Hot Pursuit (1987)

Unfunny comedy about a college student (John Cusack with Gabriela Sabatini's 80s hair) trying to find his rich girlfriend and her family so he can join them on their Caribbean vacation. Wacky hijinks ensue....light on the wacky. I really like John Cusack, especially his early stuff, but this just stinks. It's not funny at all. I had to double check IMDb in the middle of it to make sure it was supposed to be a comedy because there were so few laughs or even attempts at laughs. Cusack tries his best but the material is so weak he can do nothing with it. So he resorts to things like yelling all of his lines as if that makes them funnier. Well, he was with Robert Loggia in many scenes and that's kind of his thing so maybe that explains that. The supporting cast doesn't help much. Ham is the order of the day. In addition to Loggia, there's Monte Markham, Keith David, and Jerry Stiller all trying too hard. Ben Stiller appears here with his dad in one of his earliest roles. He's pretty bad, too. Always nice to see Shelley Fabares, even in a worthless part. The best part of the movie is Wendy Gazelle's beautiful smile. We don't get to see nearly enough of that, though. It's a very weak movie that has so few laughs it tries to become an action flick near the end. At one point it appears Cusack has murdered some bad guys, which might have at least given the movie some value as a curiosity, but no they live. It's watchable enough if you're not expecting it to be funny. Everybody who wants to laugh should avoid it.