The Movie Nut

“Bounty Hunter”


 

 


Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) is an ex-cop, a bounty hunter with a gambling debt. Nicole Hurley (Jennifer Aniston) is an ace reporter who smells a police coverup in a recent suicide. Milo and Nicole were married once, but now they seem happy apart. When Nicole ditches a court appearance to follow a hot lead, the perturbed judge puts out a warrant for her arrest. And guess who gets to bring her in?

Sounds a little like the makings of an Elmore Leonard novel. But alas, “Bounty Hunter”
is more of a Hollywood quickflick: a nice-looking couple with fair-to-middlin’ chemistry and a moderately comedic script that won’t earn any Oscars but might keep the masses happily opiated for a couple of hours.

 

 


Remember “The Proposal”? Well, it’s not as good as that. Remember “All About Steve”? Well, it’s a lot
better than that.

“Bounty Hunter” has a fair share of laughs and even a few cute moments. I guess its biggest problem is that it wants to be a romantic comedy and a lightweight action thriller, and it keeps tripping over itself attempting to accomplish both. Nicole’s after a story and Milo’s after her and all sorts
of people are after them, so there’s really limited time for the ex-couple to stop hating each other and play nice.

You see, the rules of Hollywood implicitly state that a divorced couple must suffer through a first-act barrage of unflattering banter and then miraculously see the foolish past as indeed foolish, must realize the latent love bubbling to the surface. That’s how happily ever after is made.

Milo and Nicole do banter and they do make nice (even though people eventually begin shooting at them). And they are
cute together. There’s even a marquee poster of Aniston in a tight black dress (oh-so-carefully ripped along one side) handcuffed to . . . well, does it matter?

One could say “Bounty Hunter” has a little something for everyone. Not quite
enough, I suspect, for most of us—but maybe just enough to get by.