Journalist Nicole Hurley (Jennifer Aniston) is hunting for leads on a promising story that could expose corrupt cops. Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) is an ex-cop-turned-bounty hunter and Nicole’s ex-husband. When Nicole skips out on a court appearance for assaulting a police officer, a warrant is put out for her arrest, and Milo is told to bring her in. That doesn’t seem like a conflict of interest or anything!

Milo’s attempts to get Nicole to the police station turn into quite the adventure as there are now several people out to get them, thanks to Nicole’s snooping and Milo’s unpaid gambling debts

The Bounty Hunter has a fun premise. A local bounty hunter has to track down his ex-wife, who has a warrant out for her arrest. Unfortunately, the movie felt like it had no idea what it wanted to be. Romance? Action adventure? Comedy? Rom-com? The film’s tone shifted so frequently that there didn’t seem to be any cohesive narrative.

I think Jennifer Aniston is a highly talented comedic actress, but there’s not much for her to work with here. The upside is that she and Gerard Butler have some fun chemistry playing bickering exes, and that’s probably the only thing that kept me watching.

I’m not a huge fan of Butler, but there’s something to be said for his mid-2000s romantic comedies, even when I wouldn’t say I like his character (re: The Ugly Truth). It’s a shame that The Bounty Hunter didn’t have a better script to work with because I think they played extremely well off one another.

One small bonus of The Bounty Hunter was Jason Sudeikis, who plays a co-worker of Nicole’s. He’s a putz, but he does provide what is probably the only genuinely humorous moments as he unwittingly gets caught up in Nicole and Milo’s troubles. Christine Baranski is fabulous in the short screen time she has, but neither her appearance nor her performance is enough to save the film. They merely make it more tolerable.

Watched: 04/16/2020
Notable Song: Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees