The Big Bounce

Based on an Elmore Leonard novel, Owen Wilson plays Jack Ryan, an affable surfer who gets pulled into a crime caper by Nancy (Sara Foster), the beautiful mistress of a wealthy developer in Oahu, Hawaii. Soon, he and a judge, played by Morgan Freeman, are plotting against the developer, but Jack finds that he got more than he bargained for with Nancy.

I have never read the novel so I can't compare the movie to the book but I doubt the book is this bad. If Elmore Leonard doesn't like it then it's probably a disgrace to the book. The story itself isn't very fresh or new though the film does have an impressive cast. Unfortunately, the cast did little to help this very poor film. It ended up being a big waste of time and talent. The movie is just very dull and stupid. There really isn't a very clear idea of what type of genre this movie is supposed to be in. It wasn't a comedy because it wasn't funny at all. It wasn't a thriller because it offered no surprises. It was a crime caper except it wasn't very exciting and it offered no intrigue at all.

The acting is surprisingly flat and dull. Most of the actors seem to be more interested in a paycheck than anything else. This is Owen Wilson's worst film to date and it's also his worst performance. He just didn't seem to be trying at all. Gary Sinise wasn't used much which is a good thing because his performance was pretty mundane. Charlie Sheen tried way too hard to be funny and he ended up just being annoying. Morgan Freeman just gave a dull performance and Sara Foster was pretty weak but she is beautiful.

I blame director George Armitage for this garbage. He had the right actors and the right story, he just couldn't keep a good focus on it. There were a bunch of ideas going all over the place and the film was just so messy. He doesn't keep the audience guessing because they most likely won't care. He doesn't keep the audience entertained because there are very few engaging scenes. He really has nothing important to say either and The Big Bounce is just a very unnecessary movie. In the end, The Big Bounce is simply not worth watching. Rating 3/10

Don't be fooled by everyone's comments on how horrible or how boring this movie is. Sure, if you are looking for an Academy Award-winning drama, you won't get what you wanting to see. I mean look at the star role! ITS OWEN Wilson. Some of his more recent films include Starsky and Hutch, Shanghai Knights, Royal Tenebaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Shanghai Noon, I mean COME ON. As soon as I saw he was in it I knew it was a comedy, and I was expecting a not-so-great storyline and some "controversial" things being said. If you want to see a comedy, then see this movie.

I, went, expecting a comedy, got one, and I give it a 8 out of 10.

"The Big Bounce" is not a boring film, but it is certainly unremarkable. It is too often the case that the film feels like a six-episode television series that has been scrapped and then condensed down into a 100 minute feature. It is rich in character diversity and snappy put-downs; overflowing with a sense of people coming and going in and out of one another's universes that can often be refreshing and is laden with micro-narratives pertaining to heists; betrayals and collapsing marriages, but there is no finished product – no substance to really sink one's teeth into.

Owen Wilson plays Jack Ryan (no, not that one) – a handsome conman who has served time for his petty crimes but now lies low on a Hawaiian island and works on a construction site. He's cool; calm and amusing. When he breaks the law, in infiltrating the glamorous surroundings of a beach house hosting a pool party so as to nab a couple of hundred in notes to tide himself over, he does it in such a way that we cannot quite hate him for it.

Ryan lands himself in some trouble when he clobbers a foreman with a baseball bat following an altercation on his work-site that involves protesters unhappy at the desecration of their lands to make way for a new hotel. Fired, and told menacingly by the henchman (played by Charlie Sheen) of his ex-boss that he should leave the island, he finds solace in working as a handyman for Morgan Freeman's district judge Walter Crewes on a small holiday-camp he runs on the side.

It is around this time that he meets Nancy (Sara Foster), a blonde twenty-something beach-bimbo with a backstory of city-based exotic dancing and a fetish for criminality – not a dangerous girl, but one who is fast and loose and too pretty for Ryan to turn away from when she demonstrates an interest in him. The reason for this is, of course, that he himself has a penchant for criminality, albeit petty burglaries. The relationship occupies the bulk of the film's middle third – Nancy, already having an affair with the chap who wants to build that hotel, is thus able to garner access to yachts and luxury villas otherwise off-limits where the endless teasing; flirting and talking plays out.

