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Hit & Run

Hit & Run

ACTION/COMEDY:

United States, 2012

U.S. Release Date:

2012-08-22

Running Length:

1:40

MPAA Classification:

R (Violence, Profanity, Sexual Content, Nudity)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio:

2.35:1

Cast:

Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rosenbaum, Tom Arnold, Kristen Chenoweth, Beau Bridges

Director:

David Palmer, Dax Shepard

Screenplay:

Dax Shepard

Cinematography:

Bradley Stonesifer

Music:

Robert Mervak, Julian Wass

U.S. Distributor:

Open Road Films

Subtitles:

none

For an action comedy, it's generally advisable that the movie be (a) exciting, (b) funny, or (c) both of the above. In the case of Hit & Run, the unfortunate choice is (d) none of the above. A slow, meandering misfire of a movie, this co-directorial production of David Palmer and Dax Shepard tries hard to achieve a Quentin Tarantino vibe (consider the sequence focused on the ingredients of an inferior brand of dog food) but doesn't do a good job. It's like Mozart being interpreted by someone who's tone-deaf. (I'm sure Tarantino would get a kick out being compared to Mozart.) And the ending is so flaccid that it takes a few minutes to realize that the climax has come and gone. (Women may be more familiar with that experience than men.)
Some of Hit & Run's comedy is just plain strange. Although "strange" does not necessarily equate to "funny," there's a penchant for quirkiness. Consider, for example, the hotel room occupied by a group of old naked fat people. (Note: in the trailer, they have been given CGI underwear, but there's not of that in the movie - sort of like Natalie Portman's chainmail bikini.) That's where Hit & Runearns the "nudity" in its rating content description. The scene isn't really funny (unless you find out-of-shape human bodies to be funny, which I suppose is possible - think Kathy Bates in About Schmidt) but it is unusual. Most of the material with Tom Arnold, whose character exists exclusively for comedic purposes, is more annoying than amusing.
The opening scene is illustrative of the film's overall tone. Tom Arnold's character, a Federal marshal named Randy, spills coffee on himself while driving. He pulls over to the side, gets out of the car, and forgets to put the vehicle in park. The car starts rolling away on its own with Randy in pursuit, firing his gun at it. This is more embarrassing than funny - a cartoonish scene that even Adam Sandler might reject. When it comes to the action side of the equation, Hit & Run isn't much better. There are three car chases, although two are so perfunctory that to call them "chases" might be deemed an exaggeration. There are also a couple of brief fights but that's about it.
Does Hit & Run want viewers to become invested in the characters? I suppose that's the goal, even though there's not really a likeable individual in the film and more than one is nails-on-the-blackboard annoying. Liking anyone is a chore. The protagonist is a lying slacker who constantly hides things from his girlfriend and shows little willingness to accept the consequences of his actions. The "innocent" girlfriend is whiny and self-righteous. And the villains spend too much time acting cool and reciting "hip" dialogue to be imbued with sufficient malice.
The story revolves around "Charlie Bronson" (Dax Shepard), or at least that's what he calls himself. When he entered the witness protection program after testifying against his former best friend, Alex (Bradley Cooper), in a bank robbery trial, he was permitted to trade in his birth moniker, Yul Perkins, for something more intimidating. For the past six months, he has been living in Podunk, CA with his new girlfriend, Annie (Kristen Bell). He loves her so much that, when she's offered the job of a lifetime in L.A., he decides to opt out of his new life and go back to the scene of the crime. That might work well if it wasn't for Annie's jealous slimy ex, Gil (Michael Rosenbaum), who does a little on-line sleuthing and discovers most of the salient details about Charlie's past. He then Facebook-friends Alex and informs him that he knows the location of his one-time best buddy and driver. This leads to the three aforementioned chases, the highlight of which occurs when Randy's SUV goes airborne.
Bradley Cooper, who has made a career out of playing nice guys, lacks the badass gene. His character is not the least bit intimidating. Dax Shepard, who co-directed and wrote the screenplay, is okay as Charlie, but he spends too much time rationalizing his actions. For Kristen Bell, this is another dead-end role that makes one wonder whether she needs a new agent. She has become so typecast that she's sleepwalking her way through these parts. Hit & Run could use a little sex appeal to liven things up, but it doesn't come from her.
The movie is typical of what gets released at this time of the year. It's the end of August and this is when studios and distributors dump their trash so those titles can arrive on DVD/Blu-Ray/streaming without the "direct to video" tag, which remains a badge of dishonor. There's no expectation on Open Road's part that this is going to do very well at the box office and, based on the quality of the production, no reason for them to be proven wrong. Even for home viewing, Hit & Run would be considered marginal - the kind of film that would not be paused for bathroom breaks and trips to the refrigerator. When it comes to movies about cars, this one's only moderately more intense than Driving Miss Daisy.
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WATCH A TRAILER/CLIP:

New Dredd Movie

When the first trailer for Pete Travis' 'Dredd' hit the web, the one thing people seemed to dwell on is a central plot point that seemed oddly reminiscent of Gareth Evans' 'The Raid.' This recently released clip from the movie hits upon the similarity in more detail. Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) advises the people in her building that two judges (Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby) are in the vicinity and that until they are brought down, the block is on lockdown. I'll grant you that this looks a lot like 'The Raid,' but keep in mind that these two movies started shooting at roughly the same time. All I know for certain is that it's a great setup for a metric ton of violence and destruction. Take a look at the clip below and let us know what you think.

