The Bounty Hunter (12A)

Dir. Andy Tennant, US, 2010, Year, 111 mins

Cast:  Gerard Butler, Jennifer Aniston

Review by Carol Allen


Even though one of the production companies involved in this movie rejoices in the name of "Original Film", this is a romantic comedy cum action thriller, which doesn't have an original idea in its pretty little head.  

Butler plays Milo, a former cop turned bounty hunter, an American profession, meaning one who tracks down and brings in defendants who have jumped bail.   In this case the bail jumper he is commissioned to deliver to justice is his ex wife Nicole (Aniston), a high flying newspaper reporter, who has abandoned her scheduled appearance in court on a minor offence to chase the story she was working on.   That story concerns the suspicious suicide/possible murder of a cop, which results in the couple being chased by ruthless drug dealers (that's where the action thriller bit comes in) and as there is still an unresolved attraction and antagonism between Nicole and Milo, that's where the romantic sparks should fly.   They don't.

It's very efficiently and professionally put together but the script is dull and predictable, as are the characters.   Both Aniston and Butler have shown their versatility in the past in both comedic and dramatic roles.  They make an attractive couple but there's not a lot they can do with this dreary take on the "macho guy tames feisty woman", Taming of the Shrew type scenario.   The thriller element produces the odd car chase but largely gets bogged down by the dominant and sticky rom com aspect.  There's a sequence where the couple find themselves taking refuge in the hotel where they spent their honeymoon and everything grinds to a total halt, as they dissect their failed marriage in boring detail.   Laughs are few and far between, though Christine Baranksi raises the odd smile in the too small role of Nicole's somewhat bawdy, burlesque performer mother, while Jason Sudeikis plays Nicole's supremely irritating colleague, who fancies her.   They all deserve better parts in a better film.