By Bob Garver<\/p>\n
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\u201cHot Pursuit\u201d is a witless action comedy opening in the enormous shadow of \u201cAvengers: Age of Ultron.\u201d Its appeal is based solely on being the only new game in town. Its box office is going to drop off a cliff as soon as it has fresh competition, which is fine because it doesn\u2019t deserve even the mild success that it\u2019s enjoying at the moment.<\/p>\n
The film stars Reese Witherspoon as Cooper, a disgraced cop with a chance at redemption. She\u2019s assigned to protect Daniella Riva (Sofia Vergara), the wife of a cartel snitch. The Riva house is compromised, the husband is killed, and Cooper and Mrs. Riva have to go on the run until they can get her into proper protective custody. This is a buddy\/road movie, one where the two leads don\u2019t like each other at first, but they form a begrudging friendship and then that friendship is tested.<\/p>\n
For a throwaway comedy, the film is surprisingly heavy on plot. There are two competing teams of assassins after Cooper and Riva. Allegiances keep flip-flopping around. And Riva lies so much we wonder if she\u2019s ever told the truth. For all I know she isn\u2019t even Columbian, she\u2019s Scandinavian.<\/p>\n
What can I say about the humor in the film that isn\u2019t in the trailer? Riva is loudmouthed and materialistic, Cooper is by-the-book and socially awkward (and short, as we\u2019re relentlessly reminded). They bicker a lot without developing any real rapport, they only end up as friends because the plot requires them to save each other. They outsmart the male bad guys by being only moderately dumb while the men are astoundingly dumb. Here\u2019s how dumb the average male is in this movie: Cooper is able to sneak into girl\u2019s birthday party by convincing security that she\u2019s Justin Bieber. It\u2019s a mildly funny, though cheap laugh to see Witherspoon dressed up as Bieber, and if I were one of the guards I would compliment her on her costume, but there\u2019s no way she\u2019s passing for the real thing.<\/p>\n
Actually, the one bit in \u201cHot Pursuit\u201d that does work is one that isn\u2019t in the trailer. It\u2019s the opening montage of Cooper growing up riding in the back of her father\u2019s police cruiser. The sequence is funny and sweet and I wish the rest of the film had as much heart. The bumbling Cooper that we see in the rest of the film is practically an entirely different character, played by Witherspoon in an annoying performance that is sure to make Academy voters rethink her Oscar. I\u2019ll say the same thing about \u201cHot Pursuit\u201d that I\u2019ve said about most of the painful comedies I\u2019ve seen lately: I laughed just barely enough to keep from absolutely despising it, but there\u2019s no denying that it\u2019s a bomb.<\/p>\n
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One and a Half Stars out of Five<\/p>\n
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A Note on Star Ratings<\/p>\n
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I would like to take this opportunity to clarify my star rating system. There is no need to convert the star ratings to percentages and then convert the percentages to academic letter grades. For example, although One and a Half Stars is 30% of Five Stars, that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m flunking \u201cHot Pursuit\u201d at 30%. If you feel more comfortable converting my star ratings to letter grades, please use the following system:<\/p>\n
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Five Stars \u2013 A+<\/p>\n
Four Stars \u2013 A<\/p>\n
Three Stars \u2013 B<\/p>\n
Two Stars \u2013 C<\/p>\n
One Star \u2013 D<\/p>\n
Zero Stars (which I\u2019ve never used, as I\u2019m saving it for something truly vile) \u2013 F<\/p>\n
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At One and a Half Stars, \u201cHot Pursuit\u201d straddles the line between C and D. Call it a C-. It\u2019s just above the Dreadful D\u2019s, but hardly a source of pride.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHot Pursuit\u201d is rated PG-13 for sexual content, violence, language and some drug material. Its running time is 84 minutes.<\/p>\n
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