Hot Pursuit is 'a road movie stuck in second gear'

Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara bumble into theatres this weekend in the new buddy comedyHot Pursuit.

Witherspoon plays Rose Cooper, an uptight coptasked with protecting DaniellaRiva(Vergara), asexy and outgoing widowof a drug lord, from the gun-wieldingmobsters who killed her husband and want her dead.

But the mission to transport Rivaacross Texas to court,where she's totestify against the cartel,is derailed by the shenanigans of apair of crooked cops, and the women are forced to forge anunlikely friendship tosurvive.

Witherspoon's portrayal as an officer of the law is "a little hard to swallow," says CBC's film critic Eli Glasner, "[but] it's nice to see the Oscar winning actor return to her comedic roots."

Hot Pursuit is helmedbyAnne Fletcher, the same director behindSethRogen andBarbraStreisand's lukewarm comedyThe Guilt Trip.

Like that film, HotPursuit is "aroad movie stuck in second gear," says Glasner, "gently ambling its way to a comedic conclusion."

Hot Pursuit opens in theatres Friday.

Watch Eli Glasner'sreview in the video above.