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The Bounty Hunter (2010 film)

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The Bounty Hunter
Theatrical teaser poster
Directed byAndy Tennant
Written bySarah Thorp
Produced byNeal H. Moritz
StarringJennifer Aniston
Gerard Butler
CinematographyOliver Bokelberg
Music byGeorge Fenton
Production
companies
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
(Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Release date
  • March 19, 2010 (2010-03-19)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryTemplate:FilmUS
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40 million[1]
Box office$155,781,827 (including US DVD sales) [2][3]

The Bounty Hunter is a comedy film directed by Andy Tennant, starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. The story centers on a bounty hunter (Butler) hired to retrieve his ex-wife (Aniston) who has skipped bail. The film was released in the United Kingdom and United States on March 19, 2010.[4]

Plot

Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) is a former NYPD detective who now works as a down-on-his-luck bail enforcement agent (bounty hunter). For instance, he accidentally causes a fire while apprehending his latest bounty through a Fourth of July parade, and is arrested as well.

Milo's ex-wife, Nicole Hurley (Jennifer Aniston), is an investigative reporter who has been arrested for assaulting a police officer. (As she later clarifies, she grazed a patrol horse with her car in her rush to get to a press conference.) When she receives a hot tip on a story she is working on—an apparent suicide may actually have been a murder -- she skips her bond hearing to meet with her informant, causing the judge to revoke her bail and issue a warrant for her arrest. Unfortunately, just before Nicole arrives, her informant, Jimmy (Adam Rose), is kidnapped.

Milo is ecstatic when Nicole's bail bondsman, Sid (Jeff Garlin), offers him the job of tracking down Nicole and bringing her to jail, for a bounty of $5,000. After questioning Nicole's mother Kitty (Christine Baranski) (a cabaret singer in Atlantic City), and with his own intimate knowledge of Nicole's habits, Milo apprehends her at a race track in New Jersey, throws her into his car trunk and drives back towards Manhattan. Nicole tries to beg, threaten, or con her way of out Milo's clutches, but only manages to escape briefly before he catches up with her again.

Neither is aware that they are being stalked: Milo by two thugs sent by a bookie named Irene (Cathy Moriarty), because of outstanding gambling debts; Nicole by criminal Earl Mahler (Peter Greene), who is connected with the story she is investigating, and both of them by Nicole's lovestruck coworker Stuart (Jason Sudeikis), bent on "rescuing" her.

Mahler catches up and tries to kill Nicole, but the two narrowly escape. Milo is not interested in explanations until Nicole admits that she's found evidence that implicates their mutual friend, Bobby (Dorian Missick), Milo's ex-partner on the police force. Angry, Milo decides to investigate the crime with her.

Clues from Earl's car lead them to a country club, where they learn from a crooked caddy that Earl owns a tattoo parlor in New Jersey, so they start to make their way there. Bobby warns the pair to stay off the road.

By coincidence, the nearest hotel is "Cupid's Cabin," the bed and breakfast where they spent their honeymoon. They have feelings for each other, but Nicole overhears a phone conversation, Milo telling Sid that he may or may not sleep with Nicole that night, but he's taking her to jail nevertheless. Infuriated, she handcuffs Milo to the bed and makes her way to the tattoo parlor herself, finding Jimmy and freeing him before she is captured by Irene's thugs, still looking for Milo.

Milo rescues her. He calls an old friend from the police force and learns that Bobby is on his way to the police's evidence warehouse, which is being relocated to a new building. Bobby confronts Earl, who used to be his friend but has used Bobby's name to gain access to the warehouse and steal a large amount of confiscated narcotics and cash. Bobby decides to arrest Earl, but Earl draws a gun and shoots him, though not fatally. Milo and Nicole enter the warehouse and Milo is ambushed, but Earl is forced to surrender when Nicole points a shotgun at him.

