The Bounty Hunter (2010)

After seeing the trailer for this run-around romantic comedy, I felt like it had potential. Sure the concept of ex’s being forced to sort of work together has been done numerous times before but I figured pairing these two stars together would shed some unused light on the topic. Sadly, I was wrong. Not completely, The Bounty Hunter does entertain in some sense of the word, but doesn’t quite provide the substance needed to really be a full movie. This might be bad because this type of story really doesn’t need much substance to be considered entertaining.

Milo (Gerard Butler) is an ex-cop turned bounty hunter just trying to earn a living after his marriage ends in divorce. His next “bounty” is on the head of, ironically, his ex-wife Nicole (Jennifer Aniston). Excited that this might prove to be the easiest and highest paying job he has ever taken, he sets out to capture his former other half and bring her to jail. Of course this seemingly straightforward task turns out to be not as simple as he thought. Naturally, Nicole refuses to be taken into custody and consistently tries to fight her way free of him. The result is the cat-chasing-the-mouse game that ensues between the two of them.

Like I said, really not much to the story. A plot like this screams, “Fill in my holes with funny, outrageous moments to make my audience laugh for days”. But I only laughed for a few moments, and not at every joke. Like all movies, it had its couple stand out one liners and mishaps but not nearly as enough as it could have had.

Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston do a decent job of a believable divorced couple but I couldn’t imagine how they even ever managed to get as far as marriage in the first place. Yes, you may be saying, “Well that’s why they are divorced, stupid”. Yeah, you have a point, but even Britney Spears’ drunken one day long marriage to her former high school boyfriend had something behind it; other than money and lack of a pre-nup. They actually liked each other at one point in their life.

With Milo and Nicole, they are way more entertaining fighting with each other than when the movie finally hints at the romance part. The best part of the lack of on-screen chemistry between the two was seeing Jennifer Aniston try to run around in a tight, short skirt which she should of thought twice about wearing figuring her weekend had the potential of getting a little rough.

The plot does have a couple of decent side stories which give you a break from the on-going “this why we are no longer married” excerpts. Plus a good, yet hardly difficult, job of mixing them all in together. Perhaps Butler should stick to action movies and Aniston should stick to whatever it is that she does.

Subtle comedy combined with mid-level hopes at a second chance for love equals a possible female pleaser for all you boyfriends or husbands looking to entertain your lady. On the other hand, if you are trying to win back an ex, the unrealistic romantic moments in this one might only hurt your chances. Sorry. I give The Bounty Hunter “2.5 possible second chances at a failed relationship out of 5”

-“Life is about making mistakes”
-“And death is wishing you had made more”