HOT PURSUIT (review)

Review by Caitlyn Thompson

I was sick of Sofia Vergara two seasons of Modern Family ago. And Reese Witherspoon. Come on love, you just wowed us with Wild.

Why?

Why this now? I know I know.  Spring fillers, contracts, blah blah blah.

As I suspected it might, Hot Pursuit is void of plot and sentiment but full of cleavage—a constant gag that gets old after the fourth extreme close-up inside a thirty second period.  The supposed point of the film: Officer Cooper (Witherspoon) must help Mrs. Reva (Vergara), the wife of a mobster, get to Dallas to testify against the notorious leader of a drug cartel.

As the daughter of a renowned cop (whom we never meet), you’d think Cooper (Witherspoon) would be an expert officer instead of a neurotic klutz with zero field talent. And Mrs. Reva (Vergara) could have been given a back-story that rationalized her constant attempts to abandon Cooper’s protection. Witherspoon and Vergara are talented and an amusing pairing, so it’s a shame they were forced to work with such a shitty script and story, if you can call it that.

Hot Pursuit features everything a typical trying-to-be-funny cop movie might have: jumps from windows, awkward interactions with strangers—Jim Gaffigan makes a pointless cameo, car chases (or bus-chase rather), a ridiculous “romance”, and dirty-cop twists.

Yawn.

The film skips along frantically as Cooper continues to speed-recite cop codes and babble endlessly in an annoying southern accent. Witherspoon has done the accent well before (think of Sweet Home Alabama), but in Hot Pursuit, the voice is exaggerated and unintelligent.

And on the subject of accents – Vergara is a smart actress, I’d like to see her rely far less on making her voice as obnoxious as possible for comedic value. It isn’t working. It’s cringe-worthy.

But perhaps that’s what Hot Pursuit is about: how annoying can two smart actresses become?

How many insults can be made about their accents, cleavage, height and age?  

Really? The jokes and jabs are repetitive, stupid, and unnecessary.

Like I said, I can only mention the poor qualities of this film because there is no plot to discuss.

As far as I’m concerned the only good female cop movie is Miss Congeniality—witty script, good cast, doesn’t rely on exaggerated accents for any sort of comedic delivery and it has an entertaining storyline.

Disclaimer: I may or may not be biased as I’m from Rhode Island and we all know Miss RI is the grand winner—if you haven’t seen it, too late.



The best part of Hot Pursuit is the fifty-second blooper reel at the film’s close.

I promise, if director Anne Fletcher had produced an hour and a half of bloopers, she might have had an excellent success under her belt.