Bobby explains that Earl was using him, as well as the man who supposedly committed suicide, to gain access to the warehouse. There was no proof, so Bobby was waiting for Earl to make his move before arresting him. Milo proudly notes that Earl might have gotten away with it if Nicole hadn't picked up certain clues. He and Nicole appear to have reconciled. They concede that sometimes their jobs have to come first. By way of demonstrating this, Milo then turns Nicole into the police, so she can make her court hearing the next day.

On his way out of the precinct, Milo runs into a cop who insulted him earlier and punches him in the face. He is arrested and put in a cell next to Nicole's. He reminds her that it is their anniversary and they have to spend it together, no matter what. Through the bars they admit their love to each other and kiss.

Cast

  • Jennifer Aniston as Nicole Hurley, a Daily News reporter and the protagonist.
  • Gerard Butler as Milo Boyd, a bounty hunter and former police officer and the deuteragonist.
  • Christine Baranski as Kitty Hurley, Nicole's caring, wise, but somewhat perverted mother.
  • Jason Sudeikis as Stewart, Nicole's co-worker who has unrequited feelings for her.
  • Jeff Garlin as Sid, Milo's friend and semi-employer.
  • Coral Anderson as Ethal
  • Peter Greene as Earl Mahler, a tattoo shop owner and the main antagonist.
  • Dorian Missick as Bobby Jenkins, a police detective who is a friend of Milo and Nicole.
  • Cathy Moriarty as Irene, a gift shop owner and the secondary antagonist.
  • Ritchie Coster as Ray, one of Irene's minions.

Release

Critical reception

The film has received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. The film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 8% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 114 reviews. The consensus given is "Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston remain as attractive as ever, but The Bounty Hunter's formula script doesn't know what to do with them – or the audience's attention."[5] It also holds a "generally unfavorable" score of 22 out of 100 at Metacritic.[6]

Roger Ebert gave the film a star and a half out of four, commenting that "neither [Aniston nor Butler] is allowed to speak more than efficient sentences to advance the plot" and that it is rife with "exhausted action clichés."[7] Kerry Lengel of The Arizona Republic gave the film three and a half stars out of five: "As formula films go, The Bounty Hunter is more enjoyable than most, even if it packs in as many clichés as any." She also praises Aniston's and Butler's performances, but is critical of the "improbable" plot.[8]

The movie has been given four nominations at the 31st Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Butler), Worst Actress (Aniston) and Worst Screen Couple (Aniston and Butler).

Box office

The Bounty Hunter opened at number three, behind Alice in Wonderland and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It grossed $20.7 million in its opening weekend.[9] Despite negative reviews, the film held well in the weeks following its release. As of July 5, 2010 it has grossed $67,061,228 domestically and $69,031,265 internationally for a worldwide total of $136,310,306.[10]

Home media

The Bounty Hunter was released on DVD & Blu-ray on July 13, 2010. The only extra material is 3 featurettes ("Making The Bounty Hunter", "Rules for Outwitting a Bounty Hunter", "Stops Along The Road: Hunting Locations").[11] It has grossed $19,913,843 in US DVD sales.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Movie Projector: No 'Bounty Hunter,' 'Repo Men' or 'Wimpy Kid' can upstage 'Alice' (updated)". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. March 18, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2010. The picture, which Sony and Relativity Media financed at a cost of $40 million to $50 million.
  2. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=bountyhunter.htm
  3. ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2010/BOUNT.php
  4. ^ Trailer and Preview of 'The Bounty Hunter'
  5. ^ "The Bounty Hunter Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  6. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/bountyhunter
  7. ^ "The Bounty Hunter". Chicago Sun-Times.
  8. ^ http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/movies/articles/2010/03/17/20100317bounty0319.html
  9. ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2688&p=.htm
  10. ^ "The Bounty Hunter - Box Office Data, Movie News, Cast Information, - The Numbers". The Numbers. Retrieved April 16, 2010.
  11. ^ "The Bounty Hunter (US-DVD R1". DVD Active. Retrieved 2010-05-10. {{cite web}}: Text "BD RA) in News > Releases at DVDActive" ignored (help)
  12. ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2010/BOUNT.php
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