Stretch

Director Joe Carnahan brings his manic ADHD style to bear on an increasingly bizarre story about a stretch limo driver's night of hell. Adding wisecracking deadpan is Ed Helms as the ghost of a legendary limo driver who gives the newbie mentoring tips. But it's Patrick Wilson's show, and it's Wilson's average-guy aspect that provides the ideal blank canvas for Carnahan's crazy characters, who pile on after the milquetoast is offered a way of paying down his unmanageable gambling debt by a dishevelled Howard Hughes-like billionaire (an uncredited and exuberantly over-the-top Chris Pine). The fact that the driver is also a wannabe screenwriter, and that the likes of David Hasselhoff and Ray Liotta turn up as amplified versions of themselves, reinforces the suggestion that Carnahan is really riffing on the craziness of Los Angeles. The cocaine-frenzied death-or-glory style won't suit all comers, but fans of Carnahan's similarly over-the-top Smokin' Aces will find a lot to like here.