The Big Bounce (2004)

I would like to start out my review by saying I was looking forward to the Big Bounce. I enjoy watching Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman and Charlie Sheen on the big screen. I however feel this movie was marketed the wrong way. It was marketed as a slapstick comedy but turned out to only have a few laughs and a lot of mystery of who's scamming who? I walked out of The Big Bounce not overly satisfied but I was amused and entertained by the film nonetheless.

The film starts off with a huge laugh out loud scene and then proceeds to start developing its story. The movie stars Owen Wilson as Jack Ryan who is just your average Hawaii surfer dude/con man. Well, Jack is trying to go straight after being thrown in jail for an act of violence with one of his coworkers. Then Walter Crewes (Morgan Freeman) offers Jack a job, so Jack works for him at his local vacation hotspot. This is where the trouble starts as he runs into Hottie Nancy (Sara Foster) who talks Jack into doing one last big scam. The question of who is scamming who proceeds.

The movies' acting was pretty decent like I said above I like the actors in this film. Owen Wilson always uses his likable charm to win the audience over. Charlie Sheen played more of a scumbag in the film but he was amusing to watch as well. Morgan Freeman was playing a very calm laid back character and he looked like he was having fun. As for Sara Foster well she did what she was paid for and that was to strut her stuff and she did a great job doing just that. As for Gary Sinise, who is a great actor if I might add, well he was very under used and kind of served no real purpose in the film. I think his actual screen time was actually less than 5 minutes you think they could have gotten a real nobody to play his role.

George Armitage who brought us the film Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack directed the film. He did a great job capturing the beauty that is Hawaii. I loved the camera shots of the beaches, the ocean, the waves, and the beautiful scenery. The man makes pretty decent films he just needs a better marketer. I mean Grosse Pointe Blank was a decent film but was a box office bomb. I also think the Big Bounce will bomb since I went to see it on an opening night and there weren't many people in the theater. I think its because its marketed more as a comedy then anything else when it doesn't really showcase that many laughs.

Sebastian Gutierrez who wrote the movie Gothika that I actually enjoyed but many hated wrote the movie. I think Mr. Gutierrez did a good job with this screenplay. It had some clever dialog and some comedy. I think however it was missing a little juice to spice it up. It needed an action scene or more comedy scenes to make it more interesting for a wider audience.

So in conclusion, I didn't like the film as much as I thought I was but it was decent. It was amusing and kept me interested. I liked the performances and scenery. Its a decent film to see at a Matinee showing but not really worth the evening price at the theater especially in CA where they charge pretty much $10 buck a ticket. If you don't catch it in the theater it will definitely make a decent rental when it hit DVD or VHS in a few months. My final rating for the Big Bounce is a 7/10.

Fmovies: We are in Hawái , there Jack Ryan a young ex-con who gets fired from his employment ,then he takes another job as handyman and cleaner of a judge and local hotel proprietary called Sam (Morgan Freeman). Meanwhile , he is enamored by a shady and gorgeous woman named Nancy (Sara Foster), she's lover to an unscrupulous mobster called Ritchie (Gary Sinese). Nancy proposes Jack to help her with the robbery Ritchie's safe with supposedly big amount of money. He reluctantly help her , but problems ,double-crosses , risks and dangers are arising.

The film mingles intrigue , black comedy with cynical sense of humor , action , suspense and exotic landscapes including shores , islands , and beaches from Hawaii . The movie contains several ingredients for amusement and entertainment such as surf , yachts , sunny outdoors and sexy girls wearing T-shirt and bikinis . Owen Wilson as sympathetic drifter is nice and Sara Foster as sulky and seductive young is awesome . However, Morgan Freeman and Gary Sinese are miscast , but they usually play intelligent and upright roles . Other secondary actors as Charlie Sheen , Willie Nelson , Vinnie Jones , Bebe Neuwirth and Harry Dean Stanton are well. Wonderful outdoors and lush interiors are beautifully photographed by Jeffrey L. Kimball and lively and atmospheric music by George S Clinton . Screenplay by Elmo Leonard ,an old novelist and screenwriter specialist on noir plots and western and working from ¨Tall T¨,¨3:10 Yuma¨,¨Hombre¨ continuing with ¨Rosary murders¨, ¨Get shorty¨, ¨Jackie Brown¨ till nowadays . This film was previously adapted by Alex March (1969) with Ryan O'Neal and Leigh Taylor Young . Motion picture was regularly directed by George Armitage . Rating : Average but with lots of fun for the entire youth and it will appeal to noir comedy fans .

It's movies like this that give modern-day films a reputation as "garbage," especially among classic-film lovers. I try to defend today's movies to them when they tell me today's movies are all morally bankrupt. Well, in this case, I have no rebuttal. I agree, this is another example of a modern effort that puts too much stock on the sleaze and winds up on the weak side of being classy. It's also another good example of a PG-13 movie that should have been rated "R." There are tons of examples of that in the last 15 years. Parents: be more leery of PG-13 than another rating.

Usually, a movie that features crime and comedy is going to be either really good or really bad, depending on the quality of the jokes. Here, very little was funny and by halfway, I could care less about the crime angle. If you are to inject humor into a heist story, make sure it works, or you are going to wind up with a mess like this. Also, the movie seemed to be more of an environmental propaganda piece than anything else. Did Al Gore have a hand in this? It would explain how boring this wound up and all the bias. It just looks as if the filmmakers didn't know what direction go to and wound up with a sub-par performance in all the categories.

Owen Wilson plays a smart-ass surfer dude. If his character "Jack Ryan" is the hero of this film, it's no wonder I got turned off in a hurry. I didn't find him a "likable guy," as some others did: just a wise guy who had the cute answers to everything. I have found Wilson to be similar to the crime-comedy genre: he's either very entertaining or very annoying.

Speaking of actors, I was very disappointed to see two of my favorites - Gary Sinise and Morgan Freeman - involved with this turkey.

I don't blame Wilson for everything. He didn't write the dialog. He didn't cast Sara Foster as the lead female. He didn't write a screenplay in which none of the characters are likable enough for us to care about them. At least I have company as I see most other reviewers here thought this movie stunk, too.

The Big Bounce fmovies. I really like movies that center around some impossible con with twists thrown in. But, this movie, which advertises itself as a funny con, was terrible. The final five minutes which explains who was setting who up was dumb. Plus, the whole con was to only get $200,000. I want someone to try to steal a priceless neckless or gold bars like in Heist. As for the funny part, there are no laughs. And even Morgan Freeman is bad in this. They show surfers as a transition between scenes; what does that tell you about a film.

FINAL VERDICT: It is short, only 80 minutes long, but it is not worth a viewing.

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.

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!