Dax Shepard, Kristin Bell Stall Out in ‘Hit & Run’

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

Rating: 1.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Pardon the clichés for a minute. I can’t help myself. Dax Shepard’s “Hit & Run” doesn’t just lose the drag race. It doesn’t just blow a flat tire or run out of gas. Think of all the Shalit-esque puns you can about a disastrous experience in a car and apply them to this lurching mess of five or six movies that aspires to be Tarantino-esque but completely misses its mark. There are a number of likable people in “Hit & Run” and they’ll walk away clean from this accident but audiences will want to quickly forget they ever took the ride.

Shepard wrote, co-directed, and stars as Charlie Bronson, a name his character chose for himself when he entered the witness protection program after testifying against a notorious criminal played by Bradley Cooper. Bronson has been living peacefully in a small town with his lovely girlfriend Annie (Kristen Bell) while occasionally meeting with his irritable WitSec Officer Randy (Tom Arnold). When Annie gets an amazing job opportunity in Los Angeles, Charlie decides to take the risk of traveling with her out of his protective bubble. When Annie’s ex Gil (Michael Rosenbaum) gets suspicious enough about Charlie to blow his cover online and get the bad guys back after him, a “True Romance”-esque journey across country ensues.

Hit and Run
Photo credit: Open Road

“Hit & Run” has elements and moments that work. In fact, it opens strong with a tender dialogue scene between Shepard and Bell that feels reminiscent of Shepard’s recent indie film “The Freebie.” And then the film shifts gears and becomes something wacky and broad with Arnold. And then it switches again and becomes a car race movie with extended driving sequences a la “Death Proof.” And then it switches gears again and becomes a relationship dramedy with the arrival of Gil. By the time that Cooper was throwing a leash around a grown man and dragging him around, I had completely tired of keeping track of the references.

To say that all of these characters and tones never mesh into one overall experience would be a massive understatement. “Hit & Run” lurches when it should cruise. And it comes to a complete halt at several moments such as when it gets bizarrely racist and homophobic later in the movie or in the fact that it thinks old naked people are funny…twice. There are times when “Hit & Run” approaches true disaster, such as in a recurring bit about a smart phone app that finds gay people nearby or the aforementioned leash scene, but it’s mostly just disappointing.

Hit and Run
Photo credit: Open Road

The level of disappointment is heightened by who’s involved. Shepard is a talented guy who has given strong performances on “Parenthood” over the last few years but he shoots too high here, trying to ape the tonal changes of Tarantino and not realizing that QT’s talent level is not something easily mimicked. I’d love to see Shepard as a lead in something more consistent because I think he’s charismatic as an actor but this film is just too inconsistent on a script and directorial level. And Bell was one of the most charismatic actresses on TV in “Veronica Mars” but she’s just as lost here as anyone else.

That’s the best word for “Hit & Run” – lost. Shepard’s film jumps styles, tones, senses of humor, genres, and does so in a way that’s more like someone with multiple personality disorder than an interesting eccentric. Some of the car chase scenes might be worth catching on cable and I go back to that first scene – the heartfelt one between Shepard & Bell that felt so real – and think about the movie that could have been. It’s easily the best scene in “Hit & Run.” Before they get in the car and…well, you know.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com