Hot Pursuit (3/10): Not so hot after all

“He is known as the Bank of Bogota, the Tender Tender, the Lender Lender, the Money Launderer, El Chapo, the Pork Chop.”

There are films where the producers and everyone involved in the making of the movie seem to demand that its audience shut down their brain in order to simply enjoy the movie and have fun with it, and then there are movies like Hot Pursuit where it’s simply imposible to experience any pleasure from it no matter how long you’ve shut down your brain for. Hot Pursuit is the definition of lazy film making where every character is a stereotype and all the jokes seem to revolve around the same concepts: white southern girls are flat and uptight, while latinas are loud, busty and aggressive. There is not much more to this film that only stands out because it stars two females in the lead roles. We’ve all been asking for more substantial roles for females so it is always a delight to see a film like this highlighting two females as the main stars. Unfortunately the script lacks ideas and the comedy falls completely flat which doesn’t help the feminist case at all. 

The film stars two extremely talented and funny actresses, but the script completely handcuffs them and there isn’t anything they can do to save the movie. If you want to have fun go watch Sofia Vergara in any episode of Modern Family and I guarantee you that you will get more laughs out of it. Reese Witherspoon was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year for her performance in Wild where she was outstanding, but if she’s not careful she might end up turning into the next Cameron Diaz who tries so hard to be funny that she only ends up being annoying. If you want to see Witherspoon giving a fun performance then check out Legally Blonde or Election which were the two films that put her on the radar. Vergara and Witherspoon are funny actresses so on papers this seemed like an interesting project, but here they aren’t given any opportunity to shine.

The premise of the film is pretty simple: Cooper (Reese Witherspoon) is an uptight cop who takes the law seriously. Her boss asks her to escort a key witness who is going to testify against an important drug cartel leader. The witness is Daniella Riva (Sofia Vergara). Things don’t go as expected as several corrupt cops and drug dealers try to prevent the two women from reaching their destination. There are also some twists along the way that really don’t add much to the comedy. The film is an excuse to put the two talented females together, but the screenwriters managed to take away whatever magic the two actresses might have had together. Hot Pursuit might be one of the frontrunners for this year’s Razzies for its lack of imagination and being such a missed opportunity.