Bounty Hunter
After this film and 2009’s The Awful Truth, Gerald Butler has taken the mantle as The Undisputed King Of The Romantic Comedies, due much in part that his cocky, macho lunkhead persona in these films can actually be seen as relatable to the average male viewer who usually considers these kinds of movies to be a torture session with the wife / girlfriend (unlike so many of the effeminate pretty boys these films are inundated with), plus he always has a fantastic chemistry with his female co-stars. In this case it’s Jennifer Aniston, an actress who while still astoundingly beautiful in her early forties, is generally targeted by a legion of Internet Virgins and Keyboard Warriors mostly over her breakup with Brad Pitt for the considerably less appealing Angelina Jolie (though I would dare any of the males in these groups to ever sanely be able to actually kick her out of bed). The story involves Butler as an ex-cop turned professional (yet low rent) bounty hunter, when one day he gets an assignment that he’s sure he’ll enjoy: Pick up his ex-wife (Aniston) on an assaulting a police officer beef that she skipped out on the court hearing for, and return her to jail with a big smile on his face as back payment for the apparent hell she put him through during their marriage. Turns out Jen is a reporter on a big story with possibly scandalous implications involving police corruption masterminded by Peter (Zed) Greene, and blew off her court date to follow up on a lead. When the ex shows up to take her in, she tries to outsmart him and escape, and failing that, plays on his lingering feelings for her to help her get to the bottom of the story. Turns out Butler has some people after him too, a couple of bumbling collection men working for a loan shark (Cathy Moriarty) that he owes a big chunk of change to. Now there’s no spoilers involved by saying that much of the story is dedicated to the two of them rekindling their romance under trying circumstances, but the script by Sarah Thorp and director Andy (Melio) Tennant smartly mines the premise for all the comedy gold they can find, with the two stars constantly trying to one up each other from Butler catching up to one of her escape attempts on a gondola by slowing his car way down and gently tapping her from behind, to a bit involving his gun and group of scared cab drivers along with many other moments which make this battle of the sexes a lot of fun to watch. Granted, I could have done without Jason Sudeikis (seemingly playing his part as an over the top gay man) as Aniston’s co-worker and dedicated stalker, obsessed with her to the point that he follows her into the bathroom at work (not funny and grounds for immediate termination in real life) and coming off not so much as humorous as weirdly creepy, especially in the way he constantly tails the two leads in the first half of the film, with the performance being so campy that he doesn’t even come across like a real person. We also get Christine Baranski as Aniston’s ghoulish mother who works as some kind of lounge singer in Atlantic City; Siobhan Fallon being pretty funny as the hard bitten receptionist at the bail bonds office Butler works out of; and even Carol Kane returning from the dead as the owner of a bed and breakfast that plays an important role in the story. The heart of the film though, as it should be, is the two leads, and when the frenetic story slows down just enough for the two of them to get to know each other again, Butler and Aniston manage to bring both charm and old fashioned movie star charisma to the table. In all, another high quality chick flick from a guy whose range varies from The Phantom Of The Opera to King Leonidas from 300…
8/10