Witherspoon and Vergara in the lukewarm 'Hot Pursuit'

Good things were forecast for feminism when women in Hollywood gained control of their filmmaking destinies, as has happened with Hot Pursuit.

Reese Witherspoon produces, Anne Fletcher (The Proposal) directs, and Witherspoon stars as Cooper, a cop escorting federal witness Riva (Emmy-winner Sofia Vergara, on loan from Modern Family) to the trial of a dangerous drug kingpin.

So it's with some disappointment to have to report most of the jokes in Hot Pursuit involve cutting remarks about the women's physical appearance - Vergara is busty and vain and likes expensive shoes, Witherspoon is short and boyish and looks "like a lesbian."

These sound like jokes Seth MacFarlane might have written for Ted. I'm thinking particularly of the moment when the two women distract a gun-totin' Texan (Jim Gaffigan!) by making out.

To be fair, producer Witherspoon is only employing a time-honored Hollywood commercial strategy: Put two talented comics together, blow the dust off the nearest script, and hope for the best.

The roles do play to the women's strengths. Witherspoon plays hyper-efficient and tightly wound (shades of Election's Tracy Flick), and Vergara is a smart, self-aware knockout who uses her sexuality like a weapon.

The Midnight Run scenario has Cooper running a gauntlet of crooked cops and underworld assassins as she drags the combative Riva across Texas, a trip heavy on slapstick. The two don a hide and antlers to impersonate a deer while sneaking around a roadblock.

The movie, as you may have deduced, is short on laughs, even at 87 minutes. The funniest thing is seeing U.K. actor Rob Kazinsky (as Witherspoon's love interest) try to swallow his British accent to play a Texan. (Here again, producer Witherspoon is thinking of the bottom line - she needs foreign talent to sell the movie in foreign territories.)

Hot Pursuit saves its one true laugh for the end, when Witherspoon impersonates a teen boy in order to crash a quinceañera.

Here, the joke actually lands - she really does look like Justin Bieber.

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