Hot Pursuit: Movie Review

It’s hard not to enjoy Reese Witherspoon in almost anything. She is just so damn likable, even in a lazy and unfunny buddy-comedy like “Hot Pursuit”. Directed by Anne Fletcher (“The Proposal”, “The Guilt Trip”), the film is an endless series of stale jokes and forced comedy that when I would hear audience members laughing at what was happening on screen, I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell they were finding so funny?

Officer Cooper (Witherspoon) has been working in the police evidence locker ever since she set fire to a kid by accident. She has finally been given an assignment out in the field. Cooper must accompany Detective Jackson (Richard T. Jones) to escort Felipe Riva and his wife Danielle (Vergara), so they can testify against cartel leader Vicente Cortez (Joaquin Cosio).

Cooper’s job suddenly becomes much more dangerous when two sets of men barge into the Riva’s house, killing not only Felipe, but also Detective Jackson. Now Cooper is on the run with Daniella, being chased by crooked cops and also the cartel. I can handle Sofia Vergara for 5-8 minutes in your average episode of “Modern Family” but listening to her playing a similar character for about 90 minutes is insufferable. Witherspoon doesn’t fair nearly as badly here but as I said before, she is just hard not to like. I could forgive the paint-by-numbers plot if “Hot Pursuit” managed to be at least somewhat funny, but it doesn’t. Even the blooper reel during the end credits barely got a smile out of me.

By: Marc Ferman