The Big Bounce (Widescreen Edition)

Amazon.com

There really can't be enough movies adapted from Elmore Leonard novels; his sinuous storylines and fluid, surprising dialogue give any movie a boost from the start. In The Big Bounce, laid-back Owen Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Shanghai Noon) plays Jack, a small-time crook trying to lead an easier life in Hawaii. Trouble is, he can't keep out of trouble, and when he does stay clean, trouble finds him--in this case, in the bikini-clad form of Nancy (Sara Foster), the mistress of a local developer who gets turned on by the whiff criminal activity. She lures Jack into a scheme that ultimately involves a solid cast including Morgan Freeman, Charlie Sheen, Gary Sinise, Bebe Neuwirth, Willie Nelson, and more. Foster doesn't bring much to movie besides her alarmingly sculpted body and the ending peters out, but The Big Bounce has enough snap and crackle that you don't miss the pop. --Bret Fetzer

Description

Set on Hawaii's stunning North Shore, a charismatic drifter forms a dubious alliance with a powerful local businessman while hooking up with a criminally-minded seductress to double-cross a wealthy developer and his cohorts.

DVD Features:
Featurette:Visit the stars and filmmakers on the set in "The Big Bounce: A Con in the Making"
Filmographies:Surfing the Pipeline: Surfing in the Aloha State
Outtakes:Wicked Waves: Stunt Surfer Outtakes

Customer Reviews:

Product Placement.......2007-04-27

The only enjoyment I got from this movie was counting the number of product placements!!!
They even have a product placement individual listed in the credits.

Has ALL the elements of a light-hearted, fun comedy.......2007-01-14

Hilarious performances by Owen Wilson and Charlie Sheen. A sexy player in Sarah Foster, and the INFAMOUS narrative ability of Morgan Freeman. He is so good at narrating, I assume he writes his script. Every element of a fun, light hearted comedy is here, including appearances by Willie Nelson and Gary Sinise

Dumb, but entertaining.......2006-06-22

There is a rule that is generally accepted: an Elmore Leonard book is magnificent; an Elmore Leonard film is not. There are a few notable exceptions to the rule - OUT OF SIGHT, JACKIE BROWN, GET SHORTY - but for the most part, film adaptations of Leonard's novels are pretty weak. One such example is 2004's THE BIG BOUNCE, the second attempt at adapting Leonard's novel.

Owen Wilson stars as Jack Ryan, a small-time con artist who was recently fired from his job after dislocating his employer's jaw with a baseball bat. After a series of chance encounters, he falls for the mysterious Nancy Hayes (Sara Foster), who tells him about her fool-proof plan to steal $200,000 from her rich "boyfriend", Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinise). Things may not be as they seem, but Jack has too many other things on his mind to worry about that, like his wise new boss (Morgan Freeman), his stand-offish old boss Bob Jr. (Charlie Sheen), and his angry ex-supervisor (Vinnie Jones).

THE BIG BOUNCE, despite the all-star cast, is not a good movie. Sebastian Gutierrez's script is rather weak, particularly during the non-sensical closing. The acting is less than superb, although Freeman is good (as always). George Armitage is not as talented a director as previous Leonard adaptators Quentin Tarantino or Steven Soderbergh, and thus THE BIG BOUNCE fails as both a comedy and, more so, as a crime caper.

That said, the film is rather entertaining. Why? I don't know. It has its moments - once when Owen Wilson answers a stolen cell phone, and once when he engages in a furious fight with Sheen - but for the most part, it's not funny. During some scene transistions, we are shown surfers crashing into the ocean. It's meant to be funny, but it's not. At all. And yet the film is still entertaining. I would attribute this to the cast, which manages to hold the film up for its 88 minute runtime. If it were any longer than that, however, the film would be almost unbearably dumb.

The Big Bounce.......2006-01-05

Over the past number of years I have familiarized myself with the pleasant oddities of Elmore Leonard's books and the films conjured from his genius. There is a machine concealed within the mind of this man that creates characters and plots so original that you never know what you are going to get. You can read his novels with the same awe that you can watch the film adaptations. A film such as "Get Shorty" or "Jackie Brown" can arguably compare to the man's work.

Those two films are rarities in the sense that they function solely on the brilliance of Leonard and the social oddballs whom he produces. All of them are interesting people. You have mobsters, drifters, crooked cops, criminals, liars, cheaters, killers, and thieves elbowing each other for screen time. He uses his characters as valuable people, not fictional pawns, and they are all necessities to the story.

