Customer Reviews

Big Bounce [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

At about the one-hour mark, I realized this movie was never going to really take off. It's short to begin with (88 minutes including credits), and after being very patient it was frustrating that there was no real payoff.

Don't get me wrong, the movie has sort of an easy-going charm. A little too easy-going, to be blatantly honest. For a movie about con men pulling various scams, the movie just didn't have a lot of energy. The cast can't be faulted, plenty of A-list talent. Most of the movie rests on Owen Wilson, who is more or less typecast here, and newcomer Sara Foster, who is stunningly attractive but rather bland as an actress. The movie could've benefited from a little steam, but either Foster had a no-nudity clause or the producers didn't want to go beyond a PG-13 rating for some reason. In supporting roles, great actors like Morgan Freeman and Gary Sinise have very little to do in underwritten roles.

The movie is easy on the eyes, lots of great cinematography featuring the natural beauty of Hawaii. The cast is game, even when working with very little. There are a few off-handed laughs sprinkled throughout. And for two-thirds of the running time, I was fairly certain that things would come together with some nice twists and a satisfying conclusion. The satisfaction never really occurred, and the movie faded from memory not long after it was over.

The dvd looks and sounds great (some cool tunes on the soundtrack, sounding great in the 5.1 mix). I realize the movie was a bomb at the box office, but even so a little more effort could've been put into the supplemental features. Here's what we get: a 12 minute promotional featurette (standard mix of movie clips, cast interviews, behind-the-scenes snippets), a 3 minute mini-featurette about the surfing segments (a very minor part of the movie), and 7 minutes of surf footage outtakes (with surfing being such a sidenote in the movie, I guess they wanted to get some use out of this footage!).

Why anyone would have thought it was a good idea to remake "The Big Bounce," an utterly unmemorable 1969 caper comedy (based on an Elroy Leonard novel), is a complete mystery to me. Owen Wilson takes over the role of Jack Ryan (originally played by Ryan O'Neal), a petty crook who has some issues with his ex-boss, Ray Ritchie, a corrupt real estate developer in Hawaii. Hooking up with Ritchie's bombshell mistress, Ryan comes up with a scheme to rob the big man of a couple hundred thousand dollars. Ryan is also befriended by an anti-Ritchie judge named Walter Crewes, for reasons that make almost no sense at all until the closing moments. As in all films of this type, Ryan soon learns that people are not always what they appear to be and that the conning game can work both ways. Actually, if the truth be told, Ryan is remarkably stupid for a con man.

The pacing of this film is almost shockingly bad. The story plods along for a good hour or so before the inevitable plot twists begin to kick in. Then, when they finally arrive, they are so poorly worked out and explained that you will probably be scratching your head wondering what it was that just happened - if you still care that is. The attitude on the part of both the filmmakers and the actors is so lackadaisical and indifferent that the film is really an insult to the audience who is paying good money to sit through this mess. In addition to Wilson, the film wastes the considerable talents of Morgan Freeman, Charlie Sheen, Willie Nelson, Harry Dean Stanton, Sara Foster and Gary Sinise, among others, all of whom at least got a trip to Hawaii out of the deal. The people watching the movie, sadly, walk off with only a torn ticket stub for a souvenir.

Everything about this movie and DVD screams "let's wrap this up and get the hell out of here." For one, the film runs a paltry 1 hour and 20 minutes, which is little better than a special extended episode of a TV show. It seemes like the director realized the film was getting out of control and losing it's pace, so he simply jammed the final scenes together and ended the movie with some island shots. Even the actors seemed like they were just going through the motions in the second half, which is sad considering you have real talent in the leading roles. How disappointed did Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman and Gary Sinese have to be? At least it was filmed in Hawaii and Sara Foster was in a bikini 90% of the time.

The DVD is short on extra features as well. Other than the obligatory "behind-the-scenes," the rest of the special features are surfing shots. They throw in an Owen Wilson interview in where he mentions that his character was a surfer (for about 30 seconds in the film) and then we go right into the big wave footage. Granted, the shots are pretty cool, but they have nothing to do with the movie.

For the most part I like Elmore Leonard adaptations, but it seems like there has to be a top-line director attached to make sense of the complicated plots, i.e. Sonnenfeld with Get Shorty, Tarantino with Jackie Brown (based on Rum Punch) and Soderbergh with Out of Sight. In The Big Bounce you get a plot that starts out interestingly enough, but by the end every single character is suddenly double-crossing the others within a space of 15 minutes. Where is the plot development? Where are the character's motivations? It all ends up as a big mess. Maybe we should be happy that it's only 80 minutes long. Any more and the stop button on the remote looks very inviting.

'The Big Bounce' is an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name. Actually, it is the second attempt to do so. The movie has moved the locale from Michigan to Hawaii and into the current day. The movie starts off well enough with a fairly faithful adaptation of Leonard's trademark dialogue, and close attention to the novel. However, the last third of the movie makes a radical departure.

The movie tells the story of Jack Ryan (no, not Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan). Jack is an ex-con that has mainly been involved in petty crimes. He finds himself in Hawaii working on a construction project that is picketed by natives. Next thing he knows, he is caught on video taking a bat to the foreman's head (he is a little more innocent than this sounds). He gets a quick release, makes friends with the local judge, and then finds himself involved with the girlfriend of a local real estate tycoon.

The movie does have its strengths. Owen Wilson was a great choice for Jack. He was a natural with his easy going attitude and look of innocence. Morgan Freeman is Morgan Freeman, which makes him good in about anything, including his role as the judge that owns a small resort property. Freeman's character hires Jack to do odd jobs around the resort. Gary Sinise is not in the movie enough to really evaluate his performance. Charlie Sheen was a good choice for Sinise's lead henchman. The character was a bit more a buffoon that Sheen usually plays, but he pulled it off well. Sarah Foster as Nancy was a good enough choice.

What doomed this movie was that it tried to adapt a novel for the big screen that really doesn't translate well. Unlike 'Get Shorty,' 'Out of Sight,' and 'Jackie Brown,' which were great Leonard adaptations to the big screen, 'The Big Bounce' is a little light on action that would grip an audience in the theater. What made the novel great was the dialogue and the development of the characters. The creators of this movie did a good job with the Hawaiian scenery, use of Leonard's dialogue, and adaptation of the plot in the first half, but then they abandoned all of that in the last third. Seriously, the move takes a left turn, and it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Ultimately, I'd recommend this novel to Elmore Leonard fans. I'm guessing the producers of the DVD weren't expecting a large demand for this DVD as they didn't bother to add a lot of extra features besides a short featurette about the cast and story, some surfing footage, and the trailer. DVD enthusiasts will be disappointed that there are no deleted scenes or outtakes. Its worth watching if you have seen everything else, but don't pass up some of the other great movies that are new to DVD for this. If you really need to kill time, grab the novel instead.

THE BIG BOUNCE is a moderately entertaining caper comedy about two misfits (Owen Wilson and Sara Foster) trying to scam a sleazy developer (Gary Sinise) out of $200K. The film is based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, who as usual takes as much (if not more) pleasure in the planning than in the actual crime.
The film certainly takes the planning more seriously. The actual crime feels tacked on in a rush at the end. This movie will be a treat for Owen Wilson fans, it's a showcase for his mildly stoned insouciance. Model-turned-actress Foster is very beautiful and suitably pouty. A large number of eccentric characters populate the Hawaiian setting, most notably a relaxed Morgan Freeman as a judge/landlord. What's missing from THE BIG BOUNCE is danger and suspense, and any hint that any of the characters is actually a criminal. The plot to rip of Sinise's character is treated with the seriousness of a practical joke.The supporting cast also includes Charlie Sheen, Bebe Neuwirth, Vinnie Jones, Willie Nelson and Harry Dean Stanton.
Still, Owen Wilson is a fine comic actor, and THE BIG BOUNCE is a low key good time, a good way to kill a Saturday afternoon.

