Hot Pursuit – Movie Review

Hot Pursuit – PG-13
Release Date: Fri 08 May 2015

Reese Witherspoon plays Cooper, a by-the-book cop relegated to working evidence after making a rookie mistake on the job. She is given a security detail by her boss to help a US Marshall escort a money launderer and his wife Riva (Sofia Vergara) to Dallas to testify against his cartel boss. Things fall apart quickly, and Cooper and Riva are stuck together unsure who to trust as they try to avoid the cartel men and some dirty police.

Hot Pursuit is a 90’s-style buddy comedy much like Nothing To Lose. We have two main characters from opposites sides of the law and the border. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make for much in the way of originality and the story is telegraphed from the first ten minutes. There are a few moments that spark for a joke or two, but there’s never a full scene that delivers wall-to-wall laughs. Nearly half of Riva’s jokes are about how Cooper is short and looks like a man. Are we supposed to be so dazzled by Sofia Vergara that we forget that the other character is Reese Witherspoon?

There’s nothing memorable – good or bad – about Hot Pursuit. Like The Heat and other comedies before it, it puts two characters of a single, opposing dimension together to try and get the conflict and the teamwork to entertain. Witherspoon and Vergara are talented actresses and everyone seems to be doing the best they can. The result is a dated but pleasant enough movie provided you check your brain at the door.

Aaron and I saw it in the theater and had a discussion in the car: