The Big Bounce (2004)

Too much of everything

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The Big Bounce (2004): Dir: George Armitage / Cast: Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman, Sara Foster, Charlie Sheen, Gary Sinise: Nobody really makes a big bounce in this film. That is not to say that it doesn't have entertainment quality. It has a catchy premise and several plot turns that play around trust and betrayal. What works against it is its methods of paying off crime. Director George Armitage presents beautiful Hawaiian photography. He previously made Grosse Pointe Blank, another film that featured a young anti-hero caught up in crime. This is not much of an advancement. Owen Wilson is appealing as a con man working a construction job that is being protested by locals. He spent time in jail for break and enter, and he also decks a construction supervisor with a baseball bat. Morgan Freeman steals scenes as a judge who takes interest in him. Sara Foster plays a schemer who seduces Wilson into stealing $200, 000. Other roles are either pointless or underused. Charlie Sheen for example, is amusing as a foreman but more might have benefited him. In other roles are Gary Sinise who is underused and Vinnie Jones who is totally unnecessary. This is a great cast with mixed results in terms of who benefits and who is underused. Very light weight comedy with its moments of comic bliss but it is no big bounce. It does contain several little bounces though. Score: 5 ½ / 10

I will never understand how they made Morgan Freeman and Charlie Sheen to join this movie.... It wants to be clever, it wants to deliver an unexpected ending and it wants to be funny. But it is a total failure.We've seen some Owen Wilson funny movies but in this one his character is terrible. We don't connect with the "burglar" (like we do in Ocean's eleven). He is just a dumb crook being played by everyone. Charlie Sheen is even worse. No funny jokes, a stupid character. Morgan Freeman... Such a waste of talent!!!!!! Very SAD! Terrible lines!The only thing it made me pay a little attention and make myself watch it 'till the end was hawaii's beaches and great landscapes - it really makes us want to go there!! And the very hot female character- who barely acts but brings some joy to the screen.

When I saw this movie I hadn't heard much about it, and if I had heard something, I might not have seen it. That wouldn't have been such a bad thing!There are some good actors in this movie (Freeman and Sinise), unfortunately we don't see them much. Then there are a couple of semi-good actors (Sara Foster, Charlie Sheen) and we see much too much of them. Then there are a couple of "underdogs", actors that we don't expect a lot from, and we don't see them much either (willie Nelson, Vinnie Jones) and that's a shame because they actually deliver some of the movies funniest and/or most credible performances.What about Owen Wilson you ask? Well, he's Owen Wilson, just the way he is Owen Wilson in a lot of other not so good movies that have only reached large audiences because of his name (Drilbit Taylor; You, Me and Dupree; Marley and Me). No, don't get me wrong, he's not bad, he's almost never bad, but he's just not that good either.And then what about the plot? To be perfectly honest I think that there might just have been enough plot for about 45 minutes, tops, and that might actually have improved the movie, which is unbearably slow paced at times and not at all the LOL-comedy it tries to be!So no, when you ask me so directly I have to say that I would not recommend it unless you want a perfectly harmless movie with so little plot that you can make out with a boy- or girlfriend half the time and not miss much...

I don't know why this movie even exists. Maybe the book is better, but this movie has no entertainment value whatsoever. The plot doesn't make any sense, the characters have zero depth (what was Charlie Sheen's character for?), Sara Foster has no acting ability, the music is annoying, and to top it all off the whole movie has been sanitized for a lower rating - not that anyone would recommend this rubbish to anyone else as a family film. The only highlights are brief shots of Hawaiian scenery.I'm glad I never paid at the cinema to see this, but I feel just as ripped off paying two bucks at Blockbuster to rent the DVD. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, and I feel sorry for the actors dragged into appearing in this movie.