While shopping at my local Best Buy, I saw a copy of Hit and Run sitting on the shelf and I just decided to give it a try. I had nothing to lose and nothing to really fear. I figured it would be a light comedy with a lot of action to hold my attention for a good 90 minutes. I came home, pressed play, and watched it.
I don't really know how I feel about it.
Its not a bad movie, per se. I certainly didn't have a bad time. I was just puzzled at what I had just watched. Its a gooey rom-com with a few intense car chase sequences, peppered with raunchy dialog. Just... so weird! I'll give credit to Dax Shepard for making a totally original slant on an otherwise overdone plot line.
But then, once you get past the plot, it gets weirder. The acting, for the most part, is decent. But sometimes, it gets downright terrible. Take for instance, Tom Arnold. He literally shouts his entire dialog and spends most of the movie running wildly around screen with a gun in his hand. Why? I have no idea. Were they going for absurdist humor with that character? or was Tom Arnold just coked up? Whatever the reason, I grew to hate his character... a lot.
Then, literally, for no reason whatsoever, we get two scenes involving the main characters stumbling into an elderly orgy. What on god's green earth was that all about? Its as if the movie was spliced together with outtakes from a Sacha Baron Cohen movie, and they figured it would be so shocking, that it just had to be in the movie for a good laugh. It just sat there, dead on screen, in its wrinkly birthday suit. I didn't laugh.
Alright, enough with the questions. Lets get down to business. I thought the movie potentially worked and I did laugh more times than I ever thought I would. There is some really funny stuff in here, and its worth checking out to catch them all. I liked Dax Shepard, considering that he was channeling an Owen Wilson type performance. Kristen Bell is always a pleasure to watch watch on screen. We also get a delightfully bizarre performance from Bradley Cooper that entertained me a whole lot. Especially the scene at the supermarket... what an absolutely fantastic scene that was.
All in all, Hit and Run is hit and miss, and definitely surreal at times. But not a bad outing at the movies.
Hit and Run
2012
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Crime / Romance
Hit and Run
2012
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Crime / Romance
Plot summary
HIT AND RUN is a comedy about a young couple ('Kristen Bell' and 'Dax Shepard') who risk it all when they leave their small-town life and embark on a road trip that may lead them towards the opportunity of a lifetime. Their fast-paced road trip grows awkwardly complicated and hilarious when they are chased by a friend from the past (Bradley Cooper),a federal marshal (Tom Arnold) and a band of misfits.
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Fast Cars, Hot Babes, Weird Times
This is no hit so don't run to see it
Hit & Run was a most frustrating film to watch in that I kept expecting a comedy, but the laughs never quite arrived.
Tom Arnold is a US Marshal in witness protection and his charge is Dax Shepard to co-wrote and directed this film. Shepard was the driver for a gang of bank robbers who ratted his friends out and stole and buried the loot. Now through a combination of circumstances they find out about him and his cover is blown.
At the same time Shepard's girlfriend Kristen Bell gets a job offer that her current employer Kristin Chenoweth sets up for Bell. Her need to be in Los Angeles coincides with Shepard's need to be anywhere else. Of course she gradually learns about Shepard's dilemma on the road.
And all this is complicated by Bell's jealous ex-boyfriend Michael Rosenbaum who puts the cops on Shepard's tail by charging kidnapping. Believe it or not it all gets resolved in the end.
Folks who love car chases will find this movie satisfactory. For myself while funny in spots overall it doesn't quite make it.
IT'S NOT JUST DOG FOOD
Charles (Dax Shepard),not his real name, is in the Witness Protection Program (WPP) in the sleepy little town of Milton. Randy (Tom Arnold) who is a fallen from grace, inept federal marshal is assigned to watch over him. Annie (Kristen Bell) is Charles' girlfriend. She knows he is in the Program, but not the details. Gil (Michael Rosenbaum) is Annie's ex-bf who is still in love with her.
When Annie gets offered a job in LA, Charles insists she go take it, and he opts to drive her himself in his 700 HP "suicide doors" Lincoln. They are chased by Gil, Randy, Gil's brother Terry (Jess Rowland) who is a gay policeman, and bad guy Alex (Bradley Cooper),the reason why Charles is in the WPP to begin with.
The film turns into "Smokey and the Bandit" with gun fire. The unorthodox relationship of the two stars is the heart of the film. Annie is an expert in solving non-violent conflict solutions and Charles is...well let's say he is trying.
The second half of the film digresses. I won't say it falls off a cliff, but it could have been done better in this romantic action/comedy.
Parental Guide: F-bombs, some really ugly nudity, male nudity.