Hot Pursuit sees the team up of Reese Witherspoon and Sophia Vergara, who sadly waste most of their chemistry on a tired, unsurprising script. Witherspoon plays petite police officer Cooper while Vergara plays Daniella Riva, the wife of a criminal who must be transported across the state of Texas to testify against a drug kingpin.
We get the usual tropes here. Officer Cooper grew up always wanting to be a cop but can't get out of her own head long enough to be a good cop or figure out how to date. She's so high-strung that she recites police codes to calm herself down. Daniella on the other hand only wears the most fashionable clothes and only wants to escape from Cooper so she doesn't have to testify and end up dead like her husband.
As much as I individually appreciate the comedic chops of both Witherspoon and Vergara, I did not expect much from this film. And I'm glad I didn't. Hot Pursuit is pure fluff and the jokes never try too hard. Hijinks ensue on the road, from pushing each other out of gas station bathroom windows to reluctantly making out with each other to avoid being turned over to the police. Vergara and Witherspoon have some solid chemistry and of course their physical differences are great joke fodder. Vergara's tall and her clothes are tight while Witherspoon's dowdy police uniform only emphasize how short she is. Unsurprisingly, an attractive, scruffy criminal (played by Robert Kazinsky) shows up in their travels and ends up hitting it off with Cooper, much to Daniella's amusement.
Possibly the smartest thing about Hot Pursuit is that it's only 87 minutes long. Clearly, this movie wasn't intended to break any boundaries. Still, even with its lackluster jokes and predictable hijinks, the short run time and the chemistry between Vergara and Witherspoon make it watchable. Maybe don't go see it in theaters but when it finally pops up on TBS on a Sunday, it's a great movie to have on in the background.
