FORMAT: DVD
Hit and Run is a surprisingly fresh updating of the old reliable car chase genre. The secret sauce that holds everything together is the chemistry between real-life couple Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell, who spend much of the movie confined in the close quarters of cars, hotels, and convenience stores. Their performances are so natural that there are times when you feel like you’re eavesdropping on their private conversations. Even the dialogue seems like it could’ve been plucked from their marriage. Moments where Bell takes Shepard to task for casually using a slur, having a frank discussion about their careers, and talking about things that happened in their past ring true mostly because they talk like real people and not characters in a car chase movie.
The car chase itself is a little different than usual. Most of these movies entail outlaws outrunning the police. Here, our hero Dax is a former criminal in the witness protection program who decides against his handler’s wishes to drive his girlfriend to LA for her new job. Along the way, his former criminal associate (Bradley Cooper) gets wind of his identity and tries to get revenge.
The supporting players seem to be having a lot of fun. Cooper looks like an Olympic snowboarder with his white boy dreadlocks, but he still has an air of menace about him. I liked the scene where he casually suggests to a guy in a grocery store that he’s better off feeding his dog natural dog food. When he shrugs off the suggestion, Cooper makes him eat it at gun point. Michael Rosenbaum also looks to be having a blast playing Bell’s tweaked out jealous ex-boyfriend. Tom Arnold gets some laughs too as a clumsy marshal.
For a car chase movie, the actual chasing and stunts feel almost like an afterthought. While they are competently handled and filmed, they don’t exactly knock your socks off. That’s perfectly fine though, seeing how the quirky original characters and funny dialogue more than make up for it.
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