In the case of George Armitage's train wreck, "The Big Bounce," we are deprived of the luxuries of interest and captivation that the characters are supposed to create. Instead, the film takes the bold foundation of Leonard's book and mutates it into an inferior lackluster comedy, a ballsy and unfortunate mistake. Would it be wise to point out that "The Bourne Identity" at least came within a mile of being as good as Robert Ludlum`s novel, even if it took the plot in an entirely different direction?

The cast appears to be one that was gathered at the last minute. Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman, Sara Foster, and Gary Sinise, all very gifted people who made the mistake of buying into the script, carry the story with some degree of willingness. For a film to have good actors and disrespect their talents is an unfortunate case that is all-too common. "The Big Bounce" uses the big name actors for show and narrative hinderance, not for any productive reason.

Jack Ryan (Owen Wilson) is a beach bum surfer dude who can't seem to stay out of trouble. Jack drifts around the Hawaiian Islands looking for work after being released from prison, and he is hired by a local judge, Walter Crewes (Morgan Freeman), to do custodial work in and around a certain beach area. Through his unfavorable job, Jack comes across Nancy (Sara Foster), a beautiful, bikini-clad seductress who wants to run a major scam on her developer boyfriend. That would be the wealthy and powerful Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinise), whose apparent ties to the mob will prove to be a challenge to her scheme.

A few of the characters have hidden motives and obscure areas of reason, but the film tries to focus a bit too much on that. Instead of going ahead with their plan, Jack and Nancy tease and kid with one another in an obvious attempt to sidestep their sexual chemistry. The Freeman character stumbles around aimlessly in ignorance of the trouble that his employee is getting into. Sinise shows up only when the film is blatantly desperate for the story to continue. Charlie Sheen, who has gone unmentioned up until this point, is the puppet of the Sinise character, and his rivalry with Jack supplies an admirably humorous moment. And there is an outside player who pretty much ties everything together, however bizarre, albeit marginally brilliant, it may be.

But "The Big Bounce," in its feeble entirety, is a bit of a bore. The story lingers and never really engages itself, making the film seem as long as a Ridley Scott epic when it is only a brisk 88 minutes. It is a wind-up and no pitch, a clock without all of its functioning parts, the Three Stooges without Curly. Everything feels like it originated from Leonard. The movie, on the other hand, feels like it originated from a script that was written for the sole purpose of altering a story unwillingly. Whoever gave this movie a green light should not be happy with themselves. - Isaac

Rated PG-13; 88 minutes; Directed by George Armitage

Horrible.......2005-12-17

This movie has a weak and hard to follow, confusing plot. The 2 main characters just walk around, talk mindlessly, make out and sneak into people's houses. I don't get it. This has to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen, enough said. Don't even consider buying this movie.

Average customer rating:

austrian angst

Antares
Starring: Petra Morzé , Andreas Patton , Hary Prinz , Susanne Wuest , and Dennis Cubic
Director: Götz Spielmann
Manufacturer: Film Movement
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007TZHWA
Release Date: 2006-05-23

Product Description

Antares is the March selection in the Film Movement Series. Austrias Oscar selection for Best Foreign Film, Antares skillfully interweaves the stories of three couples at crossroads over three momentous days. Set in a ubiquitous, concrete high-rise apartment complex on the outskirts of a big city, the couples emerge from this uniform coexistence to search for love, closeness and some form of happiness. Alex and Nicole are divorced, but Alex cannot let go of what has passed. Sonja is becoming wildly jealous of her husband Marco. Eva, a loyal wife and mother, has turned her life upside down. Antares features explicit sexual content and mature themes in its portrayal of these modern relationships.

Customer Reviews:

austrian angst.......2007-01-30

Antares is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, but everyone in this film flames out into darkness. As I watched the lives of three dysfunctional couples deconstruct, my mind wandered to the wisdom of the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria: "Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." All three couples are trapped in the same drab high rise apartments that serve as metaphors for their interior landscapes. The bored nurse Eva has an affair with an out of town doctor, but despite their torrid love affair she does not even remember the man's last name; nor do we ever learn her husband's name. The young and needy checkout clerk Sonja fakes a pregnancy to persuade her cheating boyfriend Marco to marry her. He's an immigrant laborer from Yugoslavia, injecting not only class-consciousness but ethnicity and immigration into the film. Despite her efforts to free herself, domestic violence traps Nicole with the jealous and abusive Alex, the third couple. In twists of fate that are more bizarre than important to the plot, the lives of these six people crash and collide, but only as ships passing in the night. Austrian angst buries everyone. In German with English subtitles.

