No, this is not a remake of the 1987 John Cusack movie. 2015's Hot Pursuit stars Reese Witherspoon (who also co-produced) as Rose Cooper, the daughter of San Antonio's "best cop that ever was" who spent a lot of time on the job with him and is now a cop herself. She does everything strictly by the rules but is also a little awkward, causing the department to call any sort of screw-up "Coopering" in her honor. (A flashback shows her panicking and tasering someone who yells "I got shotgun!", not knowing that they meant they wanted to ride in the front seat and not that they actually had a shotgun.) Police captain Emmett (John Carroll Lynch) gives Cooper an assignment: Accompany Deputy US Marshall Jackson (Richard T. Jones) to pick up and transport drug cartel member Felipe Riva (Vincent Laresca) and his wife Daniella (Sofia Vergara, who also co-executive produces) to Dallas to testify against the cartel's notorious leader. The couple happens to hate each other, but other than that it should be a rather easy task. However the plan falls apart when after reaching the Riva's house, two masked men run in with guns blazing followed by some members of the cartel- the dust settles leaving both Deputy Jackson and Felipe Riva dead. Now it's up to Officer Cooper to get Daniella out of the house and safely to Dallas.

The rest of the movie plays out similar to Midnight Run or The Gauntlet, with revelations that some of the cops are in cahoots with the bad guys and want both the officer and witness dead before they can make it to the courthouse. The two of them have to reach their destination without being recognized on the way, since every time a TV or radio is turned out there are reports that they are both "armed and extremely dangerous" and should be reported to police. This results in their having to disguise themselves (which is a shame as I was enjoying Reese Witherspoon in her police outfit but she loses that for a dress) and learn to work together and trust each other despite their idiosyncrasies. This plot may have been done before but still had potential for originality and some good laughs. Unfortunately Hot Pursuit doesn't deliver much of that. The main problem is that Sofia Vergara's character is portrayed as very unintelligent and annoying. She acts like a "spoiled rich girl" who insists on lugging her heavy suitcase full of shoes while on the lam and screams and cries very easily. The point where the movie lost me was when the two are driving away from the house after the two men are shot, and Cooper hands Riva her iPhone and asks her to call 911. After first fumbling with it trying to enter the number, the phone flies out of her hands and onto the road to which she says in her annoying voice "Something bad happen to the phone!"

Many of the comic bits seem forced and just didn't work for me, such as when the two get past a police roadblock by hiding in a deer decoy. Of course a few "rear-end" comments have to come into play, and the two also argue over what sort of sound deer actually make and attempt different ones while sneaking through, which we're supposed to laugh at hysterically. The writers also seemed to have high hopes for a scene where the two escape being shot by a redneck catching them sneaking through his property by putting on an impromptu lesbian act, but it comes off as neither sexy nor funny. Reese Witherspoon still does the best she can with the material, using a fake slight Southern accent that spectacularly managed to not annoy me. Mercifully the entire movie runs under 90 minutes.

One of Hot Pursuit's positive attributes is that it was shot in 35mm anamorphic, a rarity these days. The Blu-Ray presents this faithfully (with any dirt or scratches eliminated) with the top and bottom of the screen being slightly out of focus in a few shots, the main tip-off as to how it was shot. Much of the scenery (which is actually Louisiana, not Texas) looks nice and is well-photographed, almost making up for deficiencies in the performances. A standard DVD is also included, with the usual limitations of that format.

Audio on the Blu-Ray is in 5.1 DTS Master Audio, reasonably well-done but without much rear channel activity. The sound's high point other than a few gunshots is Christophe Beck's country-flavored music score accompanied by a few country-pop tunes as well. (The main menu provides a few minutes of isolated score.) There is also an audio description track in Dolby Digital 5.1 along with dubs in French, Spanish and Portuguese- sampling these, Sofia Vergara's dialogue continues to sound quite annoying. The DVD includes all of these except the Portuguese track in Dolby Digital 5.1.

The "Texas-Sized Extras" as claimed on the back cover run less than ten minutes altogether, but it's likely after watching the movie you won't want too much more anyways. There's some general behind-the-scenes footage on "The Womance" which reveals how much green-screen was used in the movie, and is the only of these extras also on the DVD, "Say What?" has some unused improvising from Witherspoon and Vergara, and "Action Like A Lady" delivers some outtakes (in case the ones shown during the movie's end credits aren't enough for you.) The "Alternate Ending" is actually some news footage that seems to have been intended to run during the end credits instead of the outtakes.

The Blu-Ray opens with a trailer for The Intern and a promo for "digital movies" with better picture quality than any "Digital HD" movie I've seen. The DVD opens with the same promo but different trailers, for Max, Entourage and San Andreas.

I wanted to like Hot Pursuit, but it didn't bring anything new to a plot which has already been done several times, with Vergara's annoying character testing the patience of many viewers. The Blu-Ray is quite nice-looking and Witherspoon keeps it at least somewhat watchable, but overall it's quite forgettable entertainment.

Jesse Skeen is a life-long obsessive media collector (with an unhealthy preoccupation with obsolete and failed formats) and former theater film projectionist. He enjoys watching movies and strives for presenting them perfectly, but lacks the talent to make his own.