Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Steve Pulaski Jack Ryan (Owen Wilson) is your typical surfer dude in Hawaii, except he has also has a background as a thief, mostly small breaking and entering crimes where he leaves with his pockets aligned with decent cash and maybe some valuables here and there. After hitting construction foreman Lou Harris (Vinnie Jones), who works for a corrupt island Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinise), in the head with a bat, both Harris and the Ritchie's assistant Bob Rogers Jr. (Charlie Sheen) want Ryan to leave the island asap.However, a resort bungalow owner and local judge Walter Crewes (Morgan Freeman) takes a liking to Jack's laidback ways, and employs him at his resort as a handymen. This gives Jack and opportunity to get closer to Nancy Hayes (Sara Foster), a bad girl who knows how to smile and bat her eyes the right way around town. "She likes the criminal type," Walter warns Jack, but Jack doesn't listen and begins to hang around with Nancy, pulling off petty heists like the kind he is used to. Nancy wants more excitement, though. It isn't long before she gets the idea to stage a $200,000 heist on Ritchie.The Big Bounce is based off of Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name, but instead of taking place in the Michigan Thumb the story was moved to the shore of Oahu. This definitely makes the film more pleasing to look at and appealing in aesthetic, but it can't shake the fact that this film is meandering, far too directionless, and very dry as a whole. The film lacks energy and mystery for being a heist movie and adopts a persona about as lax and as breezy as its main character and location.I often haven't read many of the books when I review their film counterparts, so all I can do is tactfully assume what Leonard's novel contained. Two of the key ingredients for a crime novel are interest and, at least, some clarity of the overall mystery. The Big Bounce has a lot of characters, who are interesting on a basic level, but never seem to channel anything but basic archetypes. The actors work with what they have in their respective roles, sure, but if they were paid by lesser-known, second-rate actors, would you remember them just as well? Owen Wilson does some fine work, and Sara Foster, for her first time, channels the sexiness someone like Hayden Panettiere but possesses the personality of an Olsen twin. Arguably the best performance in the film is given by Morgan Freeman but, really, is that much of a surprise? There is a scene right near the end that has two characters, a man and a woman who should remain unspoiled, and the woman is talking to the man, confused about what their plan of action is now that they're about to be exposed. She keeps questioning the plan and the man continues to correct her. She only gets more and more confused. I think this is the closest the film comes with connecting the audience because nothing in The Big Bounce is clarified to the point of being digestible to the audience. By the end, I was trying to piece together what the ultimate goal of all of this was and what both parties were trying to achieve. Usually, in a crime drama, this is what the filmmakers want you to be doing, except instead of feeling like I had all the pieces somewhere in front of me, it felt as if I had a ten-piece puzzle and three pieces were on the floor, two were mistakenly thrown out, two were falsely advertized, and I was left with three that may or may not have been from the puzzle on the box. And so The Big Bounce goes on, and on, for a surprisingly short eighty-one minutes, going from mildly-interesting, to dull, to boring, to amusing, to somewhat funny, and the cycle repeats. Eventually, it becomes more of a scenery-chewing project for several talented actors who occasionally could be mistaken for contemplating better role choices in their future during this movie.Starring: Owen Wilson, Sara Foster, Morgan Freeman, Charlie Sheen, Gary Sinise, Vinnie Jones, Bebe Neuwirth, Willie Nelson, and Harry Dean Stanton. Directed by: George Armitage.

ccthemovieman-1 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.

ma-cortes 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 .

jpschapira Now I'm thinking about something Gian told me each time I watch a movie. He told me that every image, every camera angle means something in a piece. I said it maybe is like that, but in "The Big Bounce", with Hawaii's views, I didn't find anything meaningful in the trees, the beach and the people surfing.Coming form the novelist of two books that ended in intelligent movies (Elmore Leonard; "Jackie Brown", "Out of sight"), is weird how little of intelligence this film has. Maybe it was Sebastian Gutierrez's script that couldn't correctly adapt the book, or George Armitage's fascination with the view, who forgot he had to direct a story.When we meet Jack (Owen Wilson), he begins to narrate his story, but he won't be narrator at all because he will only talk again a couple of times. Then we meet the supporting characters, participants of the robbery; because Jack's a thief and the title announces this will happen. The girl is Nancy (Sara Foster), the nemesis but also partner is Walter (Morgan Freeman) and the victim is Ray (Gary Sinise) With those characters, another movie came to my mind; "After the sunset". Brett Ratner, a skillful director, could have got a good film, but was also trapped by the same exotic wildness, the views, the women; and the lack of content turned out to be the obvious result.Both movies generate laughs, but if "The Big Bounce" wins in something is in the right choice of the elements to make the movie work. Owen Wilson is a more charismatic lead than Pierce Brosnan, even when he can't carry an entire movie by his own. And his chemistry with Sara Foster is better than Brosnan's chemistry with Salma Hayek. Plus, Foster is much prettier than Hayek and more qualified for a role like this one than the inexpressive Mexican actress (maybe Frida was the only right role for her). Sara Foster is an incredible discovery. On the other hand, the pro Freeman is a better actor than Woody Harrelson, but not funnier. The victim character is irrelevant, unluckily for the great actors that portrayed it in both films.When you watch "The Big Bounce", try to focus in the elements I'm telling you about so you can enjoy it a little bit. Believe me, you won't care about the rest.