BLU-RAY REVIEW: HIT & RUN
1/06/2013

OVERVIEW: From the producers of Wedding Crashers comes the adrenaline-fueled Hit & Run, written by, directed and
starring Dax Shepard (“Parenthood,” Idiocracy). Kristen Bell (“House of Lies,” You Again) stars along with Shepard in this hilarious, nonstop,
action-packed comedy co-starring Bradley Cooper (The Hangover), Kristin Chenoweth (“Glee”) and Tom Arnold (Madea’s Witness Protection). Hit & Run is a high-speed race to the finish where the brakes are off and the chase is on. Open Road’s outrageous caper Hit & Run will be available on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, DVD, On Demand and Digital Download on January 8, 2013 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

SYNOPSIS: A nice guy with a questionable past, Charlie Bronson (Shepard), risks everything when he busts out of a witness protection program to drive his girlfriend (Bell) to Los Angeles for the job opportunity of a lifetime. Their road trip grows awkwardly complicated, however, when they’re chased by an inept federal agent (Arnold) and Charlie’s ex-pal (Cooper), a vengeance-crazed criminal he helped put behind bars. Also starring Beau Bridges (The Descendants), Joy Bryant (“Parenthood”), David Koechner (Paul) and Jason Bateman (The Change-Up), Hit & Run is “a total pedal to the metal blast!” – Pete Hammond, Box Office Magazine.

FILM REVIEW: No, no, no people, don’t be misled. This is an okay movie overall but it’s not a great comedy. There really is not a whole lot to brag about in regards to this film. I really wanted to like it. I was looking forward to a solid and almost constant laugh of a movie, but this one wasn’t it. I mean sure, there are some funny moments and you will laugh a bit but it’s not as good as it may seem. People that know me know that I have a very open and wide sense of humor. Almost anything can make me laugh, so for me to say that this is not a great comedy is saying a lot. The movie is slow (except for the car chases), cliché, and superficial with a not so fascinating storyline. The story concept is good, but the presentation of said concept is not that great. And speaking of car chases, at least the movie makers chose some nice looking vehicles to help present this story. It’s never a bad idea to use a Chevy Corvette in a movie. They also added one of those modern station wagon style Cadillacs with the enhanced engine that can go pretty fast, and a really nice, horse-packed classic Lincoln. Seeing that Lincoln was one of the main highlights of the film (and yeah, okay, so was seeing Kristen Bell). Along with appropriate automobile choices, the music playlist was also entertaining and well selected. So there are some good points but the movie just didn’t have enough substance.

The cast was not too shabby which added to my surprise on how weak this picture is. Starting with the co-director and star of the show, Dax Shepard, he needed to direct himself to give a little more spunk to his character especially being the primary one. He seemed nonchalant about the whole thing and almost as if he was giving a supporting role performance. I still say his best performance that I’ve seen is in Employee of the Month. Kristen looked real good and her performance was acceptable but she just wasn’t given a whole lot to work with. The two strangest roles were done by Tom Arnold and Bradley Cooper. You can tell that Tom tried real hard to make it work but he just looked uncomfortable. Or maybe his neurotic character made me uncomfortable. In either case, it was strange. The strangest character award goes to Bradley. Actually I’ll admit it’s more so for his appearance. I mean, really, Bradley in dreadlocks? Then again, his performance is also a big “?”. As far as the characters they all play, well they’re about as shallow as the movie itself. Another one of the better features of the film is the array of interesting cameo appearances. No, I’m not going to tell you who they are (even though you can probably look them up anyway, but you’re not going to get them from me). There is not a whole lot to give away that would require a spoiler alert, so I’ll keep those cameo names to myself thank you. But seriously, you might be better off putting this one somewhere in the middle of the movies to rent list. 

Review By Cine Marcos 
cinemarcos@smartcine.com

BLU-RAY: The film is presented in widescreen in a 2.40:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless. Not only the picture looks great in this release, also the sound it is good, a 5.1 Dolby Digital in English that provides a good complement to the picture. It also includes  English  and Spanish subtitles.

VIDEO:
Widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9

AUDIO:
English  5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles - English Spanish French

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Digital Copy provides consumers with a choice of formats from a variety of partners, including options to watch on iPhone®,
iPad®, Android, computers and more.

UltraViolet™ is the revolutionary way for consumers to collect their movies and TV shows in the cloud. UltraViolet™ lets
consumers instantly stream and download to tablets, smartphones, computers and TVs. Now available in both the United States
and Canada.

DELETED SCENES

STREET LEGAL: Behind the scenes look with Writer/co-director/star Dax Shepard and star Kristen Bell.

RUN AND GUN: An in depth explanation of the plot of Hit & Run with Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell.

LOVE ON THE RUN: Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell discuss the romantic aspects of Hit & Run.