Stretch (2014)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Stretch	Patrick Wilson
Karos	Chris Pine	½
Karl	Ed Helms
Charlie	Jessica Alba	½
Laurent	James Badge Dale
Candace	Brooklyn Decker
Themselves	Ray Liotta David Hasselhoff Norman Reedus Shaun White

Review

If this downward spiral of a stylized action-comedy is able to stretch (pun intended) your imagination, I'm quite sure the filmmakers feel they have succeeded in their task. Writer/director Joe Carnahan makes a film in the mould of such semi-groundbreaking movies as Kuffs; which is to say that he includes several "cool" tricks such as breaking the fourth wall, having the ghost of a sidekick appear from time to time, and populating his film with several stars parodying themselves in cameos. The advantage is that this distracts us from needing to react emotionally to the actual situations and drama presented; the disadvantage that it reduces the film to an essential self-mockery, which makes or breaks on whether or not it is fun enough and can keep our attention. Stretch is simple, whacky, undemanding entertainment, and I'll be darned if there isn't a couple of semi-brilliantly written scenes as well, including one about the retrieval of a suitcase.