These days comedies seem to fall into one of two categories, instant classics or disposable fluff. Sadly we get mostly the latter, the kind of films that look fun and entertaining in the trailers, but seldom live up to expectations when viewed in full. The new movie HOT PURSUIT evokes the sensibilities of a comedy classic like MIDNIGHT RUN, or a more recent comedy hit like THE HEAT, but it’s just missing one very important thing… the laughs.

Officer Cooper (Reese Witherspoon) is a by-the-book cop, living in the shadow of her more famous policeman father. Unlike him, she is known for accidentally setting the mayor’s son on fire with a taser – an act that took her off the streets and into the evidence room, and turned her name into a department joke. When a ruthless drug dealer is released from prison, the police must protect one of their informants in Dallas, who also happens to be a drug trafficker, along with the man’s wife Daniella Riva (Sofia Vergara). Department protocol dictates a female officer protect the wife, so Cooper gets the job, which is also a chance for her to get back out in the field and hopefully redeem herself. But the pickup goes bad, assassins shoot up the place, and Cooper and Daniella go on the run hoping for help from the police force. The pair soon realizes they can’t trust the cops, and now they must go under to stay alive. This is made difficult as Daniella is used to a pampered lifestyle, has no respect for cops, and wants nothing more than to just leave on her own.

HOT PURSUIT (originally titled DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS) is billed and sold as a comedy, and there are some moments throughout the film where the audience was laughing, but it’s surprisingly sparse. It feels more like we’re supposed to latch on to Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara as an on screen duo and root for their success, which is hard as neither one of their characters are all that likable to begin with. Witherspoon’s role is that of a hyper and somewhat goofy do-gooder cop, and other than her father’s reputation we’re not given much reason to cheer her on. It’s also odd seeing someone like her in a throwaway role like this so soon after her well-deserved Oscar nomination in WILD. Then there’s Sofia Vergara, who is quite clever on Modern Family every week, but here is just playing a spoiled sexpot who is more trouble than she’s worth. Daniella is not a likable person, and it makes it hard for the audience to see much point in her surviving the ordeal. To put it simply, this comedy duo (if you want to call it that) just doesn’t work. There’s also the lack of a strong supporting cast, not that the actors used aren’t good, but rather that all of the roles outside of the main two are fairly underwritten and forgettable. Even an ex-con they pick up along the way meant to be a love interest for Reese, played by Robert Kazinsky, never does much to be all that memorable. Thank God for Jim Gaffigan’s brief cameo, which is one of the rare moments of legitimate comedy in this otherwise bland exercise.

Outside of the ineffective leading characters, there just isn’t much balance or flow to the film. It shifts dramatically in tone without warning, trying to be very funny in one scene and highly serious in the next. This is particularly surprising since director Anne Fletcher has proven herself capable of handling humor with THE PROPOSAL… then again she also helmed the Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand bomb THE GUILT TRIP. The bigger shock is that two highly capable actresses like Witherspoon and Vergara couldn’t find a way to make this work, or at the very least realize that it wasn’t working. HOT PURSUIT isn’t a total disaster, in that most audiences will find it to be moderately fun escapism, but it’s not a movie you’re likely revisit after the initial viewing.

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