HOT PURSUIT DVD (2015)

SYNOPSIS: An uptight and by-the-book cop (Reese Witherspoon) tries to protect the sexy and outgoing widow (Sofia Vergara) of a drug boss as they race through Texas pursued by crooked cops and murderous gunmen.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Inbetween her Oscar worthy roles in Walk the Line and Wild lies some forgettable, embarrassing performances liked Four Christmases and This Means War. And now you can proudly add in Hot Pursuit.

As to why there is Hot Pursuit, you must first understand where Reese Witherspoon is coming from. She wanted to push for more female driven material in an industry where the males dominate and the movie is produced under her outfit, Pacific Standard, a very alpha malecentric name I must add.

And because of this noble reason, viewers have to endure 87 minutes of Witherspoon and the sexy Colombian actress Sofia Vergara (Modern Family, Chef) in a very grating comedy where everyone from the police to the mafia, pursues their characters.

Witherspoon stars as an uptight cop, Cooper who is being assigned to protect a federal witness, Daniella Riva (Vergara), the widow of a drug boss. And because it’s set out to be a female road trip comedy with action, the duo spends the entire running time screaming at each other with Vergara in rapid-fire Spanish mode, a nonsensical car chase in the middle and a subplot about corrupt cops. 

The Heat is very much an odd-couple, lowbrow comedy which works pretty well. Hot Pursuit attempts to imitate the formula but fails miserably. There’s a constant running gag about Riva’s age that plays well initially but kind of get stale by the third one. And every sight gag seems to point back to Vergara’s boobs and body. Witherspoon’s Cooper character is actually more annoying than funny and to make things worse, jokes about her height just keep on coming. Come on, Witherspoon and Vergara can do better than this complete hot mess.

I guess director Anne Fletcher (The Proposal) and writers David Feeney and John Quaintance ought to shoulder the blame at the end. Honestly, there’s only so much the actors can do on screen. All those shrill cries and scream simply can’t cover an incompetent script.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Womance is a fluffy 3 minutes feature that showcased how much fun the cast and crew is having. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Hot Pursuit looks decent on DVD nothing particularly impressive or bugging about the visuals. Aside from a few scenes which feature loud gunshots and directional sound effects, the audio quality is good enough for an 87 minutes of shrill and scream. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee