Hot Pursuit

What do you get when you bring together two actresses whose careers developed almost completely opposite of each other? Well, if they're Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, you get "Hot Pursuit" (PG-13, 1:27). Vergara's early acting gigs included several dramatic roles, but she's had her greatest successes in comedies. Witherspoon's career worked out the other way around. Known in recent years primarily for dramatic films, such as her Oscar-nominated role in "Wild" (2014) and her Oscar-winning turn in "Walk the Line" (2005), her early career was dominated by comedies. Before she got all serious on us, Witherspoon starred in the "Legally Blonde" movies (2001 and 2003), "Sweet Home Alabama" (2002) and "Election" (1999) – with two of those movies earning her Golden Globe nominations. Sofia Vergara doesn't have as many films under her bustier as Witherspoon, but she's definitely made her mark on screens big and small. Earlier in her career she found herself in deadly serious fare like "The 24th Day" (2004), "Four Brothers" (2005) and TV's "Dirty Sexy Money" (2007), but she really hit her stride in comedies. Her appearance in "Machete Kills" (2013) was an over-the-top hoot and, of course, she has been honing her craft on TV's "Modern Family" since 2009. Regardless of their previous roles, having two talented and beautiful actresses in the same film is bound to make it hot… but is it worth pursuing?

Witherspoon's character, Rose Cooper, literally grew up in her dad's San Antonio police cruiser and she wanted to be just like him. She did become a cop, but her overzealous nature alienated her from other officers and led to one big mistake that landed her evidence room duty in her police precinct. Vergara's character, Daniella Riva, is the wife of a drug cartel lieutenant who has agreed to testify against his boss, drug kingpin Vicente Cortez (Joaquin Cosio). Naturally, this arrangement puts a huge target on the backs of the Rivas. Cooper's police captain (John Carroll Lynch) gives her a chance to redeem her once promising career when he assigns her to help escort Mr. and Mrs. Riva to Dallas, where they are to testify. One thing leads to another and cop Cooper and diva Riva end up on the run from the cartel and crooked cops, as the pair are forced to depend on each other if they're going to get to Dallas safely.

The odd-couple pairing of Cooper and Riva is played for a lot of laughs – and a bit of drama. There are running jokes about Cooper's lack of height and overabundance of neurotic behaviors, as well as Riva's sex appeal and tough, but aloof attitude. The characters' many differences give writers David Feeney and John Quaintance and director Anne Fletcher plenty of options for comedy and they seem to explore them all. The director and her stars give us some great sight gags and physical comedy, the writers give us a lot of funny lines and situations, and the plot throws us a couple curve balls that result in a third act that is equally dramatic and humorous. Witherspoon's performance is reminiscent of Sandra Bullock's characters in her cop comedies, but sweeter and funnier. Vergara is basically playing a close cousin of Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, but what works for her in her sitcom, works in this movie. "Hot Pursuit" may well be Witherspoon's best comedy to date and Vergara is nearly as funny in this film as she is on TV. These two actresses may have arrived at this comedy by way of very different roads, but I, for one, am glad they got there. The characterizations of Cooper and Riva are a little uneven and the plot is not terribly original, but the movie entertains. This may not be the hottest film in theaters this spring as it pursues the likes of the newest "Fast and Furious" and "Avengers" movies, but it is worth catching. "B+"

It was so bad I couldn't force myself to watch it. Horrid.

I saw some brief videos on Instagram of this movie on some movie pages I follow. It looked really good and comical. 30 minutes into watching it I turned it off. Nothing about this movie was funny or practical. The "police work" was so bad an unrealistic. Nothing about this movie was funny. All the actors and actresses did nothing but annoy me. How anyone could rate this higher than 3 is beyond me.

I honestly had high hopes going into watching this movie bc of both sofia and reese. but the jokes and dialogue were so bad. it was very unfunny movie.

Sofia Vergara and Reese Witherspoon in one movie, sounds like an exciting combo that calls for a celebration. But when an uninspired and lazy script is employed to run the party, the celebration is surely ruined even before it begins.

There is nothing in HOT PURSUIT worth pursuing, and to even try to follow it screechingly run for its pursuit, warrants a mortifying disappointment. This a serious downgrade for both actresses, and it's hard to imagine how dumb the film makers have gone by putting them up to work against an almost empty material.

Witherspoon is an inept police named Cooper, and tries to work all by-the-book. She's assigned to protect the widow (Vergara) of a drug syndicate boss. From the get go, there's nothing between these two that could be summed up to something that bears resemblance to chemistry. It's a ridiculous idea, not just because it doesn't seem to work at the very beginning, but also because of the movie's relentless attempts to make something out of them than can be sensible. Vergara and Witherspoon play characters that are nothing more than predictable and miserably-written. Where these characters are mined, are the same territory where countless other successful comedy outings found their material. But they serve no purpose and do no favor for the performers, as the very structure of the narrative is lazily constructed and uninspired. The result are characters that are too hard to care about. I know a few of these buddy comedies that are never less entertaining, and while it's not totally a bad idea to follow their leads, Hot Pursuit has just horribly failed to trail even the least satisfying entry of the genre. You can't blame the actors, totally, because there is barely something from such bad writing, for them to work out, in the first place. Everything seems misplaced here, the characters, the humor, and all those messed-up action scenes. You would hope for a more sensible ending to come and save it from all those mess, but no, what comes in the end, is only something to top that heap of nonsense and mediocrity. HOT PURSUIT is too lazy and uninspired to be worth a chuckle, that unless you're only up for killing time, there's nothing in it that's worth of recommendation.