Blu-ray Review: Stretch

STUDIO: Kino Lorber | DIRECTOR: Joe Carnahan | CAST: Patrick Wilson, Chris Pine, Ed Helms, Brooklyn Decker, Jessica Alba, Ray Liotta, James Badge Dale
RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 2021 | PRICE: DVD $9.97, Blu-ray $17.95
BONUSES: two commentary tracks
SPECS: R | 94 min. | Comedy crime adventure | 2.35:1 widescreen | stereo | subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie  | Audio  | Video  | Overall 

Originally slated for release in early 2014, Joe Carnahan’s (The Grey, The A-Team) comedy crime adventure Stretch got derailed in some sort of studio hullaballoo and quietly snuck into the marketplace as a VOD title later that year. Nearly seven years later it’s receiving a release on disc where its likely to garner a little more attention. Not that it’s a lost gem or anything…

Patrick Wilson’s (Watchmen) titular Hollywood limo driver is our guide in an L.A. odyssey that kicks off when our boozing, coke-snorting hero has to come up with some quick cash to pay back his debts to a notorious gangster. Taking on a shady job for a billionaire client (an inspiringly wacky Chris Pine of  Hell or High Water) in hopes of a big, immediate payday, Stretch is quickly lured into a night of chases, nightclubs, drug dealers, sexual roleplaying, Feds, gunplay, blind dates, David Hasselhoff and the ghost of a legendary nice-guy limo driver who killed himself (Ed Helms, Tag). The long night is accented with some dark humor and regular check-in with Stretch’s lively limo dispatcher, Charlie (Jessica Alba, Some Kind of Beautiful).

Writer/director Carnahan’s over-flowing, put-in-everything-but-the-kitchen approach and style is reminiscent of his 2006 Vegas-set Smokin’ Aces, with shout-outs to such L.A.-centric films as Collateral and Into the Night, as well as Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.

Episodic and colorful, Stretch is distracting enough, offering some stylishly dark fun, along with a game cast that also includes Ray Liotta (Goodfellas), Brooklyn Decker (Just Go with It) and James Badge Dale (World War Z).

Bonuses includes a pair of commentaries, one by Carnahan accompanied by his son and daughter and another by film historian Eddy Von Mueller, and well as an interview with star Wilson. Not included is a 2014 behind-the-scenes video showing Wilson and Decker going through the not-so-erotic mechanics of filming their sex scene. That can be seen here.