‘Hit and Run’ is hit and miss

We were excited for Hit & Run, the new action/comedy/romance flick that looked a little like Bonnie and Clyde meets Smokey and the Bandit. But in the hands of actor Dax Shepard, who wrote the screenplay and co-directed the movie with David Palmer, the movie sputters at the start and then limps to the finish line.

The film centers on Charlie (Shepard) and Annie (Kristen Bell), an unmarried couple living happily in a small California town. Their bubble, however, bursts when Annie’s boss (Kristen Chenowith) encourages her to take a sweet job in Los Angeles where she’ll be in charge of an entire department or face being laid off at her small school. Annie is ambivalent about the gig because Charlie can’t leave witness protection in sleepy Milton, California. But Charlie refuses to let Annie miss out on the opportunity, and the two skip town, much to the chagrin of the incompetent U.S. Marshal (Tom Arnold) who’s supposed to look after him.

In predictable fashion, once the couple hits the road in Charlie’s souped-up muscle car, the real trouble begins. Annie’s ex-boyfriend Gil (Michael Rosenbaum) discovers that Charlie is really a bank robber who ratted out his accomplices. He alerts Alex (Bradley Cooper), the guy who did eight months of time on account of Charlie’s testimony, and the criminals all converge for one complex confrontation.

Surprisingly sweet and ultimately more chick flick than action movie, Hit & Run just doesn’t deliver many laughs. The very likeable Shepard and Bell have good chemistry and good banter.  Pretty boy Cooper delivers a decidedly different performance for him and Arnold provides some good slapstick-y moments. But the plodding plot and dull chase scenes keep the film from becoming the wild ride it promised to be.