For decades, the basic template of the odd couple action comedy has remained the same. You take a pair of disparate personalities, team them up under circumstances that force them to work together, and eventually the distrust will thaw and turn into mutual respect, before evolving into friendship.
Countless movies have riffed on the premise, and while it’s thrown up a slew of classics, just as many irredeemably awful titles have emerged from the wreckage. Based on the fact it hailed from an accomplished director and boasted two hugely talented stars in the lead roles, people were expecting so much more from Hot Pursuit.
Reese Witherspoon’s by-the-book cop is tasked to escort Sofia Vergara’s witness across Texas so she can testify against a Colombian drug lord. Naturally, things go sideways when the latter’s husband ends up dead, forcing the bickering duo to evade corrupt cops and contract killers alike in an effort to close the case once and for all.
An 8% Rotten Tomatoes score and 35% user rating makes it the worst-reviewed feature in the entire careers of The Proposal director Anne Fletcher and Oscar-winner Witherspoon, but Vergara escaped the ignominy for the sole reason she had the misfortune of appearing in The Emoji Movie, The Con Is On, and New Year’s Eve.
Hot Pursuit flopped at the box office after earning a shade over $50 million on a $35 million budget, but has somehow become a big hit on Netflix this weekend. As per FlixPatrol, the dud has managed to reach 25th spot on the platform’s global most-watched list, which makes us feel bad for those unfortunate folks who hit play.