Hit & Run

Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: 1/8/2013
Director: Dax Shepard, David Palmer
Cast: Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard, Tom Arnold, Kristin Chenoweth, Bradley Cooper
Year: 2012
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The Movie:

In a small California town about four hours from Los Angeles lives a nice young couple, Charles Bronson (Dax Shepard) and Annie Bean (Kristen Bell). One day Annie gets the chance at a big teaching job in L.A. and needs to get to her interview. There's one problem though… Charles Bronson is in the Witness Protection program with the U.S. Marshals and can't leave town. He especially can't go to L.A. where his life would most certainly be endangered. But Charles Bronson, real name Yul Perkkins (as he'll be referred to from here on out), loves Annie so much that he's willing to take the risk of losing his life in order to get Annie to the interview. Stored away in his garage is his amazing '67 Lincoln Continental and the two lovebirds are off. But they aren't going to have an easy time of it.

Annie's jealous ex-boyfriend Gil (Michael Rosenbaum) thinks Yul wants to kill Annie and role-play with her corpse, once he learns Yul is in Witness Protection. A little Google action leads Gil to learn the truth about Yul and the person he's hiding from. Turns out Yul turned state's witness on an old friend and associate named Alex (Bradley Cooper) and Gil lets Alex know where Yul is hiding. And then there's Yul's assigned Marshal, Randy (Tom Arnold), an under achieving agent who just wants to hang out with Yul and go bowling. Once he learns Yul has taken off, he feels it's his duty to protect Yul and gets himself into hot pursuit mode. He's got an ally, a gay deputy for the Sheriff's department named Terry (Jess Rowland, and the two share a connection through a homosexual trolling phone app called “Pounce”. So we have Yul and Annie in the Lincoln being pursued by Gil (to protect Annie), Alex and his crew (to kill Yul), Marshal Randy (to protect Yul), and Deputy Terry (to help Randy). High speed car chases and crashes ensue.

So it's a chase movie. And a chase movie written and co-directed by someone who obviously loves chase movies because it has all the elements of a good high-speed pursuit show. There's the lead character being chased who's likeable even though he's got a shady side; a cute as hell female companion; a comic relief authority figure(s); an insane antagonist; and some testosterone-laced, big horse-powered vehicle action. The story behind the chasing is one of a man trying to change his ways and who is trying to keep hold of the woman he loves, but it isn't laid on too thick. No worse than say Sally Field and Burt Reynolds in Smokey & The Bandit. And the fact that Shepard and Bell are couple in real life helps their believability go further. You can see a real chemistry between them and it comes out on the screen with some blatancy.

There's a lot of humor in the story, humor that works well without being intrusive. To say the humor is subtle isn't quite right, but it doesn't bang you over the head either. There's definitely some crudeness, but there are some clever pieces as well. And there are some great exchanges between Yul and Alex. Tom Arnold has a number of good scenes as the law enforcement guy whose car gets trashed on a regular basis, and for someone who loves car chase movies, there are a few spots that earned some rewinding and repeat giggling. A few cameos make their way to the camera, including Beau Bridges, Jason Bateman, and David Koechner. Oh and if you dig 60-something year-old nudists, you're in for a treat.

Dax Shepard wrote, starred, and co-directed the movie, as well as did his own driving (and Bell was in the car with him!). He owns the Lincoln as well at least one other vehicle he gets to tear around in, and he obviously knows how to handle his wheels. And to wear all those hats and still put out a product that is as worthy of watching as Hit & Run says a lot about his abilities, and makes him someone this viewer will keep watch on, at least on the directorial side of things. His love for cars, racing, Kristin Bell, and chase flicks really gives this movie its pulse and he does a great job exploiting said loves. A number of subtle nods are present, and he even employs the old Roger Corman trick of speeding up the action at times, to make it look faster. It's not a balls-out non-stop action movie, and really the story is a love story at its core, but Shepard does a fine job with his entry into the genre and put together a film that should entertain on at least a couple of different levels.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Visually, the disc has plenty of appeal. Presumably shot on digital, the detail is excellent and the clarity is wholly satisfying. Colors are vibrant and crisp and incredibly pleasing to the eye. Black levels are nice and deep too. The 1080p HD image is shown with an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, if you care to know that. The audio isn't quite as stellar as the video portion, but it still does a fine enough job. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track doesn't seem to have a lot of rear channel activity, at least on a level noticeable to this viewer, but the stuff coming out of the front seems balanced and clear. Music comes through loud, but never in the way. No hissing or the like report.

Extras-wise there are a few things to see, but nothing to get excited over. 19 minutes worth of deleted scenes that don't amount to much, and a few 2-3 minute featurettes that cover very little and are little more than promo pieces probably viewable online, like at the movie's official website or something. Also, the Blu-ray comes with a DVD copy, a digital copy, and Ultraviolet capability, you know… for that “cloud” shit.

The Final Word:

Entertaining. Recommended at least once.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!