‘Hot Pursuit’ Review Roundup: Critics Slam Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara Odd-Couple Comedy

Hot Pursuit, the odd-couple comedy starring Reese Witherspoon as a joyless cop and Sofia Vergara as the wife of a drug boss, opened in theaters Friday to blistering reviews.

‘Hot Pursuit’ Review Roundup

Directed by Anne Fletcher (The Proposal, 27 Dresses), Hot Pursuit follows Witherspoon’s uptight cop Cooper, as she tries to protect Vergara’s Daniella Riva from corrupt cops and the drug kingpin’s henchmen after a grand jury session in Dallas. The two women, polar opposites, antagonize each other endlessly, but close ranks against their common enemies on their trouble-laden trip through Texas.

The promising duo of Academy Award winner Witherspoon and Modern Family star Vergara has failed to impress critics in Hot Pursuit. Reviews charge the comedy flick as misogynistic and dated. Not even the star power of its leading ladies could save Fletcher’s film from critics’ ire.

“Hot Pursuit is basically Legally Blonde with a badge and a broad. And far fewer laughs. If that sounds a bit indelicate, it’s nowhere near as crass as this movie, which wallows in female stereotypes in a manner that seems shockingly dated. If Bridesmaids and other recent female-driven comedies were a step forward, this is three steps back…. Most of the film finds the predictable facing off with the offensive. The only thing hot about “Hot Pursuit” is its scant 87-minute running time. And it still feels like four hours.” – Tom Long, The Detroit News

“Hot Pursuit” feels weirdly out-of-date, with its bad wall-to-wall music, corny comedy and cheapskate production values. Watching the film in a theater, you still feel like it’s on VHS. […] For someone with a background in choreography, Fletcher has no idea of how to sell physical comedy. Characters stumble around and drop things but there’s no grace to their clumsiness, no punchline at the end of their embarrassment. […] There’s a crime in this comedy all right. And it’s the comedy.” Stephen Whitty, The Star-Ledger

“Hot Pursuit, is so bad even a wild bunch of die-hard misogynists would be offended. It’s so bad it will go down as Academy Award-winning Witherspoon’s worst movie, at least for the foreseeable future.It’s so bad it will keep Modern Family star Vergara locked up tight in her sexy over-the-top Colombian comedian cliché box. Seemingly destined to become a late-night punch line, the movie, which plays the “sexy” and “sexless” female stereotypes at full blast, is so bad you’d think it was directed by the worst sort of male chauvinist director.” – Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

“A laugh could die of loneliness in this shrill, slapstick buddy farce that takes the form of a Texas road trip. Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, their proven comic gifts gone MIA, huff and puff strenuously to keep this house of clichéd cards from going down. No chance. Forget a critique, what Hot Pursuit needs is an autopsy. The victims of this accident, misdirected by Anne Fletcher from a desperately trite script by TV writers David Feeney and John Quaintance, are audiences.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Hot Pursuit is currently in wide release.