Director: Anne Fletcher

Cast: Sofía Vergara, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Kazinsky, Richard T. Jones, Evaluna Montaner, Michael Mosley, Matthew Del Negro, John Carroll Lynch

Rating: 12A

Running Time: 87 mins 

Release Date: July 31st, 2015

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before; two mismatched people, brought together by unexpected events, are forced to travel cross country with each other despite their differences and mutual hatred of one another. One is a straight laced figure who takes themselves way too seriously and the other is a sporadic troublemaker. HOT PURSUIT is an overdone premise just from its plot outline alone and while the film coasts along on its brisk running time, thankfully ending as quickly as it started, it’s an exercise in lazy comedy, going for the most painfully obvious jokes that no matter how much the film drags them out for, don’t get any funnier.

Reese Witherspoon plays Cooper, a cop who has to protect the widow of a drug boss in Texas, while being pursued by the police and other gangsters. Sofia Vergara plays the widow, Daniella. Both actresses have proven themselves adept at comedy so it’s frustrating to see them both so wasted in a film that should have been able to draw out any kind of chemistry from the two of them. While Witherspoon’s endearing personality makes for a likable lead, Vergara is shrill, unfunny and loud, shouting every single punchline or dialogue out of her mouth as quickly as possible. It’s an odd mix of a capable actress playing the same role she’s done before only just without good writing to back her up, as she essentially plays her character from MODERN FAMILY. So instead we’re left with a caricature of half written jokes, most of them relying on her accusing someone of racism, cause, you know, she’s Colombian and it’s funny? You can’t decide whether you’re suppose to actually take this character and what she says seriously or whether these are just jokes that don’t land.

It’s a shame that the film feels so lazy and uninspired because there are hints that if just a little effort had been put in then this could have been an above average comedy, especially with the two comedic leads. There’s a good reoccurring gag about the newscasters getting Cooper and Daniella’s respective height and age wrong and one sequence, involving the two having to hide inside a fake deer, is so absurd and outlandish that it was just pure goofy fun to see two grown women having to pretend to be a deer, complete with trying to replicate the noise a deer makes. If the film had aimed higher like that sequence than at least it could be commended for trying.

Unfortunately, HOT PURSUIT suffers from a lack of originality and jokes that have no punchline. Not from a lack of trying – the film feels too safe and held back, perhaps due to the safe 12A rating and while you might chuckle at the odd joke here and there, you’ll instantly forget why.

Verdict

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