commitment to her job have FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) hoping that her long-awaited promotion is coming soon. But instead of promoting her, her boss (Demian Bichir) first sends her to Boston, where Sarah, hated by her colleagues, is to prove her ingenious sleuthing skills one last time. Because a powerful drug lord is up to no good there, and the FBI doesn't even know what he looks like. But in order to identify the villain and break his ring, Sarah must work with, of all people, hulking cop Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy). The women, who couldn't be more opposite, clash constantly at the beginning, which even includes fisticuffs. But as the investigation hits Shannon's personal circle, the perpetually cursing cop and the overly-correct FBI agent grow closer, showing the Boston underworld what tough girls are capable of.

Following the huge success of his comedy Bride Alert, director Paul Feig once again puts a couple of tough girls at the center of the action in his latest film. After Melissa McCarthy's supporting role as a redneck bridesmaid made her the secret star of Bride Alarm, Feig has unceremoniously promoted her to leading lady this time around. Alongside Sandra Bullock, whose character evokes memories of her hit film Miss Undercover, especially at the beginning, McCarthy is once again allowed to ignore any form of good manners. Again, that in itself is very funny. But the problem is that she seems to have been subscribed to very similar roles (Totally Ripped Off, Hangover 3, Trouble With 40) since Bride Alarm. And so her performance here feels like just another variation, lacking any element of surprise or even a certain freshness that would certainly have done this comedy some good.

Sure, the clash of the completely opposite characters that Bullock and McCarthy embody makes for some very funny moments. Still, Paul Feig fails to build up a consistently high entertainment factor, as the scenes that are genuinely fun are almost completely crowded out by very flat gags, minor extraneous moments and, most importantly, unnecessarily drawn-out sequences. It's especially unfortunate that some scenes start out really good and funny, but are then ridden to death to such an extent that they just end up being annoying.

But the fact that the film works quite decently in the end is due, in addition to the few successful laughs, especially to the good chemistry of the charming leading ladies, on which Feig is able to build a few very amusing moments. Also, the fact that here set pieces of the classic buddy cop movies are presented in a female variant, which leads especially in the interrogation of a suspect to a really delightful punchline, gives the comedy a certain charm, from which even the weaker moments can benefit.

So, on balance, the successful and the less funny scenes are more or less balanced. So Taffe Mädels could have turned out much better, but also much weaker. A nice, sometimes a bit silly comedy with likeable leading actresses, which lovers of simpler US comedies can definitely enjoy. For all those who lacked shootouts in Bride Alarm, well worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp