Honestly I did not have high expectations at all. Least I hoped for was a few laughs. That I got less than I expected though is disappointing.
Sure there is a lot happening in this film that is outrageous and bizarre. But is it funny though? I watched this together with Mrs. P. And she thought it was very funny. Usually her sense of humour is similar to mine but I did not feel the same way. So I guess there are elements to this film that could appeal to others more than it did to me. Or perhaps I wasn't in the state of mind to be forgiving or go with the flow as they say? More likely is the fact that the majority of the jokes simply aren't sharp enough. Because trust me if something is genuinely funny I would be the first to laugh loudly. Still I think this is a case where I am handicapped by the fact that I have seen too many damn movies and have seen it done better. It's obvious Stretch tries to jump in on these films where one strange event leads to an even stranger event and that one in turn to another so on and so on. I don't have the time or energy to look up similar films but I think you know what I mean. (Ok, ok one film that comes to mind is Blind Date. Another one After Hours. There, satisfied now?) I fully embraced the concept since sometimes it's nice to get overwhelmed by wackiness. Thing is that this film is not as wacky as it tries to be. It's all pretty average and predictable. Correct me if I am wrong. Isn't surprise the biggest element that makes these movies work in the first place? BTW Chris Pine is in this one too. I don't know. I like the guy as an actor but there is nothing about him that makes him memorable. The one time he truly made me think otherwise was in Smokin' Aces which is superior to Stretch. So go watch that one immediately.
However I would be doing the film an injustice if I did not mention the things I did like. Patrick Wilson as always is solid and dependable. So far he is one of the few actors who rarely lets down and here it's no different. Jessica Alba's role is not that big but she was extremely likable in this one. They both make this film very watchable. Then there is the Eighties music. Often it did help me warm up to certain scenes. Although I think there were many moments were it felt out of place demonstrating Joe Carnahan's lack of understanding why those Eighties movies he tried copying did work.
Overall this film is trying to hard to be quirky and bizarre without actually delivering those things. But like I said. I have seen a lot. Especially bad and bizarre films. So it is kinda hard to impress me in that way. It just shows that only showing crazy stuff simply won't do. You need to do more to connect to the viewer and Stretch fails to do this effectively. So this is why this film was disappointing for me.
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