Hit & Run takes a bit to get started. It promises to be a comedic road trip type of film, and part of it is. At its heart it’s a sort of romantic comedy with Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell in the leads. Supporting players include Tom Arnold, Kristen Chenoweth, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rosenbaum, and more. It should be noted this is Dax Shepard’s film. Not only does he star in it, but he wrote and co-directed it. He has his friends and fiancé participate in various acting roles and even does a lot of the stunt driving himself.
There is a lot to like about Hit & Run. It’s a fun story with a cast of characters that many other films would have a hard time giving equal weight to and juggling nicely. Here everybody gets the right amount of screen story arc. My problem with the film comes in the plotting does take a while to get going, then once it does, there is no sense of time. It takes over half of the film for there to be a time deadline for the main protagonist to be racing against the clock, and that’s when the intensity finally begins to kick in.
And the car that is featured in the trailer and on the cover of the Blu-ray doesn’t make it all the way through the film. Alright, so that’s a bit of a spoiler, but that’s like casting George Clooney as your lead actor and having him be in the film for 15 minutes.
Charlie (Shepard) is a man with a past, and when his girlfriend (Bell) is offered a potential job in Los Angeles, he reluctantly agrees to take her. Charlie, it turns out, is in witness protection, and his handler, Randy, (Arnold) is having a rough time. Enter people from the past, and you get the idea about where this is going.
It’s a simple plot, really, and it doesn’t get overly complicated other than with the various characters that need handling, and that’s actually where Hit & Run shines. It’s fun watching the interplay with the various characters and seeing how they interact and evolve.
One thing that I have to point out that was distracting was Bradley Cooper as the antagonist of the piece. His character was some sort of surfer guy, and he did well enough, but it was so far removed from what we normally see him as, especially physically, that it might have been better with a different actor in the role. The character was good, he was good, but I don’t think he was the right actor for the role. But that’s me.
Only three promotional featurettes (which add up to less than 10 minutes) and are obviously culled from the same set of interviews along with a few deleted scenes are present as the special features. I wonder why Shepard wasn’t afforded the opportunity to do an audio commentary. His learning experience as a first time filmmaker would have been interesting.
Anyway, Hit & Run is a decent film that will not set your evening on fire, but it is a serviceable story that is propelled by a decent cast of characters. A bit vulgar for some tastes, but not nearly as outlandish as American Pie or The Hangover.