Review of Hot Pursuit (2015) by Greg B — 10 May 2015

"Hot Pursuit" is a buddy-style comedy about an uptight police officer (Reese Witherspoon) who forms an unlikely friendship with a woman who she is supposed to keep safe in witness protection (Sofia Vergara).

Vergara's character is a key federal witness in a case against a cartel lord, and both members of the cartel and dirty cops want her and Witherspoon dead. While I didn't find this to be Witherspoon's best role, there is good chemistry between her and Vergara, as they try to outwit each other at every turn.

The main reason why I dock this movie is the flimsy, paper-thin script. There is not much to be had from the source material, but I feel the leads do the best they can given the almost non-existent script.

Critics have panned the movie as "un-funny." While I partially agree that some of the jokes could have been written a bit wittier, I found the dynamic between Witherspoon and Vergara to be natural rather than forced.

They both are such different actresses that I thought the film would fall flat on its face, but it really didn't. This is actually a very average, watchable film. Some of the humor feels forced, but not the point of detracting from the film.

I thought there were many generic plot clichés, but nothing to drop this film into the failing category. Overall, a nice buddy cop film about two misfit characters who come together for a common purpose ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- C+.