The engine sputters on bawdy road movie

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Jeffrey Reed/Open Road Films Ten-four, good buddy: Dax Shepard, left, and real-life girlfriend Kristen Bell bring chemistry to Hit and Run. (TRIBUNE MEDIA MCT)

For better or worse, filmmakers are often influenced by the films they saw at an impressionable age. Judging from Hit and Run, it would appear actor-turned-writer-director Dax Shepard was perhaps too much impressed with Smokey and the Bandit.

This movie has a lot more raw, semi-tasteless comedy, but otherwise the car chase/romance dynamics are roughly the same. Shepard plays Charlie Bronson, a man trapped in a small town under the auspices of the Witness Protection Program. On the plus side, he has met the love of his life, Annie (Kristen Bell), a teacher at the local community college.

Unfortunately, Annie has just booked a job interview with a more prestigious college in Los Angeles, which is back to the lion's den as far as Charlie is concerned. That is the turf of the hot-headed bank robber (a dreadlocked Bradley Cooper) Charlie testified against four years earlier.

But Charlie is a dutiful boyfriend and he insists on escorting his lady love to L.A. in a 700-horsepower, parade float-sized '67 Cadillac he built with his dad. Alas, Annie has a jealous D-bag ex-boyfriend Gil (Michael Rosenbaum) who discovers Charlie's true identity and notifies Charlie's nemesis via Facebook.

The chase is on, with Charlie's jittery, klutzy U.S. marshal pal Randy (Tom Arnold) in hot pursuit as well.

The movie was reportedly shot quickly on a limited budget, with actors deferring their salaries to allow the likable Shepard to indulge his loves, which include fast cars, stunt driving, and Kristen Bell.

All the fun being had behind the cameras occasionally translates to the material in front of the cameras. Shepard actually creates a lively relationship for himself and Bell. His character comes from the kind of background where the use of fists and/or offensive language is the norm and Annie's sociological specialty is non-violent conflict resolution, a problematic field for a guy who, given an opportunity to choose a new name, picks "Charles Bronson."

But the movie fails to acquire an organic life of its own. Shepard is shooting for caustic, Quentin Tarantino-esque dialogue that doesn't integrate too easily into a plot that might have appealed to Burt Reynolds back in the '70s.

Shepard also can't resist the impulse to insert some gratuitous, R-rated cheap laughs, including not one but two intrusions into an orgy for seniors.

One would hope Shepard would have tried harder for Bell's benefit. She really needs a great role after appearing in serial stinkers such as You Again, When in Rome and Burlesque.

For the sake of his girl, Shepard really should have built her a 700-horsepower starring vehicle.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Other voices

Excerpts from reviews of Hit and Run:

It doesn't really hold together and stand up to much scrutiny. But the car stuff is fun, some bits are laugh-out-loud funny and Bell and Shepard make an adorable couple.

-- Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Hit and Run is a race to ridiculousness, but at the same time it's a bit of a gas.

-- Tom Long, Detroit News

They're all clearly having fun, though that's not the same as making a movie.

-- Rafer Guzman, Newsday

Essentially a celebrity goof-off... Hit and Run goes slack from the lack of any real back-and-forth.

-- Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice

A strange, but strangely entertaining combo of drag-racing machismo, slapstick silliness, raunchy riffs, politically incorrect rants and sweet nothings.

-- Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

Like the muscle cars it lovingly features, Hit and Run idles effectively, revs and takes off with frisky energy, and knows just when to cruise.

-- Claudia Puig, USA Today

This one checks all the boxes for summer escapism: hot cars, hotter women, highway hooliganism, a hell-raising hero, hapless cops, hilarious villains, no plot and no apologies.

-- Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

A comedy that feels as if it were dreamed up in the wee hours between bong hits and shots of tequila.

-- Stephen Holden, New York Times

The good time clearly had by the filmmakers rubs off on the audience.

-- David Germain, Associated Press

Real-life couple Shepard and Bell bring genuine chemistry to this high-energy excursion.

-- Peter Debruge, Variety

-- Compiled by Shane Minkin

Hit & Run

Starring Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell

Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne

14A

100 minutes

21Ñ2 out of five

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 24, 2012 D5