Kristen Bell And Dax Sheppard Earn Good Reviews For The Charming ‘Hit & Run’

Watching  Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard in Hit & Run, it’s easy to see that the real-life couple had a lot of fun making the movie.

Made with a small budget and both written and directed by Dax Shepard, the movie oozes with charm and the natural chemistry between the lead characters helps push it along in between the frequent car chases. The Associated Press notes that the film’s small budget causes it to stick to no-frills action scenes, but instead to scant resources put into Hit & Run are used to create a fun and engaging storyline.

Hit & Run is about Dax Shepard’s character, Charlie Bronson, trying to outrun his past life as a bank robbery getaway driver and move on with girlfriend played by Kristen Bell. But when Bell’s character is offered a job on Los Angeles, he is forced to leave his life in the witness protection program and face his former partners.

Dax Shepard made sure that Hit & Run had plenty of room for his acting friends, making parts catered for Bradley Cooper, Tom Arnold, Kristin Chenoweth and his former Parenthood co-star Joy Bryant.

The formula works, The Associated Press notes:

The result is like a student film made by pros, weirdly idiosyncratic but efficiently paced. It’s well-scripted and well-acted, and if Hit & Run lingers too long on so-so gags and inside jokes Shepard and his friends found particularly funny, it compensates with a freewheeling spirit that pulls viewers along for the ride.

Much of Hit & Run is just cooking up reasons for Dax Shepard to drive Kristen Bell on a series of car chases in exotic vehicles, including a 1967 Lincoln Continental, the New York Times noted. But despite the high-octane action, the real attraction is the chemistry between Shepard and Bell, The Associated Press wrote.