Bounty Hunter - Blu-ray Review

Title: Bounty Hunter
Starring: Gerard Butler, Jennifer Aniston, Joel Garland
Directed by: Andy Tennant
Written by: Sarah Thorp
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hr. 46 min.
Release Date: July 13, 2010


Movie :2stars:

You meet The One, date, marry, have numerous difference in your marriage, don't work through them, and have an ugly divorce not even a year later. You've both gone your separate ways. One becomes very successful in their work, working up the ladder, the other... falls down the ladder. That is how our story in Bounty Hunter begins. Milo (Butler) has fallen down the ladder as a New York City cop, and is now working as a bounty hunter, trying to make it as exciting as he possibly can. He's become depressed, angry, and in debt with gambling, so anyone who tries to evade him is in a world of hurt. Nicole (Aniston) on the other hand works for the newspaper, and has become very successful at what she does. And recently a big story came up of a suicide, but as she starts to dig into it, she gets a feeling that it wasn't a suicide and has some of her people on the streets help with any details they might here for her.


On the brink of finding something big on the suicide case Nicole is to meet with her informant on the day of her court hearing for giving a cop car "a little fender bender" as she calls it. From her tone, you know it's probably more than that. But her informant needs to meet with her right away, because he is scared that he might have a tail and fears for his life. Nicole makes a break for it, bailing on her court hearing to speak with her informant, only to find that he has been kidnapped by a man right as she arrived. Now a person who skips a court hearing is now a wanted criminal, and in some cases a bounty hunter is hired for wanted criminals, being a bounty hunter, Milo is put on his ex-wife's case. Enthusiastic to catch her, he wants nothing more than to knock on her door, cuff her and take her to jail. However, thinking it will be a piece of cake is where he went wrong, and thinking it would be a piece of cake as she is on the brink of a big story was an even bigger mistake.

Finally catching up to her, Milo and Nicole have their first encounter in a year, and why? So Milo can take Nicole to jail. Thinking it's some kind of messed up joke, Nicole tries to leave, and Milo reassures her it is no joke, and Nicole starts to realize the seriousness of the situation, and tries to run. Milo finally catches her, and Nicole tries everything to get Milo to let her go. Even using reverse psychology to make him think he can win more at the casino with her $500 than what he will get for her. Spending the night at the casino, they must get a room. Instead of taking her to jail, they are delayed which causes one of the worst roller coaster rides of their life. After a series of events Milo and Nicole end up working together to break the case, and in doing so start to get that love spark flaming again, but still untrustworthy of each other, it takes a while to begin to do so.

On their way back into the city after breaking a big case, the two decide to start their relationship up again, and this time without any lies or holding anything back, and realizing that sometimes they would have to put work before their marriage, as this was a big problem previously.

Rating

Rated PG-13 for language, violence and sexual content. There is a number of s-words throughout the movie, some gun shots, and one scene takes place in a strip club, no nudity, but some of the outfits are fairly skimpy.



Video :4stars:

The video is probably the only positive thing about the movie. At a 2.35:1 transfer, the quality of the video is good, but not as good as compared to other Sony films. However, compared to the movie, the colors are bright and crisp, very clear, and overall set the mood for this romantic comedy.


Audio :2.5stars:

I think the soundtrack people for this movie decided they wanted the hottest pop songs of today to be featured in this movie, even if it meant drowning out the dialogue, they were going to do it. This movie will age so quickly, it'll be like the newest computer that comes out today, and 3 weeks later, already be outdated. I think there were about four or five newer pop songs from today that were featured in the movie, and they were mixed terribly. The music was so loud at points that I would have to turn my surround down, and turn it back up for the dialogue, and in some scenes the music was so overbearing the car engine, dialogue, gun shots, etc could hardly be heard. I was not a fan of the audio at all.

Extras

The extras were more interesting than the film itself. And after watching the film, then the extras, it was almost funny to me because the actors seemed to think this story was hilarious. Don't get me wrong the concept of the story is funny, but they butchered it.

Making 'The Bounty Hunter' (1080p, 17:42)
Stops Along the Road: Hunting Locations (1080p, 11:21)
Rules For Outwitting a Bounty Hunter 1080p, 1:21)

Overall

For those of you who have followed my reviews, you know I try and do my best to point out the positives and negatives of a film no matter how good or bad the movie was. And most times I enjoy a movie even if it isn't the greatest, because most movies are worth at least a rental viewing. But I honestly cannot say one good thing about The Bounty Hunter. I don't want to sound too much like a movie critic who does nothing but bash movies, but I have nothing positive. I laughed maybe three times this entire film, and it doesn't take much to make me laugh (for example, scary movie 1-4, date movie, epic movie, as cheesy as they are I crack up!). And honestly, I think Gerard Butler should NOT do romantic Comedies. Romantic is all right (P.S. I Love You), but stick with the action flicks. The three times I laughed was at Joel Garland, he was hilarious, but only three times.

The acting, this was probably want made the movie so bad. I felt like Butler and Aniston didn't put any effort into this and just did a terrible job action. Neither was funny at all. I was not convinced of their roles, nor was I ever to a point that I felt like I was a part of the movie.

Lastly the story. The concept of this story is funny. As I typed out the plot I chuckled, because it has potential to be funny. But the story written throughout was just awful. It was extremely predictable, I know most romantic comedies are, but you knew the ending within one minute of watching this movie. So my final thoughts are; if you find yourself at the local movie store to rent or buy a movie, and you have Bounty Hunter in one hand, and ANY other movie in the other hand, take the other one. I've heard from many people, primarily females, who watched The Bounty Hunter and the overall response is, "There were some funny parts, then it became very slow, then kind of funny."