Hot Pursuit

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara, Matthew Del Negro, Jim Gaffigan, Michael Mosley, Robert Kazinsky, Richard T. Jones, John Carroll Lynch, Mike Birbiglia
Directed by: Anne Fletcher
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Comedy
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A cop (Reese Witherspoon) must protect the widow (Sofia Vergara) of a drug kingpin so she can serve as a witness.

Review:

Tim: Hot Pursuit has the dishonor of being one of the worst movies I've seen in a very long time. It's an absolute trainwreck from start to finish. I don't know where this film first went off the rails, but it's a total mess. This is one of the dumbest, most unfunny comedies I have seen in years.

The basic idea of teaming up Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara seems like a good one- they couldn't be more dissimilar. The pairing must have had a The Heat vibe to it (Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy). It's an intriguing premise and it caused me to want to check this out. I suppose there is some small pleasure to be had in seeing this buddy comedy with these two very different women. However, whatever benefits emerge from these two are buried beneath the unfunny film.

That happens to be my biggest complaint about this movie- it's not funny in the least. The jokes all fall flat. Witherspoon and Vergara are trying way too hard and everything comes across as forced. It's a film that has no intelligence to its jokes, instead relying on the lowest common denominator film making. I can't fathom how anyone would find this film funny or entertaining. My wife usually likes these kinds of movies and she gave up 20 minutes in. That's a damning statement right there. I wanted to give up, too, but I watch movies and record them, so I suffered through the entire 1 hour, 27 minute run time. I got almost no enjoyment from my efforts. There was nothing exciting, nothing really unexpected. This is a predictable, disposable film. It's really, really bad.

Hot Pursuit really doesn't offer anything new or unique. It basically rips off a dozen other movies and pales in comparison to all of them. Director Anne Fletcher has made some solid movies, so I'm not sure what went so horribly wrong here- perhaps the script was so terrible there was no getting around it. It almost felt like everyone involved thought, "We have Witherspoon and Vergara- people will line up to see these two, so there's no use in trying to make a good movie." Honest to God, I can't imagine how many missed opportunities there were to make this film better. None of them were seized, for sure.

I could go on, but I don't want to waste any more of my time. Comedies are supposed to be funny and Hot Pursuit fails miserably in that endeavor. This film wasn't entertaining or fun, it was a total and complete waste of my time. I hated it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 3



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Proposal, The Heat