Hot Pursuit (1987)

Here’s my confession.  I didn’t know anything at all about Hot Pursuit until I saw it.  Given the title I imagined a country car chase comedy like the ones that killed Burt Reynolds’ career.  You know, the ones with the frustrated cussin’ cops in hot pursuit (!) of beer drinkin’ good ol’ boys across state lines.

John Cusack plays Danny Bartlett, a slacker college student who flies to the Caribbean in hot pursuit (!) of his girlfriend Lori (Wendy Gazelle) after he is called away to take a chemistry test and cannot go with them.  Given a reprieve by his professor (don’t ask) he pursues Lori and her folks but he can’t find them.  That leads to all manner of shenanigans with crooks, smugglers and killers.

The one saving grace here is Cusack who has a charm and nervous appeal that I’ve been waiting to blossom in better movies after The Sure Thing.  He’s best in a hot zone of trouble where his nervous energy works best, but one wishes that the rest of the movie would do the same.  The movie constantly threatens to veer into better territory involving characters and interesting situations, but director Steven Lisberger wants to keep the movie on predictable rails the whole way.