Movies: The Bounty Hunter

Title: The Bounty Hunter (2010)
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Grade: B-

Summary:
Milo Boyd, a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter, gets his dream job when he is assigned to track down his bail-jumping ex-wife, reporter Nicole Hurly. He thinks all that's ahead is an easy payday, but when Nicole gives him the slip so she can chase a lead on a murder cover-up, Milo realizes that nothing ever goes simply with him and Nicole. The exes continually one-up each other - until they find themselves on the run for their lives. They thought their promise to love, honor and obey was tough - staying alive is going to be a whole lot tougher.

Review:
This movie really surprised me.  I found it on Netflix Instant when I was browsing around looking for something mindless.  I was hoping a light romantic comedy would get me out of a stress induced funk I was in.  I was just looking for cotton candy for the brain.

The Bounty Hunter is never going to make it on any of AFI's lists or even my favorite movie lists, but I think it's better than some of the other romcoms out there.  What made this movie work for me was that it had a great mix of romance, comedy, action, and mystery.  I particularly enjoyed the physical comedy, and Jason Sudakis has a small but hilarious role.  There are a lot of plot lines that encompass these different aspects, but they were interwoven well.
I also really enjoyed the soundtrack.  All of the songs were top 40's, and several were songs I normally never would have liked, but everything fit well with what was happening at that moment in the film.  Also The Bounty Hunter had a very contemporary feel for me with the fashions and locations so top 40's seemed like a good pick.

In so many ways I felt that The Bounty Hunter could have originally been a contemporary romance novel and now I was just watching it play out on screen.  The development of Milo and Nikki's relationship follows the same path that is seen in a lot of novels, right down to the Big Misunderstanding and how it is later resolved.  In fact, maybe that's why I liked this movie so much- I got to see it all acted out visually instead of just reading it!  It can definitely be argued that it's like that for most romcoms, but for some reason it was a lot more clearly defined for me in The Bounty Hunter.

I did think Milo and Nicole's romance could have been more dramatic or could have been taken more seriously at points, and Milo certainly went overboard with being a jerk once or twice.  Like I said, not the best movie ever, but very, very fun.  Team Aniston will also love this film- she looks absolutely fabulous in it!