A familiar guitar jangle plays behind the opening credits of “Hot Pursuit” but just as you’re ready to do your best Tom Petty impression to “American Girl,” you realize it’s a cover version… sung by Rob Schneider’s daughter. This will not be the last disappointment of the film.
Just as time pushes aside the Heartbreakers for Elle King, Reese Witherspoon now requires a younger stand-in for shots of her character, Cooper, who rides along with her old man in a patrol car. The sharp wit and sharp screenwriters from her “Election”-era heyday are long gone.
Cooper grows up to be a frustrated desk cop, whose big break is to escort to court Daniella (Sofia Vergara), a cartel informant’s wife. Of course, the transit goes poorly and Daniella must trade her narco couture for a T-shirt reading, with a representative subtlety, “Butter My Biscuits.”
Directed by Anne Fletcher with every buddy comedy cliché she could conjure, the film is studded with recurring gags that aren’t amusing even the first time. Daniella speaks Spanish and Cooper doesn’t understand! Daniella is tall (at least in a bejeweled stilettos) and Cooper is short! Ears ring with their nonsensical shouts: “Gringa chiquitita!”... “I meet the minimum height requirement!”
“Hot Pursuit” is a road film with no sense of the road. The locations are anonymous except for occasional mentions of Dallas in spotty Texas accents. As the two women pursue their nebulous ideas of justice, they’re chased by a random collection of bumbling men: dirty cops, cartel sicarios, drunken hunters, Norm Gunderson from “Fargo,” etc.
It’s never a good sign when the end credits blooper reel is much funnier than the film itself. The actresses’ flubs improve the dialogue as written and they giggle at their small mistakes instead of shuddering at the big one: that “Hot Pursuit” was made at all.
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“Hot Pursuit” is showing at the Sonoma 9 Cinemas. Rated PG-13 and running time is 1:27. Visit cinemawest.com.
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