There was a time in the 80s when it seemed John Cusack could do no wrong. After teaming with the oddball Savage Steve Holland for the highly entertaining Better Off Dead and the fun One Crazy Summer as well as winning the hearts of teenage girls everywhere with Say Anything... it seemed his charismatic personality and baby faced looks couldn't possibly make a wrong movie choice. Which is probably why Hot Pursuit is one of his more forgotten efforts during that time frame and, after sitting through it all these years later, it's quite easy to see why. Sure, Cusack shows the charm we'd come to expect by that time but when he's trapped in a passable "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" type comedy that's lacking in much funny and loaded with weak secondary characters there's only so much he can do.

Shaggy haired Dan (Cusack) is attending Burnham Preparation School and is planning to join girlfriend Lori (Wendy Gazelle) and her folks on a ten day trip to the Caribbean right after finishing his exams. The bad news is that he's just failed his chemistry test and has to stay behind in order to do a make-up exam so that he doesn't flunk out of school. Of course, this being a comedy of errs, he ends up being given a quick pass by his teacher and is able to go - the problem being that he just misses Lori's departure and has to set out on his own to be reunited with her.

If you've even seen one vacation themed comedy then you know exactly where Hot Pursuit is going. Dan just wants to spend a nice, tropical holiday with his girl and instead gets flung into various outrageous situations. There's the group of marijuana smoking natives that befriend him (including the always awesome Keith David), a multitude of fish out of water jokes, and veteran actor Robert Loggia as cranky sea captain Mac who agrees to help him. There's also a subplot involving Lori's father having a bunch of money that's sought after by Mac and some inept thugs led by baddie Victor (Jerry Stiller) that shifts the film's tone abruptly from mild mannered comedy to action-thriller in the final third as Dan has to try and save the kidnapped Lori.

You know, it's sad when the most interesting thing to me about this flick is that it was director Steven Lisberger's follow up to the now influential geek classic Tron. They couldn't be more opposite one another as Tron was a flawed, yet quite interesting, sci-fi effort and Hot Pursuit is a completely tedious teen comedy.

When you look at Cusack's resume during the decade and the fact he appeared in such fare as The Sure Thing, Tapeheads and The Journey of Natty Gann it makes this film's mediocrity stand out all the more. But that's no fault of his as he's his usual affable underdog persona and completely likeable. Gazelle plays the cutesy girlfriend fine and Loggia plays cranky like no other but they've completely miscast Stiller as the main villain. After all those years he spent on sitcom "The King of Queens" it's hard to go back and see him trying to act tough. This also marked Ben Stiller's film debut playing Victor's dumb, short tempered son.

More of a curiosity in Cusack's career than actually worth watching, Hot Pursuit is just one of many summer break themed films that graced theatres throughout the 80s. It's mild adventure mixed with slender comedy and instantly forgettable. If you're in the mood for something similar, I have no hesitation in recommending you check out the Mark Harmon starring Summer School that came out the same year - it's more fun, gets some decent laughs, and has Dean Cameron stealing every scene he's in as the horror movie obsessed "Chainsaw". (Chris Hartley, 2/12/11)

Directed By: Steven Lisberger.
Written By: Steven Lisberger, Steven Carabatsos.

Starring: John Cusack, Robert Loggia, Wendy Gazelle, Jerry Stiller.