Leonard's Big Bounce a big bust
Travis Lowry
Issue date: 2/3/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment
In many ways, The Big Bounce is the perfect mid-winter movie. It is a charming, mindless caper set in an exotic locale with likable actors and lots of skin. After months of brutal cold and heady Oscar bait, a silly heist flick is just what the world needs.
So, as escapism, The Big Bounce is wildly successful. As an actual movie, however, it is a bit more problematic.
The Big Bounce, based on an old Elmore Leonard novel, tells the tale of a surfer dude/petty crook named Jack Ryan, played by Owen Wilson with his typical doofy smirk, who has just gotten fired from his job with a crooked construction company in Hawaii. Jack gets tangled up with his boss's young mistress, Nancy (Sara Foster), who is plotting with/against just about everyone in the movie. Typical wackiness and crazy plot twists ensue.
However, the ensuing action isn't wacky as much as it is laboured, and the crazy plot twists are for the most part entirely predictable. The cast is completely wasted, leaving audiences with the impression that this fine collection of talented actors and performers that include Morgan Freeman, Gary Sinise, Charlie Sheen, Vinnie Jones, Bebe Neuwirth and even Willie Nelson and Harry Dean Stanton in throwaway roles, is more of a result of the opportunity to spend a few weeks shooting in Hawaii than the allure of a well written script. George Armitage, who hasn't directed a film since 1997's sublime Grosse Point Blank, is clearly more interested in having a good time than crafting a good noir comedy.
The script (by Sebastian Gutierrez who wrote last year's Gothika as well as episodes for the Elmore Leonard inspired TV show Karen Sisco) is not bad so much as it is disappointing. It contains some genuinely witty dialogue, and the first half of the movie rolls along rather nicely as we try to figure out just how flexible everyone's morals are.
However, unlike truly great tawdry crime movies the chemistry between the two leads is lackluster and nearly platonic for most of the movie - merely a plot device for the script to progress.
So, you got a movie that borrows from terrific movies like Out of Sight and Wild Things (we even get a bouncy riff on Wild Things' sexy score, also by George S. Clinton) but fails to capture any of the sexy spark and labyrinthine plot twists of these superior films.
The Big Bounce is a forgettable and utterly unremarkable movie. However, if basking in the warm glow of the amazing Hawaiian scenery while beautiful people walk around in bathing suits is all you are looking for in movie right now, then you could do a lot worse.
65%
So, as escapism, The Big Bounce is wildly successful. As an actual movie, however, it is a bit more problematic.
The Big Bounce, based on an old Elmore Leonard novel, tells the tale of a surfer dude/petty crook named Jack Ryan, played by Owen Wilson with his typical doofy smirk, who has just gotten fired from his job with a crooked construction company in Hawaii. Jack gets tangled up with his boss's young mistress, Nancy (Sara Foster), who is plotting with/against just about everyone in the movie. Typical wackiness and crazy plot twists ensue.
However, the ensuing action isn't wacky as much as it is laboured, and the crazy plot twists are for the most part entirely predictable. The cast is completely wasted, leaving audiences with the impression that this fine collection of talented actors and performers that include Morgan Freeman, Gary Sinise, Charlie Sheen, Vinnie Jones, Bebe Neuwirth and even Willie Nelson and Harry Dean Stanton in throwaway roles, is more of a result of the opportunity to spend a few weeks shooting in Hawaii than the allure of a well written script. George Armitage, who hasn't directed a film since 1997's sublime Grosse Point Blank, is clearly more interested in having a good time than crafting a good noir comedy.
The script (by Sebastian Gutierrez who wrote last year's Gothika as well as episodes for the Elmore Leonard inspired TV show Karen Sisco) is not bad so much as it is disappointing. It contains some genuinely witty dialogue, and the first half of the movie rolls along rather nicely as we try to figure out just how flexible everyone's morals are.
However, unlike truly great tawdry crime movies the chemistry between the two leads is lackluster and nearly platonic for most of the movie - merely a plot device for the script to progress.
So, you got a movie that borrows from terrific movies like Out of Sight and Wild Things (we even get a bouncy riff on Wild Things' sexy score, also by George S. Clinton) but fails to capture any of the sexy spark and labyrinthine plot twists of these superior films.
The Big Bounce is a forgettable and utterly unremarkable movie. However, if basking in the warm glow of the amazing Hawaiian scenery while beautiful people walk around in bathing suits is all you are looking for in movie right now, then you could do a lot worse.
65%
