Mostly Annoying
Summary
I’m glad Gerard Butler moved on from these kinds of movies as The Bounty Hunter lacks laughs and it’s meant to be a comedy. Both leads are annoying and it doesn’t have enough action. What we get is fine, but the overlong runtime needed more face punching. It’s harmless enough, but I still mostly hated it.
Plot: Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler), a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter, thinks he’s seeing an upswing in fortune when he gets a call to bring in his bail-jumping ex-wife, a reporter named Nicole (Jennifer Aniston). Milo considers the job an easy payday, but Nicole quickly escapes to chase a lead on a murder case. The former spouses play an escalating game of one-upmanship, until they suddenly find themselves on the run for their lives.
Review: I’d never watched The Bounty Hunter before as romantic action comedies don’t usually work and after finishing viewing this, it hasn’t changed my opinion.
I am generally not a big fan of Jennifer Aniston, and this role didn’t help as her character was annoying with no redeeming features. Gerard Butler fails to hide his Scottish accent (as always) and even his character was an immature dick as well. So, how does a romantic comedy work when you don’t like either of the lead characters? It doesn’t. There isn’t even that much in the way of action. There are a couple of brief comedic fight scenes and a car chase featuring a shoot-out, but little else to hold your attention.
The villain is played by the always reliable Peter Greene who was the bad guy in every movie from the 90s. He does what he can, but his character is underwritten and doesn’t have enough to do.
I enjoyed seeing Adam Rose as I forgot he is an actor too; I watch his reaction videos on Facebook, and he has some of the best facial expressions. I always like Christine Baranski who has some of the best lines in this movie especially with her acerbic delivery.
The Bounty Hunter plods along, and the runtime feels stretched at an overlong hour and 50 minutes. Something this light shouldn’t be more than 90 minutes.
This should be fun, but I rarely cracked a smile and was quite happy if both characters ended up in jail at the end (spoiler alert: they do).
Overall, The Bounty Hunter is predictable fare with both leads more annoying than anything and there isn’t much in the way of action either. It is at least harmless fluff and I liked Peter Greene and Adam Rose, but if you haven’t seen this before I wouldn’t rush.