Album Reviews
Movies
Concert Reviews
Movie Resources
Concert Reviews
Book Reviews

Top 10
Resources
Contact Us

A good cast and simple direction can make up for a lot of mistakes in a movie. So it is with The Big Bounce, the second film based on Elmore Leonard's novel. The original adaptation, released in 1969, starred Ryan O'Neal in his first big-screen role. Fortunately, the second one, to be released this Friday, stars Owen Wilson, a much better choice.

Owen Wilson has been trying to make the transition to action blockbusters. Witness his parts in Behind Enemy Lines and I Spy. But he's much better cut out for the quirky comedies, ala Royal Tenenbaums and Shanghai Noon. His slacker persona and creative line deliveries (a nice combination of hipster and southern drawl) are a perfect fit for slow-burning comedies. The Big Bounce is one those.

Here, he plays Jack Ryan, a drifter/petty thief who's made his way to Hawaii. But there he gets into trouble for bashing his boss's head with a baseball bat. When he gets out of jail, he's told in no uncertain terms to get off the island. But he's not willing to go that quickly, especially when Walter (Morgan Freeman) offers him a job as a janitor/handyman. Funny, though--Jack doesn't do much work. He spends a lot more time checking out the local fauna, especially a sweet, young thing in an itty bitty bikini.

Her name is Nancy (Sara Foster), and she's up to no good. We know this because her second act of flirting is to ask Jack to steal a car. She bats those pretty eyelashes of hers, and Jack can't resist. Of course, he probably wasn't going to say no anyway. Wilson and Foster have a relaxed chemistry that we don't often see in comedies anymore. Most contemporary comedies are hyper, over-the-top affairs with gross-out gags and worse. The Big Bounce goes for a subtler approach. It relies on wordplay and Wilson's clever reaction shots. When Nancy admits that she hosted at a strip club, Jack responds with surprise, "I hosted at a strip club." Pause. "No one strips anymore. Everyone hosts." It's a nice joke made nicer by Wilson's perfect timing.

George Armitage (Grosse Pointe Blank) directs like he's been basking in the sun in Hawaii for weeks. There's no sense of urgency, and if the movie has to pause for a while so we can admire the waves, that's ok, too. Indeed, the movie uses footage of surfers so often that it functions as an editing device. Instead of fading to black, the movie cuts between scenes with more surfing action. This laid-back attitude presents a problem when the romance turns into a complicated con and heist. Suddenly, secondary characters are sprouting up of nowhere, and people are doing their best to do each other in.

I guess we should be happy that Morgan Freeman isn't playing the wise, old black man dispensing advice to wayward white folk. Oh wait, he is. The only hint of Walter's dark side is the earring he sports and the small bets he places on dominoes. He's a veritable criminal! So when it turns out he's mixed up in the scheme, it's not that we're surprised (what else could he be doing in this movie?) but it fits as well as Dick Cheney surfing on the Maui coast. In fact, the entire con makes no sense at all, and the movie knows it. So it rushes through the big heist like a Chicagoan hurrying to get out of the cold. Maybe the audience won't notice how implausible this all is, the filmmakers hoped. Well, we notice.

Still, the movie is far more successful at laying out an easy-going Hawaii vibe and seeing how much skin you can show in a PG-13 movie. I can't say much for Sara Foster's acting ability, but she sure looks nice in that yellow swimsuit. Indeed, the whole movie is fun to look at, for the same reason I enjoy watching tv golf in January. When it's snowing outside and the wind chills are below zero, there's something comforting about seeing people in short sleeves walking along green grass. It's a reminder that better days are ahead. As for The Big Bounce, well better movies are ahead, too, but it's not a bad way to pass the time.   

J. Robert Parks  1/25/2004