Review: ‘Hot Pursuit’ offers cheap laughs, recycled storyline, not much else

Posted on May 15, 2015

By MARK VIOLA

The latest comedy to hit theaters is “Hot Pursuit,” starring Reese Witherspoon (“Wild”) as uptight Texas cop Cooper, who is tasked with protecting Daniella Riva (Sofía Vergara, “Modern Family), the wife of a drug cartel lieutenant about to testify against his boss.

Did the movie make me laugh?  Sure. Did the movie ever make me feel like it was actually putting anything beyond the tiniest effort into trying to make me laugh? Not really.

From the jokes and the storyline to the seemingly endless parade of outlandish situations Cooper and Daniella find themselves in, everything about “Hot Pursuit” feels like the writers and director went with the easiest answer each and every time. Coupled with a plot that is already recycled several times over, and you get a comedy that offers nothing new and doesn’t even bother to put a decent polish on the old.

Witherspoon and Vergara try their best, and do make more with the script than others might, but the pair never really develops the on-screen chemistry this kind of unlikely buddy comedy needs.

Ultimately, “Hot Pursuit” is full of cheap laughs and even when they do make you chuckle, it still doesn’t feel like the movie earned them.

The movie is rated PG-13 for sexual content, violence, language and some drug material.

(This is a shortened version of the full review available in our printed or e-edition papers.)

 

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