ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Reviews 

HOT PURSUIT – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger 0 Comments , , ,
0 Flares 0 Flares ×

It’s truly pathetic when the out-take bloopers during the end credits are more amusing than any scenes in the shoddy film – and they’re not even all that funny. Petite Reese Witherspoon (“Legally Blonde”) and statuesque Sofia Vergara (TV’s “Modern Family”) are beautiful, gifted comediennes, so why they wasted their energy and talent on this vacuous, buddy/odd couple-comedy is a profound mystery. Read on…

Uptight, overly-eager Officer Rose Cooper (Witherspoon) is a by-the-book, second-generation San Antonio cop who has a lot to prove when she gets her first chance in the field after impulsively tasering the mayor’s unarmed teenage son who yelled, “I got shotgun,” because he wanted dibs on the front passenger seat of the car.

She’s assigned to escort feisty Danielle Riva (Vergara), the sassy, soon-to-be-widowed wife of a Colombian drug dealer, to court in Dallas to testify in front of a grand jury against a major drug kingpin (Joaquin Cosio). But before they can leave the Riva home, two different sets of assassins appear: gun-toting mobsters and crooked cops.

So the women ‘borrow’ a nearby convertible and take off. After a Texas APB is issued for their capture, they’re really on-the-lam – with some questionable ‘baking powder’ in the trunk of the car.

Recklessly written by David Feeney (TV’s “2 Broke Girls”) and John Quaintance (TV’s “Ben and Kate”) and sluggishly directed by Anne Fletcher (“The Guilt Trip,” “27 Dresses”), it’s utterly contrived and their bickering is so weak and formulaic that it often comes across as desperate.

Obviously, they were vainly attempting to recreate the combustible chemistry generated in “The Heat” (2013), an action-comedy which teamed Sandra Bullock with Melissa McCarthy. Adding insult to injury, Witherspoon and Vergara cavort, clinch and lip-lock in the un-sexiest lesbian scene in history.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Hot Pursuit” is a lame, tedious 3. It’s cringe-worthy.

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 0 Flares ×

Susan Granger

Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at R.K.O., M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures; her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M. As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O'Brien and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, Phi Beta Kappa, with highest honors in journalism. During her adult life, Susan has been on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic. Her newspaper reviews have been syndicated around the world, and she has appeared on American Movie Classics cable television. In addition, her celebrity interviews and articles have been published in REDBOOK, PLAYBOY, FAMILY CIRCLE, COSMOPOLITAN, WORKING WOMAN and THE NEW YORK TIMES, as well as in PARIS MATCH, ELLE, HELLO, CARIBBEAN WORLD, ISLAND LIFE, MACO DESTINATIONS, NEWS LIMITED NEWSPAPERS (Australia), UK DAILY MAIL, UK SUNDAY MIRROR, DS (France), LA REPUBBLICA (Italy), BUNTE (Germany), VIP TRAVELLER (Krisworld) and many other international publications through SSG Syndicate. Susan also lectures on the "Magic and Mythology of Hollywood" and "Don't Take It Personally: Conquering Criticism and other Survival Skills," originally published on tape by Dove Audio.