Bounty Hunters

Moviecut—Bounty Hunters

And kicks and punches and does all kinds of stuff (no pun intended). If you consider the action element to be the most important thing of the movie, you will find this to your liking. Don't expect this to be on the same level as some eastern action movies (martial arts and all that), but it does a more than decent job on the stunts and action scenes. Even if some maybe do not make too much sense, if you actually thought about them. So as someone would say, do not think about them. If it always was that easy, right? Anyway, Trish Stratus is only one of many people in this and I am almost sad to say she didn't do too many movies in her career. Yes she was bound to the WWE brand (or WWF as it was called back then), but I'd have loved to see her in more stuff like this. But at least we have this ... something we can cherish and love for what it is: a b-movie action thingy!

...unfortunately not even Trish Stratus could make me finish. The movie that is.

You know what...I am pretty sure it's getting low reviews because audiences think its a T&A film. Aaaaaaannnnd it kind of is. And then, you know, the wrestler thing, I can see people deducting points for that too. And the dumb action movie thing and... Wait, no, that's sort of why I gave it a 7. Honestly, it can be really funny at times in a low budget all we have is a script indie film dialogue heavy sort of way...only with a lot of action. Really, this is a movie you watch and laugh with. And even more honestly, it comes as a shock because you walk in expecting it to be horrible and get a film with enough humor to pull you through from start to finish. Ultimately it's far from great, but it's a fun watch. It's a great example of how to do a go nowhere film the right way.

Former WWE Diva Trish Stratus is partners with two male skip tracers in "Bounty Hunters" who battle trigger-happy mobsters in the asphalt jungle for a high ticket criminal on the lam. This mediocre comedy drama resembles the TV show "The Fall Guy," except Stratus is a bounty hunter who moonlights as a barmaid at a strip joint. Indeed, she knows how to handle herself as an early scene shows her bringing down a guy twice her size at a gym. Of course, the clown who works with her is so incompetent that he cannot protect her; he serves as a source of comic relief. "Psycho Ward" director Patrick McBrearty and scenarist Reese Eveneshen struggle to make the action appear spontaneous in this bounty hunters on the road opus. Literally, one thing leads to another, and the film takes place over the course of day, mostly after dark. Our heroic trio collar one bounty jumper and learn from him about the whereabouts of a bigger ticket. The small fry bounty jumper wants desperately to secure his freedom and tips them off about a major league criminal that organized crime wants to silence at any cost. They mean to kill Mario Antonio with extreme prejudice. Trish stars as Julie Taylor, Bail Enforcement Agent, who works with a young wannabe cop, Chase Thomson (Boomer Phillips) and Ridley (sad-eyed Frank J. Zupancic of "Sweet Karma"), an older fellow with romantic ties to our heroine. McBrearty stages some amusing combat sequences where Stratus triumphs over her adversaries despite tough odds. Of course, "Bounty Hunters" amounts to lowbrow nonsense with a modicum of suspense. The big opening scene consists of a stand-off between the villains and two bounty hunters with Status caught in the middle. The best thing about this introductory scene is the way that the filmmakers establish the tight spot that the heroine is in by having her narrate it. After a few moments, the film flashbacks to ten hours earlier before our heroes had any idea about the predicament that they would land in by trying earn too much dough too quickly. The highlight of "Bounty Hunters" is the no-holds-barred babe-fight between Stratus in a school girl outfit and a female Asian cop in an ambulance that continues in an abandoned warehouse. No great shakes in any department, "Bounty Hunters" qualifies as fair to middling nonsense. Although "Bounty Hunters" boasts an R-rating profane language, violence and some sexuality as well as nudity, Stratus doesn't bare either * or bush. She has a lean, mean body and knows how to handle herself in a fight. Most of the humor is post-Tarantino. One of our heroine's cohorts talks to his * about his appetite for sexy Asian broads. Characterization is confined to an absolute minimum. Chase is a loser type who suffered a hockey injury that keeps him from getting on the force, while Ridley is a community leader. Eveneshen furnishes a surfeit of garrulous dialogue that makes "Bounty Hunters" sound like something on late-night USA cable. Surprisingly enough, the threesome are somewhat charismatic and have decent chemistry. The dialogue among them is often smirk-worthy. Altogether, "Bounty Hunters" is a potboiler without pretensions.

Ridley (Zupancic), Chase (Phillips), and Jules (Stratus) are a team of Toronto-based bounty hunters. Bounty Huntering apparently isn't paying the bills enough for Jules, who has a young daughter, so she has a side job as a strip club waitress part-time. A potential opportunity arises for our trio of 'tracers when, after picking up a bad guy for a $100,000 bounty, mob boss Hal Lambino (Rafla) intervenes and offers them a million dollars if they turn the guy over to him, so he won't spill the beans in court. Wary of this criminal proposition, the Bounty Hunters refuse, and now they have to fight off many baddies in the Canadian underworld. This includes some disgruntled Asian massage parlor ladies, including one especially tough chick, Ruby (Lui), who has a knock-down, drag-out fight with Jules. Will justice prevail in the great white north? Will the maple leaf of freedom fly proudly once again? Will it be, as she has so often claimed, Stratusfaction guaranteed?....Ya HOSER! While it shouldn't be confused with the Michael Dudikoff outings Bounty Hunters (1996) and Bounty Hunters 2: Hardball (1997), THIS Bounty Hunters does share the silly, humorous, tongue-in-cheek vibe of those 90's offerings. For those keeping track, there's also the Robert Ginty vehicle Bounty Hunter (1990) and of course the Lorenzo Lamas/Matthias Hues team-up Bounty Tracker (1993). Seeing as how this movie is called Bail Enforcers in Canada, and there are so many other similarly-titled movies in the U.S., why change it at all? Is "Bail Enforcers" SO different from "Bounty Hunters"? Enough to make any kind of difference? Besides, this movie is so Canadian, we're surprised it wasn't originally called "Boonty Hunters, Eh?" - we kid our neighbors to the north, but at least they're not trying to hide the fact that they're Canadian, like so many others. These filmmakers are true patriots, letting the Canadianness of their movie really shine through, like maple syrup in the sun. But, straight to the point, if there was no Trish Stratus, there'd be no movie. She brightens most of the scenes she's in, but at one point in the movie she "goes to the hospital" (was she doing WWE stuff at the same time?) and isn't seen for a while, and the movie suffers terribly. Bounty Hunters gets off to a great start, but at the 35 minute mark it loses steam and doesn't recover. The Tony Soprano-like Lambino character goes off on this long monologue and that puts the brakes on. THAT's when we sink down and realize, hey, this whole thing is low-budget, junky, and cheap-feeling. The dialogue goes from ridiculous to ridiculously stupid, and it all goes from "entertaining" to "meh...." What the filmmakers absolutely should have done is kept their foot on the gas, and kept the absurd situations coming fast and furious, not seemingly change the vibe. At 79 minutes, you think you can't lose, but as we always say, beware the short movies. They're that way for a reason - because they FEEL much longer. Even the Trish Stratus fight scenes start to become repetitive and boring after a while, and those are the movie highlights! If a 79 minute movie has FILLER, beware. It tries to be sordid, with scenes in strip clubs and "massage parlors", but Canada is so clean it never comes off as gritty. The Bail Enforcement Agents have jackets that say "BEA" on the back (is this a real thing in Canada or made up for the movie?) which seem like a little old lady's personal protection force. Or Bea Arthur is really running the show. She should have done action movies. She could've have been the Trish Stratus of her day. The first third or so of Bounty Hunters is stupidly, reasonably entertaining, but then falls off fast. Only fans with their heads in the StratusPhere are likely to truly appreciate the wanton silliness herein.

I was surprised how bad the movie was: bad acting, bad martial arts scenes, no good story. I think a very amateurish low budget movie. Perhaps I am spoiled after watching more than 25 award winning movies the past two months. I guess I can't complain too much since the movie was only $5. at Walmart. I started to watch it with my 10 year old but after ten minutes of hearing all the swearing and seeing the poor movie quality, I shut it off and we watched another show. I have seen more movies like this made by wannabee movie makers, actors and actresses. It doesn't work if you are just good at martial arts and then decide to make an action flick. They don't have acting school and film school for nothing. I am sure all the people in the movie tried hard and are a great bunch of people but making a good movie is a real art and very difficult to do. Of course if I tried making a movie like this, it would be even worse for all the same reasons.

I watched this and two major releases today. This film was a lot more fun than the big releases, to be sure. The acting isn't great, but the plot moves along at a good pace, and they aren't hitting you over the head with a message or anything. The plot is that a team of bounty hunters lets a petty crook go when he gives them a line on a big fish in the Mob. BUt the Mob wants this guy back pretty bad. The plot is to hang the action scenes on. The female lead is easy on the eyes and the cat-fight is worth the rental. The film is barely Film School Quality, but honestly, I've seen big studios fritter away budgets larger than a small nations GDP and produce utter crap.

This one is definitely a B-movie that would come on late night cable. It stars WWE Hall of Fame diva Trish Stratus in a non-WWE studio production. Which by the language you can tell early in the movie wouldn't fit into the WWE PG product image. Trish plays Jules bounty hunter who also a bartender at a strip club on the side. She is a single mother trying to get ahead. She is a member of team of three bounty hunters. The bounty hunter crew is led by Ridley played by Frank Zupancic whom Jules also has some romantic tension with. The crew is rounded out by Chase who is played by Boomer Phillips. The story revolves around the crew getting a hot tip on a bounty from a person they captured. He informs them about a bigger bounty worth one thousand dollars. The team decides to take on the task on going after the big money and it becomes way more then what they bargained for. This movie has some solid action and Trish get to kick some ass. The story is not the best written but the movie still is able to keep your attention for the 80 minutes.

Yuck!! Where do i begin? Besides the atrocious acting, the story is pretty weak as well.. Let me mention my "favorite" scenes... OK first off the group of bounty hunters capture a man wanted by the mob where the bounty is $100,000.. not bad, yet mob boss wants the guy dead and is willing to pay $1,000,000...got that? OK so they say no deal...you know because they have moral...blah blah..anyway Trish gets hit by a car and sent to hospital.. She then isn't seen in the movie for about 15 minutes! When we do see her again she is in a ambulance which also has the baddies(1 bad-guy driving, 1 bad-girl in back)..Funny thing is she has no broken bones, bruises, cuts, etc...and she is in her hospital gown yet has on bra and big panties(my wife caught this..i swear to god!).. OK she has a fight..pretty vicious punches and kicks to each others faces, somehow neither girl has a scratch..weird..OK bad girl "wins" and is able to give Trish a shot of some sort to make her fall asleep.. when we see her again the baddies have changed her clothes into a school girl outfit(she wore this earlier..it isn't the same school girl outfit in WWE...not a very sexy outfit here) complete with leggings and knee-high boots! More fighting between all the baddies and bounty hunters..no blood or scratches of any sort.. the one guy is "beat" so bad they say he may bleed to death... Bleed from where?? His butt hole?? no visible blood, bruises, etc..OK and the finale... Big Spoiler....... shootout time.. bounty hunters let wanted man who they refused to give to mob for $1 million because of ethics get killed(they had given him a gun filled with blanks to defend himself!), they then kill the mob boss and walk away with the million dollars! How messed up is that? This is one of the worst action films i have seen..The action/fight scenes actually weren't horrible but very unrealistic.. If you miss seeing Trish that much watch her WWE DVD "Trish Stratus - 100% Stratusfaction Guaranteed" again and thank me later...