I really didn't expect a lot from this movie - but it did feature Morgan Freeman, the greatest actor working today, as well as the scantily-clad Sara Foster, so I said what the heck. Actually, the movie really isn't that bad. Sure, it's a little silly and predictably unpredictable (you know how these comic con game movies are), it sometimes seems as if the actors are making things up as they go along, and the ending leaves much to be desired, but - and I hate to admit this - Owen Wilson is pretty darn funny, the Hawaiian setting is gorgeous, there's no shortage of bikini-clad ladies, and the storyline is enough to keep you interested. You also have all these weird cameo appearances by celebrities such as Gary Sinise, Willie Nelson, Harry Dean Stanton, and Bebe Neuwirth - they don't really add to the movie, but you're always wondering what famous person will show up next.

I don't think I need to explain how these con game movies work, not after all of the con game movies Hollywood has sent our way in recent years. You've got your con, then you've got your hidden "conspiracy" of con men and women making things more complicated, and then you have an ending that flies off in another direction altogether without adequately explaining what just happened. Owen Wilson plays Jack Ryan, a rather typical roustabout who has made his way to Hawaii. There's an unfortunate incident involving his supervisor's head and a baseball bat, but oddly enough, the district judge Walter Crewes (Morgan Freeman) gives him a job, and it's not long before he is hanging out with Nancy Hayes (Sara Foster), the young mistress of Jack's now-former boss Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinise). Drawing upon the natural charms she was blessed with, Nancy talks Jack into pulling a heist for her; two hundred grand is going to be ripe for the plucking and - best of all - the robbery victim will be none other than Ray Ritchie himself. Now that you know the basic setup, forget all about it because things change a great deal by the time everything actually goes down.

Morgan Freeman was, naturally, quite good in this film - although I don't consider The Big Bounce to be much of a feather in his cap. Methinks my favorite actor really just wanted to spend a working vacation in Hawaii. It seems obvious to me that Owen Wilson was the perfect choice to play Jack Ryan - I'm not saying he's a great actor, but few actors could have delivered all of his cheesy dialogue without bringing the whole production down around his feet. Sara Foster is quite good as well (and I'm not just saying that because she was scantily-clad most of the time). Unfortunately, the ending of the movie just isn't very satisfying - too much is left unexplained, and it just doesn't feel right.

Maybe I'm just too easy to please, but I think The Big Bounce is a pretty good film for the most part - a silly little diversion that will make you laugh a few times and leave you feeling entertained (although the unsatisfying conclusion might lead you to forget the good things about the film).

Owen Wilson heads up a pretty amazing cast list here as Jack Ryan, the petty thief pretty boy in Hawaii, trying to hit big. Morgan Freeman, Charlie Sheen, Gary Sinise, Willy Nelson, Sara Foster and even Harry Dean Stanton......and the list goes on. Even the pedigree of Elmore Leonards novel and George Armitage in the directors chair (Grosse Pointe Blank) make you sit back after watching this and ask - What happened? This is a very dull movie that promises much, but fails to deliver on just about all levels. A who's scamming who? game unfolds that keeps you guessing, but fails to really grab your attention, and looks like everyone was just going through the motions for a paycheck. The visual distraction of Foster (virtually bikini clad throughout the picture)wears thin very quickly, and even though I am a fan of Wilson, I found this picture to be hard work. Always waiting for something to get going leaves you feeling deflated as the end titles roll, and aside from a few sparse moments of comedy I cannot really recommend this movie. Freeman is as always engaging, but even his talents are wasted here, and one suspects that the original 1969 movie was better as it at least had an ending. The confusing and implied added "twist" at the end here makes no sense at all, and feels like a fun ride that ends halfway round. Rainy day material only, and rent before buying.

