Joe Carnahan‘s Stretch reminds me a lot of Michael Mann‘s Collateral. The operating word there being “reminds” as in this is the B-movie, bat-shit crazy, balls-to-the-wall red-headed step child of Collateral. And I mean that in the nicest way possible.
For anyone the least bit familiar with Carnahan’s work, Stretch will come as no surprise. Carnahan could easily be described as a director interested in masculinity. He’s a “tough guy” cinema director, making the movie equivalent to beef jerky. I like beef jerky and I like Carnahan’s films. I like the outlandish nature of his movies, the “anything can happen” narratives, and he consistently brings actors along for the ride that are just as willing and excited about starring in something crazy. While his films such as Narc and The Grey show he can also delve competently into serious cinema, his movies such as Smokin’ Aces and even The A-Team show he knows how to have a little fun, Stretch falls comfortably into that latter category.
The film begins by introducing us to a cocaine-fueled limo driver named Stretch (Patrick Wilson), as he’s t-boned by a car running a red light. He’s promptly sent airborne through his driver side window, landing relatively unharmed on the pavement. He walks to see how the driver of the other vehicle is, which is when he meets the beautiful Candice (Brooklyn Decker) and thus begins a year-long relationship.
Stretch goes clean, things are going well with Candice until she reveals she’s dumping him for the quarterback of the Cleveland Browns. Adding insult to injury a new limo service has moved into town and Stretch’s boss is nervous and decided it’s time to pick off a few clients. Within the next 15 minutes or so, Stretch learns he has only a few hours to pay back a $6,000 gambling debt, he’s late to picking up David Hasselhoff (playing himself), witness to an armed convenience store robbery leaving bullet holes in his vehicle and he’s picking up Ray Liotta (playing himself). After all of this he meets Roger Karos (Chris Pine) a coked out, nymphomaniac billionaire being hunted by the FBI for fraud who’s attempting to skip town and Stretch just so happens to be his ride.
So there’s your set up and it goes on from there, if you’re in, you’re in, if you’re not then just stay away, Stretch isn’t for you.
For what it’s worth, the actors give themselves over to their performances. Wilson has that “fuck it” look in his eye, plays Stretch as up for wherever the night takes him seeing how it could be his last night on Earth. Pine may come off a little strong as Karos, but I was in from the start and the dialogue between he and Wilson seems stupid out of context — “Is that alpaca?”/”I don’t think so.” and “I didn’t see you get out of the car.”/”Neither did I.” — but the dry delivery and almost throwaway aspect of such lines had me rolling.
James Badge Dale plays a determined FBI agent, Jessica Alba plays Stretch’s sweet-as-can-be dispatch agent, Ed Helms plays Karl, a figment of Stretch’s imagination and one more crazy aspect of the film overall and “blink or you’ll miss them” cameos from the likes of Shaun White and Norman Reedus add to the fun and be on the lookout for Randy Couture, he’s in there.
Stretch was originally going to be a theatrical release through Universal, but they ended up dropping the movie from the release slate at the last minute. After producer Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Insidious) couldn’t find another distributor, Universal decided to dump it On Demand. Strangely, this is perhaps the best home for a movie such as this. It’s not at all mainstream, but a perfect movie for audiences that enjoy this kind of cinematic mayhem. Granted, seeing it on the big screen would have been fun, but I enjoyed myself just as much at home.
