2015 is going to be the summer of female driven comedies and I'm looking forward to it. Unfortunately the first of these offerings was a huge miss.
Reese Witherspoon plays Cooper, a hyper active, OCD police officer with the San Antonio police department according to her police uniform. Relegated to a post in the evidence room, she is clearly the underdog as evidenced by the sexist comments of her male colleagues. When a known drug smuggler has agreed to testify against the head of a large Mexican drug cartel, Cooper is summoned to accompany a DEA lieutenant to retrieve said witness and his wife Daniella, played by Sofia Vergara, and escort them to Dallas. The mission of retrieving the Rivas doesn't go as planned and hence the 'Hot Pursuit' of Cooper and Mrs.Riva ensues.
Sofia Vergara is quickly becoming an objectified one note character. Her character Danielle Riva in 'Hot Pursuit' could be a doppelganger for Gloria from the much loved 'Modern Family'sitcom. Expressing herself in screams and barking orders to Cooper, Vergara is not showing us any other side to her acting that we haven't already seen. She constantly reminds us of her Colombian heritage and many of the jokes written for her are built around her Latin savoir faire.
Witherspoon, who has already shown audiences her acting talents in films like 'Mud' and 'Wild' garners no affection from the audience in this role. At times Cooper seems to be dialing in some of her 'Sweet Home Alabama' appeal and doesn't come close to actually pulling it off.
The jokes in large part aren't nearly as funny as you might think from the marketing on the trailers. The movies tropes around in all the typical gender stereotypes of two women traveling with one another. This is lowbrow comedy at its finest.
There are sequences in the film that feel like they've been directly plucked out of other films. One of the sequences in the third act feels like a total remake of an ending sequence from Sister Act involving multiple look alike extras that disrupt a chase scene. You could also make similar comparisons of 'Hot Pursuit' to other films such 'Tommy Boy', 'Thelma & Louise', 'The Heat','Identity Thief', 'The Road Trip' and 'We're the Millers'. Suffice to say, very little originality or anything novel is offered.
I've already been fortunate enough to see Melissa McCarthy's 'Spy'(June 5) and Amy Schumer's 'Trainkwreck'(July 17) and I have heard positive reviews from people who have seen Pitch Perfect 2 (May 15). Trust me when I say the best is yet to come. My advice is to wait and catch up with this movie later down the road when you can rent it.
Reese Witherspoon plays Cooper, a hyper active, OCD police officer with the San Antonio police department according to her police uniform. Relegated to a post in the evidence room, she is clearly the underdog as evidenced by the sexist comments of her male colleagues. When a known drug smuggler has agreed to testify against the head of a large Mexican drug cartel, Cooper is summoned to accompany a DEA lieutenant to retrieve said witness and his wife Daniella, played by Sofia Vergara, and escort them to Dallas. The mission of retrieving the Rivas doesn't go as planned and hence the 'Hot Pursuit' of Cooper and Mrs.Riva ensues.
Sofia Vergara is quickly becoming an objectified one note character. Her character Danielle Riva in 'Hot Pursuit' could be a doppelganger for Gloria from the much loved 'Modern Family'sitcom. Expressing herself in screams and barking orders to Cooper, Vergara is not showing us any other side to her acting that we haven't already seen. She constantly reminds us of her Colombian heritage and many of the jokes written for her are built around her Latin savoir faire.
Witherspoon, who has already shown audiences her acting talents in films like 'Mud' and 'Wild' garners no affection from the audience in this role. At times Cooper seems to be dialing in some of her 'Sweet Home Alabama' appeal and doesn't come close to actually pulling it off.
The jokes in large part aren't nearly as funny as you might think from the marketing on the trailers. The movies tropes around in all the typical gender stereotypes of two women traveling with one another. This is lowbrow comedy at its finest.
There are sequences in the film that feel like they've been directly plucked out of other films. One of the sequences in the third act feels like a total remake of an ending sequence from Sister Act involving multiple look alike extras that disrupt a chase scene. You could also make similar comparisons of 'Hot Pursuit' to other films such 'Tommy Boy', 'Thelma & Louise', 'The Heat','Identity Thief', 'The Road Trip' and 'We're the Millers'. Suffice to say, very little originality or anything novel is offered.
I've already been fortunate enough to see Melissa McCarthy's 'Spy'(June 5) and Amy Schumer's 'Trainkwreck'(July 17) and I have heard positive reviews from people who have seen Pitch Perfect 2 (May 15). Trust me when I say the best is yet to come. My advice is to wait and catch up with this movie later down the road when you can rent it.