Review of Hit & Run (2012) by Manny C — 08 Jan 2013

You don't expect a movie like Hit & Run to be brilliant. Me, I just reveled in its surprising pleasures. It's too bad the movie can't completely sustain its manic energy. It has a tough time getting from one point to another.

Plot is not really its strong suit. Dax Shepard, who is amazing on NBC's Parenthood, stars, but also wrote the script and co-directed with David Palmer and stars as Charlie Bronson, not the bad-ass actor but the actual British prisoner that Tom Hardy played in the great 2008 movie Bronson).

Charlie's real name is Yul Perrkins (like Yul Brynner from The Magnificent Seven) and he's been living in a small California town by order of the Witness Protection Program where he's monitored by bumbling U.

S. marshal Randy (Tom Arnold). Charlie can't take the boredom, save for teh company of his girlfriend Annie (Kristen Bell, Shepard's real life partner). Annie has a huge job opportunity at UCLA and Charlie/Yul is determined to get her there.

Then, for reason not always made clear, lots of folks are suddenly after Charlie and Annie, which includes Randy, Annie's ex (Michael Rosenbaum) and three bank robbers whose incarceration Charlie had a hand in.

Leader of that trio is Alex (Bradley Cooper, dreadlocked and hilarious) looking for payback. It all becomes tiring pretty fast. The best parts come in the dynamic between Shepard and Bell, but neverending car chases come in the way.

Shepard is a huge fan of the 1977 Burt Reynolds film Smokey and The Bandit, and loves cars so much he used some from his own collection in the movie. That enthusiasm doesn't always translate to the screen.

Hit & Run has some good turns, but it get too bumpy to sustain interest.