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Movie Review: The Bounty Hunter (2010) April 14, 2010

Posted by pacejmiller in Movie Reviews.
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I was telling a friend the other day that when I watch a film, it usually inspires me to write.  Amazingly, The Bounty Hunter, an action romantic-comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, had the complete opposite effect on me.

The Bounty Hunter (directed by Andy Tennant and written by Sarah Thorp) actually has an interesting premise — Milo (Butler) is an ex-cop turned bounty hunter who has the task of bringing in his bail-jumping reporter ex-wife Nicole (Aniston).  There’s more to just that, of course, with several less-than-brilliant subplots, but the core of the film lies with the relationship between ex-husband and wife.

My main gripe with The Bounty Hunter is that it’s a film that thinks its so much funnier than it actually is.  It milks an originally interesting premise with a cheekiness that comes off as obnoxious; as though they had come up with the most intelligent idea ever and that everything that happens is just sooo hilarious, even though it was far from it.

And that’s the problem.  The movie had maybe a couple of good lines, but for the most part, the comedy felt incredibly stale, unoriginal, and unfunny.  Lame might be too strong a word, but it was certainly uninspiring.

Further, apart from the two leads, everyone else was reduced to caricature.  That wouldn’t have been such a huge thing with a film like this, but it does matter when the two central characters are so incredibly unlikable, especially Milo.  I’ve been a fan of Butler since 300, but honestly in this film he was just an annoying dick.  And Aniston (whom I’ve never really liked), may look nice in a figure-hugging dress, but her character Nicole exhibited zero charm.

In the end, it was just two annoying people getting at each other for 106 minutes.  And there are no prizes for guessing the ending, which, to be honest, was almost sickening to watch.

1 star out of 5