CAR CHASE CINEMA; Hit And Run (2012)

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Car chase movies filled with daredevil stunt drivers really hit their peak in the 1970’s. Take a look back at ‘The Getaway’ or ‘Smokey and The Bandit’ to see how well full-frame American cars survived smash-ups back then.

Dax Shepard is a gearhead. He’s well known in automotive circles for his supercharged station wagon and legendary Lincoln. Back in 2012, Dax had an idea for an old-fashioned car chase movie. Less than three months later, the film was finished.

The only way to get a project like ‘Hit and Run’ done was to do it himself. Sheppard used his own fleet of cool cars, including his pride-and-joy Lincoln Continental and TATUM Motorsports Baja race car. Without a studio second guessing him, he also go to do all his own stunt driving and which a studio would never have approved.

He cast his wife Kristen Bell as the love interest, and his buddies Tom Arnold and Bradley Cooper to play the cops and robbers in the movie. A cameo from Beau Bridges as ‘dad’ and Dax assembled an impressive cast for an independent film.

Charles Bronson has an ideal life in a peaceful California town with his beatiful girlfriend, Annie. He also enjoys the security of the Witness Protection Program. He hasn’t exactly told Annie about his past life as a getaway driver for bank robberies. Annie urgently needs to get to Los Angeles, and Charles’ must get her there himself. But now his old gang is chasing him, the cops are following him, and even Annie’s old boyfriend is chasing them. Will they make it to L.A. on time? Will the bad guys capture them?

The ‘big chase’ starts off with Charles and Annie in a 1967 Lincoln Continental with a big-block racing engine. It’s the hero car from the movie poster, and one would almost believe that the whole project was an excuse for Dax Sheppard to film himself hooning the car.

The crew of bad guys are chasing Charlie and Annie in a 2010 Cadillac CTS-V with candy-apple red paint. Far from a low key, this vehicle is the most powerful American station wagon ever built. With a Corvette motor directly from the factory, the CTS-V can easily keep up with the hero’s Lincoln. There’s a moment in the film when Bradley Cooper shouts “I can’t believe this thing is a station wagon!”.

When the bad guys have finally cornered Charlie and Annie in a barn, the smash through the doors in a dune buggy. The TATUM is a 720 HP desert racer with a 427 cubic inch V8 and enough suspension travel to jump over a car without breaking a sweat, or a shock absorber. This is Dax’s personal race car, and again, it seems like he was just searching for a way to include more of his toys in the film.

A true labour of love, Dax Sheppard was the writer, producer, co-editor and co-director of the film which he starred in. With a shoestring a budget of $2,000,000, gearhead Dax and his friends pumped out a car crash film right out of the golden era. Oh… and half the budget was for licensing the music for the soundtrack. True shoestring budget.

Yes, it’s a testosterone-fueled film that’s aimed squarely at gearheads. And some of the locker-room humour is crass (as is the nude scene with senior-citizen ‘swingers’) but the film does have one redeeming quality; the treatment of women.

There’s is no back-hand slap to the face of the leading lady, like the macho guys in ‘The Getaway‘ or ‘Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry‘. No, this heroic wheelman loves his woman and will do anything to protect her and take car of her… even if he forgot to tell her about his bank robbing past.

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