Sadly, there is no real substance to this core relationship: Nancy is turned on by criminals and Jack commits crimes. Elmore Leonard, author of the novel from many years earlier upon which the film is based, would later bring a character similar to Jack Ryan together with a federal marshal in "Out of Sight" – two binaries that should repel but who eventually come to attract. Rum Punch, later adapted as "Jackie Brown", possessed at the core of it a far tougher love story to bring to life between the eponymous Brown and Max Cherry.

Eventually, Nancy digs out that the man to whom she plays mistress possesses the sum of $200,000 nearby – located, as it happens, in a safe in one of these luxurious homes he owns. She hits upon the idea that they could steal it, but Ryan already has an angry foreman in a neck-brace out for payback; an on-off criminal accomplice in the form of Frank (Gregory Sporleder) saying he needs $1500 to pay off some bad people and a job to hold down for Crewes who has his own plans for Ryan...

The film is not remarkably well made – it is bouncy in that way "Get Shorty" and "Jackie Brown" are without ever being frivolous, but does not amount to the satisfying experience those films were. We are provided with endless shots of surfers to transist between scenes, while the close ups of the rolling white waves as they crash into the beach as Nancy and Jack make love is just clumsy. On one occasion, there is a particularly silly sequence whereby Nancy nips back and forth between the first and ground floors of a house to appease Jack and another male visitor (with whom she is additionally having an affair) without the other knowing either of them is present.

There is a certain style and a certain logic to the film, although I am perplexed as to why one character seems to spend the duration of the film trying to talk Ryan out of doing something which is crucial to a plan of his own that he has up his sleeve for later on. When all is said and done, this is tough to recommend as both a genre piece and as a standalone accomplishment.

Considering the cast and the fact that it was an Elmore Leonard adaptation, I wanted to see this flick. However, it was disappointing. The film (though very small) moved at an extremely lethargic pace with hardly anything happening (except in the last 5 minutes or something). I haven't read Leonard's book so I can't comment on how fair it was to the script. There isn't much of a story as pretty much nothing happens in more than half the movie. The non-compelling ending is very badly written and we are left to figure out the plot holes. Why just the ending, the whole film is boring. The dialogues are, now I don't use this word often but, lame. A few funny moments include the breaking in the cops house, the fight between Sheen and Wilson while the girl watches.

Sadly, the cast has been wasted. Wilson and Foster have no chemistry. Being a talented actor, Wilson deserves a better movie. Poor Morgan Freeman hardly has anything to do except utter a few wise (not really) words. Sheen and Sinise have insignificant roles. Newarth springs a surprise but is hardly there. Foster is alright.

On the flip side, the cinematography gives us a wonderful tour through exotic Hawaii. It makes me want to go there and at times, I thought maybe the director and cast just happened to be there on holiday and decided to make a film. The soundtracks quite okay too. Thankfully it's a short film too so one not need to suffer too much. Even to fans of the cast and Leonard, this will be a disappointment.

Greetings again from the darkness. What a total waste of a cool cast. Having never read Elmore Leonard's novel, I can't say whether the movie butchered the book or not. I can say that this is an extremely unfunny, poorly made movie with a ridiculous story that had me flashing back to those Elvis in Hawaii movies ... only without the charm and music! Director George Armitage ("Miami Blues", "Grosse Point Blank") either hated the story or called in sick everyday. Supermodel Sara Foster lacks the acting chops for her vital role in this triple-crossing fiasco. Talented screen veterans Morgan Freeman and Gary Sinise are totally wasted in this and comics Owen Wilson, Bebe Neuwirth and Charlie Sheen require some funny material to work their magic. Have I mentioned that the script was awful? Everytime I got my hopes up, I was left feeling empty. The domino game with Freeman, Wilson, Willie Nelson and Harry Dean Stanton could have been a classic scene, but instead fell flat. Even an early scene with football heroes Tony Dorsett, Mike Renfro and Pete Johnson goes nowhere because they are just treated as window dressing. When a movie wastes Vinnie Jones ("Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels") we know it has nothing going for it. The scenes of Hawaii and the beautiful shoreline and water are the only good things to be taken from this.