Lazy Film Critic reviews...
Hot Pursiut is a cop comedy directed by Anne Fletcher, and written by David Feeny & John Quaintance. The film follows a dedicated and by-the-book cop who has been assigned to escort the wife of a cartel gangster to Dallas so she can testify against her husbands cartel. Things go wrong, and leave these two polar opposites to try to get to Dallas with both the cartel and corrupt cops trying to kill them. The film stars Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara as the two leads.
Now, with most films that I've reviewed, I like to start my reviews with what's positive about the movie, then build up to whatever problems I had with it. But, with Hot Pursuit, I've honestly got nothing. First off, there's the acting. With a comedy, I'm not going into this movie expecting oscars, but It would be nice if anyone in this movie tried to sell the humor. Sofia Vergara does essentially exactly what she's done in any of her other comedic roles, and Reese Witherspoon is essentially Sandra Bullock from The Heat but with a really bad Texas accent. This is especially confusing for Witherspoon, who's fresh off an oscar nomination, and isn't doing anything with it. If there's anything I can say about these two, it's that the failings of the humor isn't entirely their fault.
A comedy doesn't just rely on the delivery of the humor. A comedy being funny depends about half and half on the delivery and the writing. Unfortunately for Hot Pursuit, the writing is almost twice as awful as the delivery. Normally I'd say they used all the funny moments in the trailer, but even with the trailer the jokes started to fall flat. The entire movie is pretty much that, a bunch of flat repeated jokes. Just for clarification, it's different from a running gag. A running gag would be the whole Cap "language" thing in AoU, or the swan in Hot Fuzz. Having a bunch of people mistake Reese Witherspoons height and Sofia Vergaras age isn't a running gag, nor is it even that funny any time.
With comedies, you're really going after one thing. Humor. You don't have to get a good story in, you don't need great performances, because at the end of the day, the goal is to make a funny movie. And just like that, Hot Pursuit fails entirely at everything it's supposed to be. Most of the failings in the humor are derived from how awkward the dialogue is between the characters. There is not chemistry whatsoever between Vergara and Witherspoon. It's kind of funny, the awkward dialogue and lack of chemistry in this movie which is essentially a road trip movie kind of reminded me of the movie The Guilt Trip (also a terrible movie). As it turns it, this similarity comes from the fact that its the same director. So, if you've seen The Guilt Trip, essentially you've seen Hot Pursuit.
Final Rating
I won a free screening to Hot Pursuit which, while I love getting free screenings more than almost anything else, kind of bothered me. I could've won tickets to Mad Max Fury Road. I could've won tickets to Good Kill. I could've won tickets to Pitch Perfect 2. If would have much rathered seeing any of those movies instead of Hot Pursuit. I would have rathered not seeing anything! I could have sat on a chair and done nothing for 90 minutes and it would have been better than Hot Pursuit. Oh, and while we're on the topic of nothing....
Hot Pursuit
0/5
No comments:
Post a Comment