The Big Bounce
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: January 30, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
20
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
By not trying too hard, this remake of a dumb movie has got spring in its step. The bounce is on us. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyHazel-Dawn Dumpert
It's Wilson who's the score here. Quick, scruffy and completely at ease, he takes on Jack's let-it-ride charms and foibles as if he were tossing a Frisbee with friends, and it's impossible to watch him without wanting in on the game. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Like the frosty tropical drinks the people keep sipping here, it's refreshing and icy-cool, a sinful pleasure mixed by experts. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Wilson is the main reason to see The Big Bounce, where he's perfect as a reasonably smart guy who often seems to have no idea what he's getting into. The other reasons are a solid supporting cast. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
It gets wackier as it goes, starting with Charlie Sheen cast against type as a guy who's getting no sex and turns down the chance. Bebe Neuwirth has some funny scenes as a lush. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
There's some entertainment value, but the production as a whole is unfocused. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
When the general pleasantness of the atmosphere and the cleverness of the screenplay don't carry the movie, Wilson does -- at least until a hurried, confounding finale that reveals its casualness as sloppiness. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
It's too loose and casual, all too willing to trade the writer's trademark wit and literary mischief for slapstick comedy. Read full review
60
EmpireSimon Braund
It’s sexy, offbeat fun for the most part, but it’s way too laid-back for its own good and, in the end, obstinately refuses to be anything more than the sum of its highly promising parts. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
This is one of those capers doomed to unravel in comic chaos, but it finally plays less like a con gone wrong than a long, lazy, insubstantial shaggy dog story coasting on nothing but charm. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
The low-wattage thrills, lukewarm jokes and unconvincing caricatures we encounter in The Big Bounce simply don't generate that kind of excitement. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
A sexy crime story. The double-crossing complications don't make much sense, but it's fun to watch Wilson turn the hard-boiled dialogue into a series of ironic one-liners under the hot Oahu sun. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
That The Big Bounce works at all is a testament to Wilson, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter ("The Royal Tenenbaums") who probably could have come up with something better in his sleep. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The usual double-crosses and convolutions ensue, but the narrative is so haphazard that the whole thing -- both the caper and the movie that contains it -- seems to have been hastily improvised. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie, brief though it is, feels as padded as a travelogue. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Doesn't take itself seriously, and that's a good thing. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Breezy, sleazy and a little bit wheezy, The Big Bounce combines a short running time, a portrait of island-life corruption, and a retro surf-and-scam plot. Throw in a vintage, funky-soul soundtrack and you have the ingredients of ever so many bad television shows. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
At 80 minutes, it feels truncated and abandoned -- a sketch of a comic thriller rather than the real thing. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
The first half-hour or so of this caper comedy, which is based on an Elmore Leonard crime novel, goes down like a strawberry daiquiri with a little umbrella. Read full review
50
VarietyJoe Leydon
Modestly engaging, albeit instantly forgettable shaggy-dog story only gradually reveals itself as a seriocomic take on standard-issue noir. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie doesn't work. It meanders and drifts and riffs. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAmy Taubin
The best Elmore Leonard adaptations ("Jackie Brown," "Out of Sight") play behind the beat, and although The Big Bounce isn't top-shelf Dutch, the film finds its own pace. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Gutierrez keeps some of Leonard's tart dialogue, but not enough to hide the fact that the story has no momentum -- those gratuitous shots of pro-sufers shooting curls don't compensate -- and there's zero chemistry between the whiny Wilson and Foster, who has yet to make the transition from model to actress. Read full review
40
Film ThreatKevin Carr
To be fair to this film, the only real thing holding it together is the cast, which is one of the best ensembles in a while. Read full review
40
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
By the way, good luck making sense out of the final fifteen minutes. I'd say people were asleep at the wheel on this one but the film is so pointlessly all over the place that I'm not sure there even was one. Read full review
40
SalonCharles Taylor
The movie is a garage-sale conglomeration of anecdotes and oddballs. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Mostly, though, The Big Bounce isn't offensive, or even terrible. It's just lazy, relying on numb moviegoers to fork over cash thinking they'll see the next "Get Shorty" or "Out of Sight." Read full review
30
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
A film so boring, unsexy, styleless, sluggish and physically ugly that its badness seems almost intentional. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Go in with lowered expectations, and expect to have them dashed.
30
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
There may once have been a real movie rattling inside the empty studio package known as The Big Bounce, but no longer. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
The worst thing about Bounce isn't that it's bad but that it just isn't interesting. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Armitage adds a slick veneer of one-liners and slapstick to Leonard's novel, but the story has been so spun around that it barely knows how to end. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTy Burr
No one on the screen bothers to commit to a character. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Except for a rare scene of shaggy charm, nothing works. Nothing. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A dreadful exercise, with a script full of contradictions and empty gestures and a leading lady who's such a novice it hurts to watch her. Read full review
20
Washington PostDesson Thomson
An insipid potboiler set against the far more enticing surf and sand of Oahu's North Shore. Read full review
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