Hit and Run

The venerable legacy of road-trip movies encounters another pothole with Hit and Run, an uneven comedy with a scrappy attitude that can’t compensate for a mechanical script.

The film is the brainchild of Dax Shepard, who has established himself mostly as a comedic supporting actor in films and on television, and now has moved behind the camera as well, functioning as a screenwriter and director.

He acts as a co-director with David Palmer with this effort, which shows some potential with a few flashes of visual flair, even if Shepard’s script generally lacks subtlety and surprise.

Shepard plays Charlie, who flees the Witness Protection Program with his girlfriend, Annie (Kristen Bell), for a road trip that is supposed to culminate with a lucrative opportunity in Los Angeles. But their journey becomes complicated when various parties try to track them down, including a federal agent (Tom Arnold) in charge of their safety, one of Charlie’s loose-cannon former associates (Bradley Cooper), Annie’s overprotective ex-boyfriend (Michael Rosenbaum) and even a creepy guy from a truck stop (David Koechner).

Basically, Hit and Run is a mess that isn’t without its virtues. The tone is all over the map, with an emphasis on strained dialogue and low-brow slapstick that seems to work against the film’s strengths.

That would be Shepard and Bell, who are engaged off-screen and develop a charming on-screen chemistry as well.

Some of the other casting choices are strange, perhaps in part because the supporting characters are so thin, including Arnold as the bumbling marshal with a penchant for discharging his handgun at the least opportune times, along with extended cameos by Kristin Chenowith as Annie’s boss and Beau Bridges as Charlie’s father. Cooper seems to have fun as the unpredictable Alex but doesn’t bring much depth.

The script follows a generic road-trip structure in which the couple meets various weirdos along their journey, yet the effort to withhold information on Charlie’s background – both from Annie and the audience – feels like a manipulative ploy.

Hit and Run contains some scattered big laughs, and some superficial pleasures such as a cool car and a catchy soundtrack. But while it gets decent mileage from a marginal premise, by the end the film is all skid marks and squealing wheels.

Rated R, 99 minutes.