The Big Bounce (2004)

Horrible

Absolutely horrid movie. I absolutely love Morgan Freeman, but I don't know what he was thinking taking this role. It was such a huge let down! September 29, 2008

Product Placement

The only enjoyment I got from this movie was counting the number of product placements!!!
They even have a product placement individual listed in the credits. April 27, 2007

Has ALL the elements of a light-hearted, fun comedy

Hilarious performances by Owen Wilson and Charlie Sheen. A sexy player in Sarah Foster, and the INFAMOUS narrative ability of Morgan Freeman. He is so good at narrating, I assume he writes his script. Every element of a fun, light hearted comedy is here, including appearances by Willie Nelson and Gary Sinise January 14, 2007

Dumb, but entertaining

There is a rule that is generally accepted: an Elmore Leonard book is magnificent; an Elmore Leonard film is not. There are a few notable exceptions to the rule - OUT OF SIGHT, JACKIE BROWN, GET SHORTY - but for the most part, film adaptations of Leonard's novels are pretty weak. One such example is 2004's THE BIG BOUNCE, the second attempt at adapting Leonard's novel.

Owen Wilson stars as Jack Ryan, a small-time con artist who was recently fired from his job after dislocating his employer's jaw with a baseball bat. After a series of chance encounters, he falls for the mysterious Nancy Hayes (Sara Foster), who tells him about her fool-proof plan to steal $200,000 from her rich "boyfriend", Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinise). Things may not be as they seem, but Jack has too many other things on his mind to worry about that, like his wise new boss (Morgan Freeman), his stand-offish old boss Bob Jr. (Charlie Sheen), and his angry ex-supervisor (Vinnie Jones).

THE BIG BOUNCE, despite the all-star cast, is not a good movie. Sebastian Gutierrez's script is rather weak, particularly during the non-sensical closing. The acting is less than superb, although Freeman is good (as always). George Armitage is not as talented a director as previous Leonard adaptators Quentin Tarantino or Steven Soderbergh, and thus THE BIG BOUNCE fails as both a comedy and, more so, as a crime caper.

That said, the film is rather entertaining. Why? I don't know. It has its moments - once when Owen Wilson answers a stolen cell phone, and once when he engages in a furious fight with Sheen - but for the most part, it's not funny. During some scene transistions, we are shown surfers crashing into the ocean. It's meant to be funny, but it's not. At all. And yet the film is still entertaining. I would attribute this to the cast, which manages to hold the film up for its 88 minute runtime. If it were any longer than that, however, the film would be almost unbearably dumb. June 22, 2006

The Big Bounce

Over the past number of years I have familiarized myself with the pleasant oddities of Elmore Leonard's books and the films conjured from his genius. There is a machine concealed within the mind of this man that creates characters and plots so original that you never know what you are going to get. You can read his novels with the same awe that you can watch the film adaptations. A film such as "Get Shorty" or "Jackie Brown" can arguably compare to the man's work.

Those two films are rarities in the sense that they function solely on the brilliance of Leonard and the social oddballs whom he produces. All of them are interesting people. You have mobsters, drifters, crooked cops, criminals, liars, cheaters, killers, and thieves elbowing each other for screen time. He uses his characters as valuable people, not fictional pawns, and they are all necessities to the story.

In the case of George Armitage's train wreck, "The Big Bounce," we are deprived of the luxuries of interest and captivation that the characters are supposed to create. Instead, the film takes the bold foundation of Leonard's book and mutates it into an inferior lackluster comedy, a ballsy and unfortunate mistake. Would it be wise to point out that "The Bourne Identity" at least came within a mile of being as good as Robert Ludlum`s novel, even if it took the plot in an entirely different direction?

The cast appears to be one that was gathered at the last minute. Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman, Sara Foster, and Gary Sinise, all very gifted people who made the mistake of buying into the script, carry the story with some degree of willingness. For a film to have good actors and disrespect their talents is an unfortunate case that is all-too common. "The Big Bounce" uses the big name actors for show and narrative hinderance, not for any productive reason.

Jack Ryan (Owen Wilson) is a beach bum surfer dude who can't seem to stay out of trouble. Jack drifts around the Hawaiian Islands looking for work after being released from prison, and he is hired by a local judge, Walter Crewes (Morgan Freeman), to do custodial work in and around a certain beach area. Through his unfavorable job, Jack comes across Nancy (Sara Foster), a beautiful, bikini-clad seductress who wants to run a major scam on her developer boyfriend. That would be the wealthy and powerful Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinise), whose apparent ties to the mob will prove to be a challenge to her scheme.

A few of the characters have hidden motives and obscure areas of reason, but the film tries to focus a bit too much on that. Instead of going ahead with their plan, Jack and Nancy tease and kid with one another in an obvious attempt to sidestep their sexual chemistry. The Freeman character stumbles around aimlessly in ignorance of the trouble that his employee is getting into. Sinise shows up only when the film is blatantly desperate for the story to continue. Charlie Sheen, who has gone unmentioned up until this point, is the puppet of the Sinise character, and his rivalry with Jack supplies an admirably humorous moment. And there is an outside player who pretty much ties everything together, however bizarre, albeit marginally brilliant, it may be.

But "The Big Bounce," in its feeble entirety, is a bit of a bore. The story lingers and never really engages itself, making the film seem as long as a Ridley Scott epic when it is only a brisk 88 minutes. It is a wind-up and no pitch, a clock without all of its functioning parts, the Three Stooges without Curly. Everything feels like it originated from Leonard. The movie, on the other hand, feels like it originated from a script that was written for the sole purpose of altering a story unwillingly. Whoever gave this movie a green light should not be happy with themselves. - Isaac

Rated PG-13; 88 minutes; Directed by George Armitage January 5, 2006

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