{"id":3629,"date":"2012-08-22T17:30:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T00:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=3629"},"modified":"2012-08-22T17:30:38","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T00:30:38","slug":"hit-run-is-a-love-letter-to-car-movies-and-kristen-bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=3629","title":{"rendered":"Hit & Run is a Love Letter to Car Movies and Kristen Bell"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThe news borders on a being a revelation: Dax Shepard is a man of many skills. Who knew?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>With his new comedy, “Hit & Run,” Shepard proves to be a talent strong enough to pull off a cinematic one-man show. The former star of MTV’s “Punked” starred, wrote and co-directed while also finding the time to add editor to his contributions. Since the film has his fingerprints covering all angles it is safe to say that every component of “Hit & Run” could be found of the list of things that Dax Shepard loves. Fast cars, roaring chases and Kristen Bell would be found near the top followed by a bumbling Tom Arnold, putting Bradley Cooper in a silly wig and elderly nudity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lots of elderly nudity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Luckily Mr. Shepard must also have an affinity for well crafted characters because it is here that \u201cHit & Run\u201d sets itself apart. Everybody that opens their mouth during the film\u2019s running time comes up with something fresh and hilarious to say. Instead of introducing the villain with a stereotypical scene like a drug deal gone wrong we get Bradley Cooper\u2019s dread locked baddie forcefully bestowing the virtues of expensive dog food on an unlucky dog owner.\u00a0 The world is populated with gay cops, behavioral science experts and a U.S. Marshall who cannot go a day without his gun accidentally going off. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>
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\n\u00a0\u201cHit & Run\u201d is such a welcomed surprise partly because the set up could have easily gone down the clich\u00e9d route. Shepard is Charlie Bronson, a reformed getaway driver who has been living a dull life in the Witness Protection Program for four years. The only bright spot in his existence is his girlfriend Annie (Shepard\u2019s real life fianc\u00e9 Kristen Bell) who finds out that a position has opened up for her at a University in Los Angeles. Of course that means she would have to move to the City of Angels and, of course, that means Charlie is going with her. And, with one final of course, it is there that Charlie\u2019s former partners still do their bad business.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0After giving the slip to the Marshall in charge of his well being (Tom Arnold who is actually funny for the first time since 1994\u2019s \u201cTrue Lies\u201d) Charlie and Annie hop in a supped up Lincoln and blaze a trail to their destination. There are plenty of car chases that give the story an old-school retro feel that will remind you of a \u201cSmoky and the Bandit\u201d movie. I am no car buff but I still found these chases exhilarating.\u00a0 There are also plenty of pulled guns waved in faces with much bravado bellowed. Quentin Tarantino also likely influenced Shepard as many scenes share similarities with his early films. But Shepard never rips off, only emulates and he manages his own style quickly. An example: When Charlie finally faces his old friends that he testified against you see their history instantly. Cooper may be the evil bad guy but you can tell that he is hurt because his childhood friend told on him. While the scenes sometimes devolve into a string of “F” words this is interesting stuff that defies convention.\u00a0<\/strong>
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\n\u00a0While Dax does plenty to impress, the real revelation here is Kristen Bell. She gives such a genuine, lived-in performance that it borders on intimate. The opening scene between the two as they lay in bed seems so personal and real that there is a voyeuristic quality to it. The chemistry shared between the two is palpable. I don\u2019t know how much of Annie is actually Bell but it is easy to see why Charlie (and Dax) loves her.\u00a0 I\u2019m buying the tee shirt.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news borders on a being a revelation: Dax Shepard is a man of many skills. Who knew? With his new comedy, “Hit & Run,” Shepard proves to be a talent strong enough to pull off a cinematic one-man show. The former star of MTV’s “Punked” starred, wrote and co-directed while also finding the time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3395,5361,9207,11895,23000],"class_list":["post-3629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-bradley-cooper","tag-dax-shepard","tag-hit-and-run-movie","tag-kristen-bell","tag-tom-arnold"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}