Average customer rating:

Product Placement
Has ALL the elements of a light-hearted, fun comedy
Dumb, but entertaining
The Big Bounce
Horrible

The Big Bounce (Full Screen Edition)
Starring: Owen Wilson , Butch Helemano , Charlie Sheen , Vinnie Jones , and Gregory Sporleder
Director: George Armitage
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Comic Criminals | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00024JC3K
Release Date: 2004-07-20

Amazon.com

Description

Customer Reviews:

Product Placement.......2007-04-27

The only enjoyment I got from this movie was counting the number of product placements!!!
They even have a product placement individual listed in the credits.

Has ALL the elements of a light-hearted, fun comedy.......2007-01-14

Dumb, but entertaining.......2006-06-22

The Big Bounce.......2006-01-05

Horrible.......2005-12-17

The Big Bounce 2-pack (1969 & 2004 Versions)

Average customer rating:

The Big Bounce 2-pack (1969 & 2004 Versions)
Starring: Owen Wilson , Butch Helemano , Charlie Sheen , Vinnie Jones , and Gregory Sporleder
Director: George Armitage , and Alex March
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000255JLS
Release Date: 2004-07-20

Amazon.com

The Big Bounce (1969)
An Elmore Leonard novel, subsequently remade for a 2004 Owen Wilson release, gets the swinging sixties treatment. Ryan O'Neal, in his first big film after achieving TV stardom, plays a Vietnam vet drifting from job to job; Leigh Taylor-Young is the rich man's mistress who takes a fancy to him. The plot sort of revolves around an amazingly vague plan to steal money from the rich guy, but the purpose seems to be showing thrillseeker Taylor-Young in various stages of undress. This is a vacuous movie, ineptly written and shot, in which poor O'Neal wanders around looking understandably bewildered. (His career bounced back with Love Story the following year.) Decorating this mishmash is the exceptionally maladroit musical score by Mike Curb (remember the soft-rock stylings of the Mike Curb Congregation?), whose soupy melodies undercut the tension at every turn. In short, a pretty good selection for Bad Cinema Night. --Robert Horton

The Big Bounce (2004)
There really can't be enough movies adapted from Elmore Leonard novels; his sinuous storylines and fluid, surprising dialogue give any movie a boost from the start. In The Big Bounce, laid-back Owen Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Shanghai Noon) plays Jack, a small-time crook trying to lead an easier life in Hawaii. Trouble is, he can't keep out of trouble, and when he does stay clean, trouble finds him--in this case, in the bikini-clad form of Nancy (Sara Foster), the mistress of a local developer who gets turned on by the whiff criminal activity. She lures Jack into a scheme that ultimately involves a solid cast including Morgan Freeman, Charlie Sheen, Gary Sinise, Bebe Neuwirth, Willie Nelson, and more. Foster doesn't bring much to movie besides her alarmingly sculpted body and the ending peters out, but The Big Bounce has enough snap and crackle that you don't miss the pop. --Bret Fetzer

Average customer rating:
Antares

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ASIN: B000ETMK9G

Product Description

A devastating car accident forces a nurse (Petra Morzé), a supermarket checkout girl (Susanne Wuest), and a high-strung real-estate agent (Andreas Kiendl) to come to terms with their true longings and needs while searching for love and human contact in Austrian filmmaker Götz Spielmann's stark and sexual drama. Though their lives couldn't be more different, it only takes one act of sudden and unexpected tragedy to bring three lost souls into contact and forever alter the course of their lives. Over the next three days, each of these previously unconnected individuals will learn not only the value of time, but the true motivations that drive them and the effects that their actions can have even on those they might have never considered.

Comedy 3-Pack (The Big Bounce / Starsky and Hutch / The Whole Ten Yards)

Average customer rating:

3 Fun movies

Comedy 3-Pack (The Big Bounce / Starsky and Hutch / The Whole Ten Yards)
Starring: Owen Wilson , Butch Helemano , Charlie Sheen , Vinnie Jones , and Gregory Sporleder
Director: George Armitage , Todd Phillips , and Howard Deutch
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000765I0E
Release Date: 2005-03-01

Customer Reviews:

3 Fun movies.......2005-02-12

I like all three of these movies. The Big Bounce is my favorite and thses are very entertaining. This is a good buy...

DVD:

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