The Bounty Hunter has romance, comedy, and action, and even with those ingredients – it still manages to be just average. The romance is predictable but sort of fun to watch. The comedic parts are mainly in the previews, and the action is not bad, but it’s also pointless. Thank goodness for Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston and their chemistry.
The Bounty Hunter is about a bounty hunter named Milo (Gerard Butler) who is assigned to bring in his ex-wife (Jennifer Aniston) who skipped court so she could follow a lead in a murder investigation. Aniston’s character Nicole is a reporter who is really on to a big story, but all Milo cares about is getting her to jail and getting paid. It just so happens Milo owes people some money and they do not play nice. So there are several stories going on that include Milo chasing Nicole, the people chasing Milo for the money they are owed, and the guys involved in the murder investigation are chasing Milo and Nicole.
The movie never really decides what it wants to do and what direction to take. But either way, the story does not benefit from it, leaving no surprises whatsoever. What keeps this movie from drowning is Butler and Aniston. They are funny together and actually make a good team. They are suppose to hate each other and it is believable, but we all know they still have love for one another. They are not fooling anyone.
Now with that said, this material is below both of them. Jennifer Aniston plays Jennifer Aniston in almost all of her movies. She is a very likable person and clearly talented, yet she does not get to showcase it in anything that she’s in. And that goes for this movie as well. Gerard Butler moves from action movies to romance and comedies and I believe he is capable of doing all of them. However, he does not impress here. Luckily, Butler and Aniston lean on each other for support and it mostly works…barely. I think we can all agree that they both need to make better decisions on what roles they take on.
The Bounty Hunter is not terrible, but is far from great. It is one of those movies that you will forget about and won’t even remember if Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler were in it. It offers some entertainment but not much. It is a movie that did not completely fail, but is barely breathing.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association and the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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