Hot Pursuit is a painfully unfunny, hack attempt at comedy that is easily one of the worst films I have seen this year. Its biggest grievance is the racially offensive performance delivered by Sofía Vergara. Her one trick pony of playing the spicy Latina falls flatter than the mild sauce at Taco Bell. Couple this with the film's nonsensical plot, the lack of chemistry with lead Reese Witherspoon, and you have a stinker that has no redeeming values.

Reese Witherspoon stars as Cooper, a diminutive, by-the-book San Antonio cop stuck in the basement precinct checking in evidence. She's pulled out of the doldrums to accompany a DEA agent (Richard T. Jones) on a pickup of a drug cartel informer. Per regulation, a female officer must be present because the informant's wife, Mrs. Riva (Sofía Vergara), is accompanying him into witness protection. The pick-up predictably goes awry. Cooper and Riva abscond into the wiles of Texas with crooked cops and cartel hit men in tow.

The primary story arc of them getting from San Antonio to Dallas is ludicrous. Their travails in procuring a cell phone to contact non-corrupt authorities is beyond silly. Then you have bad guys who just happen to pop-up everywhere, at the worst time, with no explanation whatsoever. The direction and editing is so sloppy, it's as if they didn't really care if the film looked good or was conceptually sound. It's hard to imagine that Reese Witherspoon is an Oscar winning actress from watching Hot Pursuit. But her goofy turn as Cooper pales in comparison to the accented shucking and jiving Sofía Vergara does on screen. I'm sure Latina actresses just shudder when they see roles like this.

It's plausible to see why the concept for this film was appealing. Sexy ethnic gal teams up with uptight white gal in a lighthearted action romp. You have the female bonding/empowerment, the fish out of water, and just enough violence to keep the boyfriends/husbands entertained. Seems like a winning formula that has proven successful in the past. But everything depends on skillful execution and Hot Pursuit lacks that in every possible way. I wouldn't even recommend looking at a poster for this nonsense.