Hit and Run
Direction: Dax Shepard and David Palmer 
Actors: Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard
Rating: ***

Essentially one long car chase, this mash-up of action-thriller and romantic-comedy is a helluva lotta fun. Boasting a richly textured screenplay, bouncy music score and fine performances by the lead pair, Hit & Run is vastly superior to earlier road romps such as Gone in 60 Seconds or Grand Theft Auto.

To begin with, the story is a doozy. A former getaway driver (Dax Shepard, who also wrote, co-edited and directed the movie) decides to leave his witness protection programme in order to drive his schoolteacher girlfriend (Bell, sufficiently sassy) to Los Angeles for a job interview.

Trouble clings to their fender in the form of his old partners-in-crime led by a thug (Bradley Cooper, sporting blonde dreadlocks). Also along for the cross-country ride are a bumbling federal marshal and the teacher's jealous ex-boyfriend.

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard bring spontaneity to their roles as the couple on the run.

Their relationship… it helps that they are a real-life couple too….. is laced with a delightful sense of humour.

Hit & Run in the surprise winner of the week. See it before it vrooms out of the multiplex.