Hot Pursuit

This review may contain spoilers!

A comedy film that really isn't all that funny. I would give Hot Pursuit a 5.5/10.

What was good about this film is that they spent a lot of attention to the plot, constructing character development as well as a great amount of cause and effect scenarios.

Reese Witherspoon, who played Cooper, was a strong protagonist who played to the story a lot more than she did the comedy; I think Witherspoon had some beginnings in the field of comedy but is now meant for bigger things. Robert Kazinsky, who played Randy, made what could have been an annoying subplot actually quite good; the romance element of the film didn't feel forced and he presented quite a genuine role. Richard T. Jones, who played Detective Jackson, died far too quickly for my liking; his performance was fun but also showed the strong presence in an action scene that made his character so great.

However the best performance of the film came from Sofia Vergara, who played Daniella Riva. Vergara's role seemed ditzy at first and she played that up well. She also had a great amount to offer when it came to engaging in the more comedic moments of the film. However I think it was when we saw her character develop from her stories of her dead brother to a story of vengeance that we finally see why this film was more drama than comedy. it was because both of these actresses have a lot of talent and commitment to their roles but the film itself is not on the same level as Vergara or Witherspoon.

This film really suffered in it's lack of strong comedic moments, opting instead to focus solely on the plot and abandon it's genre at times. furthermore the pacing for this film felt really stretched out, which isn't a good thing for a short comedy film such as this one. To top this the soundtrack for the movie was very forgettable and didn't bring much to the scenes. The cinematography and editing for this film was very basic and standard shots and cutting; the was no effort to do anything outside the box.

Matthew Del Negro and Michael Mosley, who played Detectives Hauser and Dixon respectively, were just glorified henchmen; they has screen time enough to have a presence in the film but strongly lacked one; it really just felt as if they were placed into scenes then left the film untilm they were next needed. Joaquin Cosio, who played Vincente Cortez, was a major let down as the film's major antagonist; he wasn't intimidating and he hadn't been dealt enough scenes for us to care about his role in the film. John Carroll Lynch, who played Captain Emmett, was the plot twist no one cared about; his sudden betrayal was nowhere near enough to make the character exciting and Lynch made the role feel mundane.