Now-a-Dollar Sept 21 | Buzz Blog
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Thursday, September 20, 2012

A&E / Culture

Now-a-Dollar Sept 21

Posted By on September 20, 2012, 10:46 AM

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A couple of late-summer action films make their way to discount theaters, and both deserve a bit more love than they initially got. ---

The higher profile belongs to Total Recall, director Len Weisman's remake of the 1990 Paul Verhoeven semi-classic, with Colin Farrell replacing Schwarzenegger as a man in the near-future who learns that the identity he remembers may not be the whole story. Weisman's action sequences are surprisingly terrific, making up for the slack in the imaginative goofiness Verhoeven offered. Nostalgia shouldn't be enough to deprive us of solid genre movie making

That's also what you'll find in Hit & Run, featuring Dax Shepard as a former getaway-car driver who risks leaving witness protection to facilitate the career dreams of his girlfriend (Kristen Bell). It's easy enough to dismiss it as wannabe Tarantino, with the oddball character tics and loopy dialogue, and indeed, that's sometimes where Shepard (who also wrote and co-directed) goes astray. But it's also a kind of charming romance about changing for the better, with a terrifically written relationship at the center. The real excitement is there, not so much in the car chases.

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About The Author

Scott Renshaw

Scott Renshaw
Bio:
 Scott Renshaw has been a City Weekly staff member since 1999, including assuming the role of primary film critic in 2001 and Arts & Entertainment Editor in 2003. Scott has covered the Sundance Film Festival for 25 years, and provided coverage of local arts including theater, pop-culture conventions, comedy, literature,... more

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