I couldnt even stand to see the whole thing! My god, Owen Wilson is a good actor, but definatly not in this bullcrap, dammit! Theres basically NOTHING going on but what's his name and what's her name going out, and ita a horrible date! DONT BUY IT, DONT RENT IT, STAY AWAY EVEN IF YOURE A DIE HARD FAN OF OWEN WILSON OR MORGAN FREEMAN!!!

Many of the reviews previously gave this film low ratings. However, their comments were not directed at the cast or the overall story. It was more generally the pace of the movie and the way the characters had limited dialouge and interaction. These comments are absolutely true. If you are the type of movie buff that enjoys overall plot twists (crime movies such as the usual suspects) or emotional acting (like titanic or some emotionally taunt movie) you wont find either in this flick. However, the movie has, in my opinion, something far greater to offer. It gives a realistic portrayal of Hawaii (and tropical vacation locales in general) and the scamming/corupt undercurrent that passes through local life in general. Many people that lived in the north would find it off to see boring, low-life, one dimensional characters randomly conning each other in beautifull breath taking scenery. You would expect an intense/exotic/mysterious con movie. However, thats not realistic. The truth is Hawaii is laid back. Tropical U.S. vacation spots like Miami and Hawaii are like this. The building contractors, various locales, and con men are somewhat low grade criminals and black mailers. There is a large economy of shady dealings and corruption. In all tropical vacation spots almost nobody originated there. In Hawaii there is a large segment of people from the mainland U.S. and Japan that own property. These people are less apt to actually care about the future of that Island, many have families living elsewhere. 70% of Miami speaks a different language than English as their first Language. Most of the people that speak english as their first language are from New York or the East coast originally. So I would estimate almost 80% of the families or people living in Miami are first generation, whether from another state or country. I enjoyed this movie imensly because it accurately portrayed the laid back beautifull environment of Hawaii and the mediocre overwhelming corrupt government and economy in an interesting combination.
The dialogue also was complained as being too brief. This is another interesting aspect of the movie. The reason all the characters don't interact together much is that they are all scheming each other. The point of the movie as morgan friedman stated was that sometimes things are exactly what they seem: everybody is trying to con each other. If the characters acted and interacted more frequently or more intensly they would not be able to con each other. For example Owen Wilson and Foster(the blond girl?) were complained of not being passionate enough. The reason for this is that they were trying to scam each other. Also the movie leaves a lot of room for interpretation because its not spelled out for you. Both me and my GF had to different ideas of what happened in the end because really no character is the mastermind. Although it seems Owen made out the best (main character ...duh) were never sure, because all the events were portrayed as happening by luck. Because in real life this is how scams seem.... just a coincidence. If everyone could understand all the angles in real life there would be no scams..... because everyone could tell it was a scam from the begining. This is how the movie portrayed the environment, activities (scams), and the characters (one dimensional or as owen narates in the begining "having bad timing and making bad choices.... luckily i believe in new beginings and running from my problems" something like that)realistically. We can instantly see in this that these characters will not be typical hollywood heroes. If your looking for a typical hollywood con movie with big plot twists and expert characters see matchstick men or usual suspects. If your looking for a realistic portrayal of the monotanaeous,relaxed, and tragecly comedic life of criminals,contractors, and corupt judges in the tropics this is the movie for you.

This is proof that it takes more than a couple of well-known actors to make a movie. The talent here is wasted. Everyone seems like they didn't care about the movie; they just wanted to get on with their free Hawaiian vacation. The story itself is directionless and lacks any fun. By the time the "surprise" ending comes around, the audience has already lost all interest and care. It's tiring, tedious, and boring! This movie also pushes the limits of the PG-13 rating. The lead female is naked to near naked for half the movie. Please, don't waste your time on this crapfest. I don't even know you, but I'm certain you deserve to spend your weekend on something better.