Hard luck limo driver Stretch (Patrick Wilson) is struggling to go straight and pay off a debt to his bookie when he picks up a crazed passenger, eccentric playboy millionaire Roger Karos (Chris Pine), whose sought-after ledger implicates some seriously dangerous criminals.
Welcome, folks, to the second installment of my Thanksgiving weekend quintet of reviews. The quintet had begun with Mercy, based on the Stephen King short story Gramma, and will continue with this film, the meta-remake/sequel to The Town that Dreaded Sundown, Not Safe for Work (directed by Joe Johnston), and Mockingbird (written and directed by Bryan Bertino). We had a solid start to the quintet with Mercy, and it continues gloriously with Stretch, writer/director Joe Carnahan's follow-up to his 2012 hit The Grey.
As the title character, Patrick Wilson does a great job. Stretch is cynical and sarcastic yet likable and bumbling, with a certain edge. Wilson shows excellent comic strengths in the role. As Stretch's client Roger Karos, Chris Pine (who?s uncredited because...reasons) steals the show. Pine always got a laugh out of me and his banter with Wilson never fails to be witty. Ed Helms plays Karl, a figment of Stretch?s imagination, and Helms was laugh-out-loud hilarious, which shouldn't come across as a shock.
Surprisingly enough, Brooklyn Decker and Jessica Alba weren't bad in this film. I kid you not, their performances were legitimately decent. Decker's character Candace is Stretch's ex-girlfriend who dumps him after a year-long relationship. Decker provides great eye candy like she does in her other roles, but unlike in those movies, the script for Stretch doesn't suck, and it's because of this that Decker is allowed to actually...well, act, and she's not bad. Alba's character Charlie is a very sweet dispatch agent and you can think of her as Stretch's best buddy of sorts. Alba actually does a good job with the material. It truly shocked me.
In a way, you can think of this movie as the three-way lovechild of Collateral, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and After Hours. It really does feel like a wacky, neon-lit, balls-to-the- wall, hardcore version of Collateral. Speaking of neon-lit, I have to give props to Yasu Tanida's gorgeous cinematography. Tanida's lighting and camera movements are consistently slick and engagingly glossy.
Joe Carnahan's superb writing and direction also deserve a lot of praise. I've always liked Carnahan as a filmmaker. The man gave us gems like Narc, Smokin' Aces, The A-Team, and The Grey, and Stretch is quite possibly my second favorite film of his. Like I did in my review of Mercy, I have to ask the people at Universal: Why the heck did you release this straight to video and not in theaters? Carnahan's direction is tight and his writing is unfailingly sharp. I also gotta give props to the energetic musical score by Ludwig Goransson.
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
Overall, I had a freaking ball with Stretch. Were there a few issues here and there? Well, yeah. There's no doubting that, but this film was a blast from beginning to end. The main characters were fun, it was very funny, the cinematography is fantastic, the acting was damn good, and it always has a great amount of energy going for it. I highly recommend Stretch. I guarantee you'll be vastly entertained by this motion picture.
Welcome, folks, to the second installment of my Thanksgiving weekend quintet of reviews. The quintet had begun with Mercy, based on the Stephen King short story Gramma, and will continue with this film, the meta-remake/sequel to The Town that Dreaded Sundown, Not Safe for Work (directed by Joe Johnston), and Mockingbird (written and directed by Bryan Bertino). We had a solid start to the quintet with Mercy, and it continues gloriously with Stretch, writer/director Joe Carnahan's follow-up to his 2012 hit The Grey.
As the title character, Patrick Wilson does a great job. Stretch is cynical and sarcastic yet likable and bumbling, with a certain edge. Wilson shows excellent comic strengths in the role. As Stretch's client Roger Karos, Chris Pine (who?s uncredited because...reasons) steals the show. Pine always got a laugh out of me and his banter with Wilson never fails to be witty. Ed Helms plays Karl, a figment of Stretch?s imagination, and Helms was laugh-out-loud hilarious, which shouldn't come across as a shock.
Surprisingly enough, Brooklyn Decker and Jessica Alba weren't bad in this film. I kid you not, their performances were legitimately decent. Decker's character Candace is Stretch's ex-girlfriend who dumps him after a year-long relationship. Decker provides great eye candy like she does in her other roles, but unlike in those movies, the script for Stretch doesn't suck, and it's because of this that Decker is allowed to actually...well, act, and she's not bad. Alba's character Charlie is a very sweet dispatch agent and you can think of her as Stretch's best buddy of sorts. Alba actually does a good job with the material. It truly shocked me.
In a way, you can think of this movie as the three-way lovechild of Collateral, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and After Hours. It really does feel like a wacky, neon-lit, balls-to-the- wall, hardcore version of Collateral. Speaking of neon-lit, I have to give props to Yasu Tanida's gorgeous cinematography. Tanida's lighting and camera movements are consistently slick and engagingly glossy.
Joe Carnahan's superb writing and direction also deserve a lot of praise. I've always liked Carnahan as a filmmaker. The man gave us gems like Narc, Smokin' Aces, The A-Team, and The Grey, and Stretch is quite possibly my second favorite film of his. Like I did in my review of Mercy, I have to ask the people at Universal: Why the heck did you release this straight to video and not in theaters? Carnahan's direction is tight and his writing is unfailingly sharp. I also gotta give props to the energetic musical score by Ludwig Goransson.
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
Overall, I had a freaking ball with Stretch. Were there a few issues here and there? Well, yeah. There's no doubting that, but this film was a blast from beginning to end. The main characters were fun, it was very funny, the cinematography is fantastic, the acting was damn good, and it always has a great amount of energy going for it. I highly recommend Stretch. I guarantee you'll be vastly entertained by this motion picture.