Hot Pursuit

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I’m having a hard time writing anything about this movie because it really didn’t make an impression. If you don’t have what it takes to be good, then at least have the decency to be bad, and mean it. This one just kind of meanders along the line of blandly okay when it’s not veering too close to annoying (or god forbid, racial caricature), but I did, in all honesty, stumble upon some genuine giggles along the way, so not without merit, but mostly meritless.

Actually, if you mention the title to almost anyone, the reply more than half the time is “Which one is that?” And that’s about all the review you need. It’s forgettable. It follows the formula HARD and colours within the lines even harder. Shotpursuitean and I went for drinks before this movie, and when the waitress asked what we were seeing, she responded “Oh, the Cameron Diaz one with that Latino woman?”. Yup, that’s the one.

I wanted to like this movie; you want to like this movie; we all want to get on board. How often does a movie starring women get produced and directed by them as well? This one does, but instead of celebrating it we’re all just kind of looking at our shoelaces.

It’s awkward when a likeable star fails. Reese showed real comedic chops when she did Elle in Legally Blonde, or even better: Tracy Flick in Election. She has an Oscar and her own production company so what the heck is she doing saying yes to a barely mediocre script (a script trying to ride on the coat tails of barely mediocre The Heat) in a vaguely offensive movie?

hot-pursuit-reese-witherspoon-sofia-vergaraReese is charming, and even appears to be having fun, but Sofia Vergara isn’t quite up to the task. Poor woman only has one speed, and without the wit of Modern Family, it starts to feel like Latina parody rather than an actual character. I never got the appeal of Vergara. She looks like a drag queen to me, with everything dialed constantly up to 11. Opposite Reese it’s even more vulgar, and the one-notedness more glaring and irritating.

Hot Pursuit is entirely missable. Full steam ahead to Mad Max: Fury Road and please baby Cheesus let it be good.

20 thoughts on “Hot Pursuit”

    2. Jay Post author

      Just have the right expectations: it’s a light, unthinking comedy that retreads what’s been done before but if you love Reese, there’s plenty of charm there to see you through.

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  9. killkenny16

    This is the most positive review of this movie I’ve seen, and even this one isn’t that complementary. I think I’ll just rewatch Ultron this week and sit tight ’til Fury Road.

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  10. diahannreyes

    This movie definitely has not been on my must watch radar. I read an interesting article about Vergara that explains why she chooses the characters that she does. With Witherspoon I wonder if she was wanting to explore a different character than her usual- perhaps this was her attempt at what Bullock/McCarthy did with their movie a couple of years back? Or a case of a film falling apart in the editing room- not sure. I’m hoping Pitch Perfect 2 is a winner.

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  11. Carrie Rubin

    So um, yeah, went and saw this. Quite the stinker. Had they dialed everything down a few notches (and decibels), it might have been better. But that’s a big ‘might.’

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  12. Myerla

    I know the feeling of a film where there’s nothing to say, it’s really hard to write a review about such a film. It also sounds like the type of film that you’ve forgotten you’ve watched within twenty minutes of leaving the cinema.

    I only know Sofia Vergara from random clips of Saturday Night Live (or some chat show. I’m not from the US so I would not really watch it) and she seems rather annoying.

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