Quote:
Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs  I've never seen Sex Drive as the trailer put me off. I have seen Bounty Hunter, which is woeful, like a crap remake of Midnight Run. |
This is a review of The Bounty Hunter I wrote for the Blu-ray release:
I had heard fairly negative things about The Bounty Hunter but, rather than go with what the critics say, I decided to find out for myself and see if it was really that bad (8% according to Rotten Tomatoes) or whether the critics were just being overly harsh and snobby about a good hearted romantic comedy. You know what? The critics were right.
The Bounty Hunter stars Gerard Butler as Milo Boyd, an ex-cop turned bounty hunter, who is asked by his employer, bail bondsmen Sid, to bring in his ex-wife, brilliant journalist Nicole Hurley, who has failed to attend a court hearing for unpaid parking tickets. For Milo, this seems like the dream job but it isn't long until he believes Nicole's story about being onto a hot story which may mean that her life is in danger.
Nope, I'm not buying it either.
Anyway, Milo thinks that his luck is in as he is going to be paid $5000 to take his ex-wife to jail but, after he has been shot at and had his vintage convertible trashed by a gangster in a SUV, he thinks that what began as an easy day's work will be far from that. From the very beginning you know that Milo will succeed and get Nicole to jail, earn his money and she will somehow manage to break the story as they learn to love each other again.
The Bounty Hunter is basically an incompetent remake of Midnight Run, that 1988 action/comedy movie directed by Martin Brest only with Gerard Butler in the Robert De Niro role and Jennifer Aniston playing the Charles Grodin part. The odd thing with Gerard Butler is that he seems to be a man with absolutely no comedic timing yet somehow manages to be funny when he is desperately trying to be serious; Law Abiding Citizen was full of lines that were incredibly amusing even though Butler was trying to be threatening. Watch 300 and tell me that some of those lines aren't unintentionally amusing. Jennifer Aniston, on the other hand, is an actress who can be extremely funny as she rose to fame and fortune in a sitcom, winning an Emmy in the process. Her transition from TV star to film star has not exactly been plain sailing and she can occasionally get 'lost' on the big screen.
With these two actors who, on an off day, have absolutely zero when it comes to comedy, it is doubly unfortunate that they are given a leaden script which is utterly devoid of humour and the direction, by Andy Tennant, does our two leads absolutely no favours whatsoever. If you are looking for one glimmer of fun, one tiny sparkle in this terrible mess of a movie, it comes in the very brief appearances of Christine Baranski doing a Joan Rivers impression. That's how low the film sinks and how desperate I was to look for comedy to justify its post as a romantic comedy.
Unlike Midnight Run, The Bounty Hunter is a baggy mess where you never feel that the two leads are in danger and will, by the end, end up back in love with Milo having completed his task. Not enough is made of the bail bondsmen role as Jeff Garlin is a tremendous comedic actor and if he was given as much screen time as Joe Pantoliano was in Midnight Run, there would be many more laughs than they were in this comedic dud.
Also, I'm not sure whether this was a contractual obligation thing or she thought it would be a great idea, but Jennifer Aniston seem to spend the entire film in low-cut tops ensuring the camera spent many minutes staring straight down her cleavage. Some may think that this is a reason to watch the film, but I just thought it was barrel scrapingly bad taste. This was a massive box office and critical failure and I can see why.