Verdict
Summary
A sort of one-sided teen-centric Romancing the Stone, Hot Pursuit is a lark of an ’80s teen film with a likably dry Cusack in the middle of it all. Some of the shenanigans he gets into here are fun to watch, but the movie never soars or keeps its stamina, despite a nifty electronic score by Rareview.
Plot:
A college kid misses a plane to vacation with his girlfriend … and goes on a crazy adventure to catch up to her.
Review:
After bombing his final exam in chemistry, prep schooler Danny (John Cusack) is stuck on campus while his beautiful (and very wealthy) girlfriend Lori (played by Wendy Gazelle) goes off on vacation to the Caribbean with her family. Since he was supposed to go with her, Danny manages to convince his professor to let him make up the test, and so he’s free to go on the trip … but he’s too late, missing the plane by a hair. He takes the next one out, but his bad timing ends up turning his life upside down as he runs into all sorts of adventures (some are life-threatening) once he lands in the Caribbean. He gets marooned, runs afoul of a crusty pirate (played by Robert Loggia), and even gets stuck in a Panamanian jail until he’s busted out and rescued, and then barely catches a plane outta there, only to have to chase his girlfriend’s yacht down just as some murderers have hijacked them! Danny saves the day, and it’s all sunshine from there out.
A sort of one-sided teen-centric Romancing the Stone, Hot Pursuit is a lark of an ’80s teen film with a likably dry Cusack in the middle of it all. Some of the shenanigans he gets into here are fun to watch, but the movie never soars or keeps its stamina, despite a nifty electronic score by Rareview. Writer/director Steven Lisberger also did Tron and Slipstream, so go figure. Ben and Jerry Stiller play bad guys in it. When I saw this back in the VHS days I loved it, but it’s lost some of its appeal over the years.
Kino Lorber’s brand-new Blu-ray release of Hot Pursuit brings the film to high definition for the first time in a new HD master from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative, and the film has never looked or sounded better than this. It also comes with a new audio commentary by a film historian and the trailer.
