Jennifer Aniston not improving her taste in men - ‘The Bounty Hunter’ Review

Posted on April 1, 2010 - 1:31am by michael I’m starting to get the feeling that Gerard Butler is somehow managing to secure leading roles in the majority of movies that are coming out these days. Add to this perception the increasing number of stories coming out about his sophomoric stunts (mostly things like his childish disrespect of the eternally loveless Jennifer Aniston) and you may very well have most of the reason for all of the bad press that the pair’s new movie is getting. Oh, and it doesn’t help that it’s not very good, either. Butler plays Milo, a former police officer and former husband whose lot in life has been reduced to freelance bounty hunter (who gets his gigs from a local bail bondsman) and ex-husband. Jennifer Aniston plays his ex-wife Nicole, a highly successful journalist who is also a “wanted felon” (fender bender turned assaulting an officer. Don’t ask). Nicole’s hot on the trail of a big wrongful-death case, which will handily serve up the obligatory big bad crime story. Meanwhile, Milo has been assigned with the task of hunting down his ex-wife and bringing her to jail, for which he will be compensated with $5,000 and indescribable satisfaction. Sadly, the movie is shooting for a good-natured romantic comedy about two ex-lovers who now hate each other but really love each other but each can’t stand the other but we all know that sooner or later blah blah blah and then they end up together, completing the cycle until the movie is remade in a few months under a different name. [caption id="attachment_76657" align="alignleft" width="366" caption="Milo used to have a gambling problem. So of course this is gonna happen..."][/caption] The formula is as old as the hills but it is definitely not impossible to make a good movie with the same general structure, as long as all the ingredients are there, and sadly The Bounty Hunter just doesn’t have them. It was written by Sarah Thorp, a novice screenwriter who has penned half a dozen or so short films or TV shows that you’ve never heard of over the last several years, and it was directed by seasoned romantic comedy director Andy Tennant, who really should have known better. He’s not exactly one of the greats, he was responsible for the moronic Fool’s Gold a couple years ago, but he also brought us Fools Rush In, Ever After, Anna and the King, and Hitch, [caption id="attachment_76658" align="alignright" width="375" caption="Moments too late, Nicole learns why you should never trust a bounty hunter with a name like Milo."][/caption] so I would have hoped that he could have done something to limit the avalanche of clichés that The Bounty Hunter is currently cascading into theaters, but no, they’re all there, parading across the screen as if by request. And the horrifically unfunny sex talk with Nicole’s mother didn’t help matters, either. Gerard Butler at least seems to be having fun with his paper thin role, but poor Jennifer Aniston doesn’t seem to be making much better choices in the career department as she is making in the love department. If she and Gerard break up in a couple months and she starts dating Jesse James, I’m giving up on her forever. Until then, I’m still hoping she’ll find a good guy. And maybe a better agent. Or at least some better movies… The Bean Meter