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Friday, March 19, 2010

MOVIE REVIEW
The Bounty Hunter
I Want My Effing Life Back!!  (Well, um, 2 hours of it.)


Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler in the comedy "The Bounty Hunter", which opened across the U.S. and Canada today. 
Sony Pictures

By Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW 
Friday, March 19, 2010

Why do March 2010 movie releases from Hollywood hate their audiences so much?

If watching "The Bounty Hunter" feels like being in "Jeopardy" (and it does), the question would be, "why?"

As in, why watch Andy Tennant's film? 

Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler are paired as ex-spouses (imagine if Brad Pitt was Butler's character) in this film, which takes place over roughly 24 hours in New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Milo (Butler), a deposed NYPD officer, is a bounty hunter these days.  He'll be five grand richer if he can reel in Nicole (Aniston), who apparently is a felon for some very nebulous reason that is later revealed.

Much of this mess is littered with the detritus of failed comedies past.  Mr. Tennant, who directed the mega-hit "Hitch" several years ago, has crafted one of the year's laziest, haziest disasters.  The audience is literally held hostage by a film that is as empty as yesterday's mailbox.  Mr. Butler is officially on a downward trend since "P.S. I Love You", making very suspect films ("Law Abiding Citizen"), so-so films ("Rock N Rolla", "Gamer") and bad ones ("The Ugly Truth").  Hopefully his agent and Miss Aniston's will see the light and get them some decent films to appear in.  When will Miss Aniston get to do the kind of great work she did in "The Good Girl" again?

As written by Sarah Thorp (last I checked, a woman), "The Bounty Hunter" is as misogynistic and insulting as movies get, and Miss Aniston, whose career in bad movies has skyrocketed ever since "The Break-Up" (which I actually liked) -- does her best to play along with the self-degradation, grabbing her own breasts, parading around in a super-tight black mini-skirt and three-inch high heels like a brainless robot on auto-pilot.  She is also dumped into the trunk of a car. 

In other words: you're supposed to think that Nicole is property.  A comedy like this isn't comedy.  It's piss-poor putrid.

Had this film been remade as a movie-of-the-week serial killer flick, some of the self-hatred you see here may have some context.  Maybe.

Haphazardly constructed, the pieces just don't fit.  A sub-plot from nowhere is thrown in to substantiate the film's near-two hour running time, which is far too long.  In fact, there's no real plot, except to fill an incomprehensible script with people we don't care about, as they lamely try one gag after another only to find: the gags don't work.  Ignoring Einstein's advice, the players just keep going, remaining unfunny in the process.  Mr. Butler and Miss Aniston are in one knock-down, drag-out, mean-spirited and heartless routine after another.  Almost every scene in this pernicious and misanthropic film exists solely for self-mocking purposes.  

Just as bad is that "The Bounty Hunter" is populated by cardboard caricatures played by 50-something-ish women (welcome back Carol Kane, Cathy Moriarty, Christine Baranski and Siobahn Fallon) all of whom are one-dimensional and loopy, whether they be self-centered, empty-hearted sadists, nags or just plain foolish. 

There has to be a hall of shame for talented actors and actresses who find themselves in comedies as pathetic as this.  The shame hall's filling up fast this month.


With: Dorian Missick, Peter Greene, Jeff Garlin, Matt Malloy, Jason Sudeikis, David Constabile, Adam Rose, Gio Perez, Joel Garland, Mike Sheehan.

"The Bounty Hunter" is rated PG-13 for sexual content including suggestive comments, language and some violence.  The film's duration is one hour and 50 minutes. 
 


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Read more movie reviews and stories from Omar here.

Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times - here



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