The Bounty Hunter was released on March 19, and it stars Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston.
It is the story of Milo and Nicole, a couple who had been married a few years before the events of the movie take place. Nicole is a reporter, who is investigating a suspicious suicide, and who doesn’t appear for a bail hearing so that she can meet up with a source. Milo, her ex-husband, is a former police officer, and is currently working as a bounty hunter. When his current boss gives him the opportunity to bring her in, he jumps at the chance. However, succeeding at this proves to be more difficult than he anticipated, as Nicole fights him at every turn. Along the way, she convinces Milo that there was something worth investigating in the suicide she has been looking into, and old feelings begin to resurface for them both.
This film has problems from the get-go, because it attempts to be two movies at the same time. It tries to be both a romantic comedy and a crime drama, without completely succeeding at either. If the writers had attempted to set their film firmly within one genre, instead of trying to straddle both, they may have been able to create something better. Most of the jokes that the movie seems to be trying so hard to deliver fall completely flat, and there are unnecessary subplots that don’t help move anything along (including Nicole getting unwanted advances from a coworker, and Milo’s gambling problem). If there had not been the mystery angle, these subplots could have been flushed out, and could have been entertaining. As it was, there was too many pointless things happening that did not help the larger story-arc. Likewise, the crime angle of the film could have been truly interesting, if the romantic comedy this film was also attempting to be hadn’t gotten in the way.
Perhaps, if the writers had written two separate movies, they could have made two successful films, instead of one that did not truly live up to its potential.
The Bounty Hunter is currently playing nationwide. You can check show times, and purchase tickets for most theaters around Modesto from Fandango.
