MGM
It’s a common belief in Hollywood that women can’t carry a comedy movie. It took Bridesmaids to change that perception, but female-led comedy buddy movies are still few and far between. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy managed to bring a lot of laughs to their cop comedy The Heat, but McCarthy and Susan Sarandon’s pairing in Tammy was a bit limp. Now we have Reese Witherspoon, an actress not known for delivering a lot of laughs, and Sofia Vergara, who can deliver comedy gold on Modern Family, pairing up as a cop and a witness about to testify against a drug lord in the buddy comedy Hot Pursuit.
The story is fairly straightforward — Daniella Riva (Vergara) and her husband are to be transported to Dallas to testify. Officer Cooper is sent along to escort Mrs. Riva, but two pairs of bad guys show up at the Riva mansion killing Mr. Riva and Cooper’s partner, sending the two women on the run. Police reports are calling both of them fugitives, so it’s up to Cooper to deliver Mrs. Riva to Dallas and clear their names. Hilarity ensues.
All of the funniest moments are in the trailer. tweet
Except hilarity doesn’t ensue. If you’ve seen the trailer or any of the TV commercials, you’d think the movie was going to be a laugh riot. Unfortunately, all of the funniest moments are in those advertisement — along with one of the bloopers show during the credits! As is the case with most of these comedies that include outtakes, those bits end up being the funniest part of the movie. Maybe they should just release a feature film version of all the screw-ups.
Both Witherspoon and Vergara do what they can with what they’re given, and Vergara gets the most laughs with her patented mangling of the English language. Witherspoon’s Cooper also has to get a romantic subplot of her own which really serves no purpose to the story overall. It’s more of a “Convenient Plot Device.” The film’s biggest problem, however, is that if you’ve ever seen a movie with this plot, you will know exactly who all of the bad guys really are. Seriously. They don’t bother to be subtle about it at all, but at least two of them are revealed early on while the identity of a “surprise” co-conspirator should come as no surprise.
There’s also a ridiculous scene where the women end up on a senior bus tour that turns into a car chase complete with gun play, yet all of the seniors on the bus are behaving as if they’re on an amusement park ride! The bus loses its driver, Cooper and Riva try to man the controls while shooting at the bad guys, bullets are flying, the bus is swerving, and no one except the two women are in a panic. I have to tell you, though, many folks at my screening thought the scene was hilarious.
Admittedly, I did laugh a couple of times, mostly at Vergara’s shenanigans, and many in the audience seemed to have had a great time. They say comedy is subjective, and this is certainly one of those examples. It probably also helps if you have not already seen all of the movie’s best bits beforehand. For me, the film was more tepid than hot.
Share this post
