La grande arnaque

I tell you who, they are scamming us, that's for sure.

After reading on the back of the DVD case in Blockbuster the words 'A comedy', 'Get Shorty' and 'Based on the Novel' and seeing the all star cast line up, I thought this looks like a potentially great movie, but when I got it home, got myself all comfortable by sitting down with Pizza, Wine and friends, and then switched it on, I felt like I had been given the wrong movie. Our night was ruined because of this, it just put us all on downers, and everyone left early.

This was a flat stale piece of un-funny junk, no wonder people take to downloading movies, they feel they don't want to risk parting with their money.

I could direct and write a much funnier movie than this dribble with my eyes closed. I feel really sorry for these great actors who were dragged into this mush. Although I am sure they had a great vacation together in Hawaii and enjoyed the pay cheque, it did not do their reputations to great.

This film was painfully dull to watch, so much it hurt, and now to add insult to injury I have got to go all the way back to the video shop to take the damn thing back.

Sigh!

This is one of those movies that will slip through the cracks, but it's really not "bad". It's actually pretty GOOD, right up until... it doesn't have an ending. The ending seems to imply yet another twist - but it makes NO sense, and leaves more questions than it answers. The ending seems like they ran over-budget or over-time, and just stopped. The ending, it must be warned, SUCKS.

Maybe they couldn't afford a real ending; but the movie is pretty good up until then. It's a fun ride to a dead-end. Morgan Freeman settles into his part like he'd been waiting for it. Gary Sinise has a stifled role, but delivers his lines beautifully. Charlie Sheen is very nearly perfect as a slightly-dim, slightly confused henchman, and playing subtly against-type. Bebe Neuwerth appears as a boozy wife and gives far more to the part than is on the page, also against type, and perfectly-acted. Vinnie Jones stands-out too...

This movie could NOT fail - but it does. When it ends, you want to kick someone - the director or producers or studio financiers - for stopping what COULD have been so great! This movie has a painfully tiny scene with Willie Nelson and Harry Dean Stanton playing dominoes... I'm only a fan and don't know him personally, but I just KNOW that Elmore Leonard himself would stop any plot just to listen-in and watch to listen to those two guys play dominoes!

Owen Wilson is actually quite brilliant with the intricacies of the Elmore-dialogue that survive in the script! Don't say I'm wrong until you watch his scenes with Morgan Freeman in this movie. NOBODY was carrying anyone, and that's the truth. See the scenes with Charlie Sheen too - and there's a bouncing something there they keep between them. Someone on IMDb wrote "Charlie Sheen looks fat and stupid and like an ass" or something equally blind. What he DOES is play a different kind of self-effacing part, a *character* a bit of a boob - but also good and a bit "whipped" - do yourself a favor, and watch how NOT "Charlie-Sheen" he plays it - you might recognize a thing they call "acting".

Ahem, Sara Foster was the femme fatal, and the camera followed her far too much. She's gorgeous and who can blame the camera, and she gave a perfectly creditable performance; really, she was fine. Given something over a dozen better actors constantly on-hand (and the seeming final plot!) her time could have been cut a bit... but with this cast, and the first 80 minutes, this really could have been GREAT. Ignore it as the Sara Foster swimsuit video. There are some great performances hidden here. See this movie, and pretend the sequel is coming - or something.

Or don't see it - because you'll just wish it ended better.

As a shaggy-dog-story, this should end with a punchline. I'll end it the way movie ends instead, with build-up and seeming logic and then just stopping.

"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.

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.

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.