# Hot Pursuit - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=51121[/img] 
*Title: Hot Pursuit* 

*Movie:* :2.5stars:
*Video:* :4.5stars:
*Audio:* :4stars: 
*Extras:* :2stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*73.5




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=51129[/img]*Summary*
Ai Caramba. All I needed to know was that Sophia Vergara was involved in “Hot Pursuit” to get my attention. That woman could melt ice just by LOOKING at it and don’t care if the movie’s garbage. Ok I really do care, but it at least makes it much more palatable in my opinion. Buddy copy/criminal movies are fairly by the books, and Anne Fletcher’s directing of “Hot Pursuit” is just as by the books as one would expect. We have the good cop, the bad cops, a criminal that turns out to be nicer than we thought they were and a happy ending with a ludicrous gun battle. Sound familiar? Well, that’s because the formula hasn’t really been changed up for decades. The same type of check boxes were all filled by a zillion other movies before it, such as “48 Hours”, “Another 48 Hours”, “Bulletproof”, etc. The tropes are all clichéd, Reese Witherspoon is annoying, but for some inexplicable reason I actually got more than a few laughs out of the well-worn routine. 

Rose Cooper (Reese Witherspoon) is a by the number police officer with a bit of a problem. She’s a bit TOO by the numbers. Daughter of a famous police officer in Texas, she strives to fill those big shoes and ends up getting herself in trouble by trying just a bit too hard. Stuck on desk duty for accidentally tasering the mayor’s son, Cooper is let out for the day when she’s required to act as a female escort for the wife of a federal witness against drug lord Vicente Cortez (Joaquin Cosio). Things get out of control when her U.S. Marshall partner gets shot by masked invaders along with the federal witness, leaving Cooper to take Miss Daniella Riva (Sophia Vergara) into the precinct to testify in her husband’s place. Mix in a couple of dirty cops and the two women are running for their life as fast as they can.

Along the way the two have to get rid of the cops following them, and somehow get back to Cooper’s home office and clear everything up. Along the way the two women got on each other’s nerves as well as form a sort of tentative female bond. Getting shot at by dirty cops, evading the Columbian cartel members AND meeting a hunky felon who doesn’t mind an over bearing as well. I mean, it all seems perfect, until Cooper finds out that Mrs. Riva has a few tricks up her own sleeve and a few dirty secrets that may change their friendship, as well as her lifespan, forever.

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=51137[/img]“Hot Pursuit” just REEKS of mediocrity. We’ve seen everything done before in a million buddy films. Cooper is the good cop with a penchant for following all the rules. She doesn’t have the greatest love life due to her overbearing cop nature, and she’s made fun of by the rest of the police force. This mission is her moment to shine, but chaos happening doesn’t exactly give her a shining gold star. Daniella Riva is the gorgeous (and I do mean gorgeous) Latina bombshell who has looks like a tube of toothpaste that’s been squeezed in all the right places. She’s catty, she’s the polar opposite of the 5 foot 1 inch Reese Witherspoon (especially when wearing 4 inch stilettos) and fights against the rookie cop tooth and nail. 

The humor seems a tad forced throughout, with every standard joke thrown in for good measure. The two women fight about clothes, guns, underwear, and make random period jokes to the dirty cops. I hate to say it, but Reese Witherspoon just WASN’T very funny in her role as Cooper. I like Reese, as she’s a fantastic actress and can be HILARIOUSLY funny, but in this role she was so forced and stereotypical that she became annoying real fast. Even inclusion of Jim Gaffigan as a ******* with a gun didn’t lighten things up enough. The only saving grace for the humor was watching Sophia Vergara cat it up with more than enough laughs for me. For some reason I found 90% of Sohpia’s lines to be absolutely hysterical and watching her hiss and growl at Reese Witherspoon allowed my funny bone enough tickling for a good time. 



*Rating:* 

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, violence, language and some drug material 



*Video* :4.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=51145[/img]Warner Brother’s 2.40:1 AVC encoded Blu-ray for “Hot Pursuit” comes out smelling like a rose, with some fantastically natural color timing and excellent detail. Close ups look very finely detailed with every fiber of Cooper’s uniform showing and the lipstick marks on Sophia Vergara’s beautiful face perfectly visible. Clarity on long shots also is quite good, though I did notice a little bit of video noise at times, mainly in the night time sequences. Black levels stay strong with excellent shadow detail and no signs of black crush. Due to the 88 minute runtime the disc itself is given a lot of breathing room on it, so no signs of compression artifacts or other signs of digital tampering that I could see. 







*Audio* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=51153[/img]Being an action comedy, “Hot Pursuit” is given a very encompassing and pleasing 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio track for us today. There’s a lot of talking in a comedy, and as such there are more than a few front heavy scenes with mainly dialog, and that dialog sounds spot on perfect. Vocals are crisp and clean, without any distortions or balance issues, and the front soundstage is very lively. However, being part action movie, there’s a lot of instances where the surrounds and LFE channels get to make themselves known with a car chase, multiple gun fights as well as the two women get down and dirty with their fists and feet in a hotel room. LFE is strong and adds some power and authority to the gunshots and car chases, while never being a wildly intense low frequency powerhouse. 








*Extras* :2stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=51161[/img]
• The Womance 
• Hot Pursuit: Say What?
• Action Like a Lady
• Alternate Ending
• Previews







*Overall:* :3.5stars:

“Hot Pursuit” isn’t a great movie, or even a good movie. I’m not saying it’s even a mediocre movie as it’s just a very clichéd and forced film, but I somehow had a good enough time that I wouldn’t mind recommending it for a rental if you want a few cheap laughs. The video on the Blu-ray is exquisite, and the audio is more than satisfactory for the genre. Easily a Netflix or Redbox rental for a lazy summer evening. 

*Additional Information:*

Starring: Sophia Vergara, Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Del
Directed by: Anne Fletcher
Written by: David Feeney, John Quaintance
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish, Portuguese DD 5.1
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 88 minutes
Own “Hot Pursuit” on Blu-ray Combo Pack or DVD August 11th or Own it Early on Digital HD July 28th




*Buy Hot Pursuit On Blu-ray at Amazon*


*Recommendation: Cheap Rental​*








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## tripplej (Oct 23, 2011)

Thanks for the review. With the cast, you would think this movie would be a hit but guess not. I think I saw the whole movie in the trailer.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

haha! yeah you pretty much see it in the trailer. it's a bad movie, but surprisingly funny for a dumb rental situation. I giggled more than I should have


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