MOVIE REVIEW

“The Campaign,” a new bandwagon for Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as dueling canadates may not revive political comedy, but it does recall Lily Tomlin. Use your iPad to watch.

“No matter how cynical you get, it’s never enough to keep up,” Tomlin said.

For those of us feeling some buyer’s remorse about recent electoral selections—or even having a panic attack over the bad choices soon to come—“The Campaign” offers reassurance that no, it doesn’t get much worse than 2012.

In a very slightly better world, Ferrell is Cam Brady, a North Carolina Democrat with a safe congressional seat and a seemingly unbeatable platform: America. Jesus. Freedom. Cam admits to his campaign manager Mitch, the bland Jason Sudeikis, that as a practical matter, he doesn’t know what that means, but it works.

The way Mitch is looking at the poll numbers, though, it hasn’t been working well since “The Call.” That was a breezily but explicitly salacious message Cam intended for his “dancer” mistress, but instead left on the answering machine of a God-fearing family—and remember, this is North Carolina, where folks are very afraid of God.

With his Clinton-Obama political orientation, Cam helpfully suggests that Mitch simply turn the poll chart on its axis, so the line goes up again. He’s not worried; he’s running unopposed.

In another part of the political jungle, though, the billionaire Motch brothers are perturbed by Cam’s plunging polling. They need a safer placeholder, or office-holder, to turn his district into their latest 

Like modern American political discourse, “The Campaign” isn’t overflowing with ideas. But the Motch brothers, played by Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow with “Trading Places” panache, do introduce one sure-fire buzzword, “

They are buying up the district so that they can shift their penny-torturing Chinese factories back to America—along with Chinese workers who would still be excluded from safety, child labor and, of course, environmental rules. You know, over-regulation. That will cut the transportation costs the brothers now pay to ship their products back here for sale.

With their preferred contender already in prison, the Motches turn to Marty Huggins, who cheerfully boosts his town as tourism director and tour bus announcer. He’s a nerdy character of a type Galifianakis has trotted out before, but here plays with genuine sweetness.

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BOX OFFICE

Rank	Gross in millions:	Weekend	To Date
1.	The Dark Knight Rises	$36.4	$354.6
2.	Total Recall	$26.0	$26.0
3.	Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days	$14.7	$14.7
4.	Ice Age: Continental Drift	$8.4	$131.9
5.	The Watch	$6.4	$25.4
6.	Ted	$5.5	$203.4
7.	Step Up Revolution	$5.3	$23.1
8.	The Amazing Spider-Man	$4.3	$250.6
9.	Brave	$2.9	$223.3
10.	Magic Mike	$1.4	$110.9

Bourne, Under New Management Movie Review: ‘The Bourne Legacy’

When agent Aaron Cross plunges into icy waters in the opening moments of the brisk and satisfying spy thriller "The Bourne Legacy," the scene serves two purposes: to commemorate the superb and well-loved trilogy that came before, in which Matt Damon, as the man called Jason Bourne, made his first appearance in "The Bourne Identity," fished out of the Mediterranean Sea with bullets in his back; and to baptize Jeremy Renner as the action-hero heir worthy of leading the franchise forward. Check eBay or amazon out not.

The symbolism works elegantly. Renner's Cross is a conflicted hero built to take advantage of the "Hurt Locker" star's best qualities as an actor — his default intensity, the way he conveys that complicated mental calculations are taking place under cover of watchful stillness, even underwater.

Director and co-writer Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayton") has custom-tailored "The Bourne Legacy" for the present by opening up the narrative. Unnerving scenes of backroom operations among shadowy governmental and private-enterprise types reveal the machinations of a much bigger, more nefarious tangle of players than previously imagined. There are mystery men running the country — and, by remote control, the world. This movie recommends 

Meanwhile, Cross is currently the agent in the crosshairs.

To his handlers he's only "No. 5," one of six experimental warriors chemically enhanced for use by the Department of Defense in an operation called Outcome — sort of the 2.0 of the original trilogy's Treadstone. But now his masters (led by an effectively steely Edward Norton) want to eradicate all evidence that Outcome ever existed by destroying these six superagents. In desperation, he turns for help to the pharmaceutical scientist who "created" his enhanced capabilities (Rachel Weisz, a good choice, and from the looks of her, a good runner). Soon the two are sprinting for their lives together.

Like any story with 'Bourne" in the title, this one scampers around the globe, with a big chunk of well-crafted showdown action set in teeming Manila. Gilroy, who as a screenwriter has shaped the movie saga from the beginning, trades the wired rhythms established in the past two episodes by Paul Greengrass for something more realistic and closer to the ground. The change is refreshing. Jason Bourne's legacy is in good hands. Grade: B-