Film Reviews

The Bounty Hunter

• Rating:
• Director: Andy Tennant
• Starring: Christine Baranski
• Details: US/110mins 12A

Shamelessly ripping off the classic Robert De Niro/Charles Grodin 80s film Midnight Run, this is every bit as simplistic as its title implies. Sometimes, when the leads have charm, decent comic timing and genuine chemistry, these screwball romantic comedies can transcend their shabby scripts and work. The Bounty Hunter is not one of those times.
Gerard Butler is playing the same slobby, but loveable bastard as he was in The Ugly Truth, while Aniston hopes her inexplicably hot forty-something body will distract from the mediocrity of the script - which it does, for about three minutes. Speaking of which, is it technically a script if it plays like it was written by someone on their toilet break from Burger King?
Butler is an ex-cop who is tasked with bringing his former wife - portrayed with utter indifference by Aniston - to jail after she fails to appear in court for assaulting a cop. She's not your run of the mill wrong sort, though; she's a reporter on the trail of... something. We don't really get what exactly it is that she's on the trail of, because, well, director Andy Tennant feels the plot is an inconvenience to some prosaic banter between Butler and Aniston, who love each other, then hate each other, then... You get the gist.
Opening with scene that happens again twenty minutes in, that's of no real significance, it's hard to figure out just what Tennant was trying to do. He's got quirky supporting players - one henchman goes through an entire scene apparently doing a Christopher Walken impression - likeable actors, and a highly derivative story; but one that could've worked with the right blend of wit, action and romance.
Not All About Steve awful, The Bounty Hunter is nonetheless probably one of the most mediocre films to come from the anus of Hollywood this year.

Review by Mike Sheridan