Hit and Run is an adult romantic comedy for action junkies. It has extreme adult content and adult language, strong sensuality, nudity, graphic violence and two people who only want the best for each other. Writers Dax Shepard and David Palmer have reunited for an introspective look at the plight of love amid the super chill life of a man with a past and the woman who is to be his bride. Shepard co-directed and stars.
Kristen Bell is Annie. She has a doctorate in Non-Violent Conflict Resolution and works at a community college in the middle of nowhere. Her boyfriend Charlie (Dax Shepard) is unemployed and jumps at the chance to take her to a job interview in the big city. As it turns out, Charlie has enemies in the big city and they are unwillingly to let him make to into town alive. Bradley Cooper, Joy Bryant and Ryan Hansen are three goons bent on settling an old score. They have a bone to pick and all attacks are aimed at Charlie. Charlie, also, has an enemy in Annie’s former boyfriend, Gil. Michael Rosenbaum is Gil, the cool guy who continues to pine for the one he let get away. To add insult to injury, he is co-conspiring with the bad guys from the city to get Charlie dead.
The chemistry between Annie and Charlie is phenomenal. Audiences will fall in love with them and have no trouble believing how much they love each other. It’s just so easy because nearly every scene involves some variety of the most awkward thing two people can say to each other and yet, somehow, they manage to make it out alive. The two are able to talk their way through to the best part of one another and solve their dilemmas with nurturing and understanding. This is why it is more than understandable that Charlie willingly endangers himself to assist Annie on her trek.
Hit and Run is not only a modern love story, it is a high octane car chase across five-hundred miles of California turf. Extreme car addicts will love the 1967 Lincoln with “suicide doors”. Audiences should consider this: If the mean railings of an impromptu game of chicken on a two-line back road don’t get your heart rate up, then the face off on an abandoned air field surely will.
To the relief of audiences, all is not lost for the young lovers. Charlie has a friend in deed in Randy, played by Tom Arnold. In a manner of sorts, Randy is a guardian angel to a very spirited guy. With a little help, Charlie will get Annie to the interview of her life so that they can start the rest of their lives together.
When choosing Hit and Run, keep in mind that it is for mature audiences. It moves at lightning speed. The cars are fast and the dialogue is faster. The wit, charm and timing of the overall film is top-notch and not at all for the weak of heart or those easily offended by visual stimulus or risqué subject matter.
In what audiences will consider their most tender moment together, Charlie reminds a nervous and excited Annie that, “You are exactly where you are supposed to be. You are exactly who you are supposed to be.”
Everything else is avoiding a Hit and Run.