THE BOUNTY HUNTER
US, 2010, 107 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler, Jason Sedeikis, Peter Greene, Christine Baranski.
Directed by Andy Tennant.
Easy to review. For those who like seeing Jennifer Aniston romantic comedies and/or Gerard Butler romantic comedies and action films, then it is obviously for you. If not, and you find Jennifer Aniston much the same in every film and that Gerard Butler is repeating his scruffy big tough guy, his The Ugly Truth persona, and they do not appeal, it is obviously not for you. All these ingredients seem to irritate and aggravate critics into loud harrumphing and a high intolerance quotient.
Actually, it is some romantic comedy, some screwball comedy, some battle of the sexes plus some police investigation, some road movie and some car chases and shootouts, a recipe that should have something to appeal to most multiplex moviegoers and DVD renters and buyers.
She is an ambitious reporter who is on to a mysterious police alleged suicide. He is a bounty hunter whom we see getting his man (in a 4th July parade where the target is doing an Uncle Sam on stilts!). Oh, and they are divorced. She has skipped out on a court hearing, so she is a fugitive and he promises to bring her in and relishes the prospect. The tagline reads, 'Taking your ex to jail. Best job ever'. Indeed, easier said than done, so lots of antagonism, some moments of possible reconciliation, some dangerous moments and an ending that relies on the law and jail detention!
Undemanding fare, light and entertaining without strain as long as the above Aniston and Butler provisos are taken into account.
1. Light entertainment? Depending on its stars?
2. Blend of romantic comedy, screwball comedy, battle of the sexes, crime and reporting, action?
3. The New York and New Jersey settings? Atlantic City, the casinos, the bed and breakfasts, the racetrack, the precincts and the police? The musical score and the songs?
4. The opening, the car, Milo, the fire in the boot, Nicole escaping, the chase – and twenty-four hours earlier?
5. Nicole as a reporter, Stuart pestering her, the information about the suicide story, her having to go to court, her contact with Jimmy for the story, absconding from the court, the judge and her negative reaction?
6. Milo, in the parade, chasing Uncle Sam on stilts, catching him? The police reaction, taking him to prison? Bobby bailing him out? Sid, the commissions, Sid going away with the kids camping, Teresa at work? The new job – Nicole?
7. Milo going to Nicole’s home, catching Stuart? Milo as a slob, making a mess, phoning her mother? Nicole, going to see Jimmy, seeing him abducted? Searching the desk for information?
8. Going to the racetrack, Milo confronting her, the chase, catching her, in the car, the handcuffs, the further chases? Earl and his shooting at them? Bobby and his ringing through the warning? Suspicions of Bobby?
9. Irene, her toughs, confronting Milo for the money? Pursuing him, taking Stuart by mistake, the injection, Stuart wandering – and still clinging to the hope that Nicole was interested in him?
10. The honeymoon bed-and-breakfast resort, the couple welcoming them, the meal, talking, the seeming reconciliation, Nicole overhearing the phone call, misinterpreting it? The various captures, the handcuffs in the bed, the stun gun, the pedicab, the car?
11. Nicole going to the tattoo centre, the secretary, the staff, her idea to track down Jimmy? Finding him, freeing him? Going to the striptease joint, Milo with Irene’s money, taking it from the toughs, the money free-for-all, the escape?
12. The information, going to the repository, finding Bobby, suspecting him, Earl? The shootout? The truth, Bobby being shot, Nicole and the gun and confronting Earl?
13. Nicole getting her story, but Milo taking her to the prison? Her phoning it through?
14. Milo, his assaulting the policeman, getting arrested, with Nicole in jail? The light touch – romance, the end of the battle of the sexes?
