The story revolves around Owen Wilson’s Jack Ryan character…a hard on his luck lovable loser type, who after a string of what he calls “unfortunate events” finds himself in beautiful Hawaii, where maybe a change of scenery and people will do him some good….Jack is the crook with all the brains but all the bad luck to go with it…and no matter how hard he tries to walk the straight and narrow path, temptations seem to visit him at every corner.

The film opens with Jack walking into immediate trouble as he dismantles one of head bad guy Ray Ritchie’s associates…finding himself in jail and now out of a job…here is where the story takes its first odd twist…the local judge offers Jack a job…but its obvious the judge has other things in mind, particularly pertaining to Jack’s criminal skills…

The plot crawls along as we meet Nancy Hayes, the “girl on the side” to one Mr. Ritchie and also the object of one Jack’s affection…we see that Nancy has an adventurous side of her own…and before long, a plot is hatched between Nancy and Jack to steal $200,000 of Mr. Ritchie’s money....The plot crawls and putters along as we are left to wonder if this heist is the key to ending Jack’s hard luck streak…or is it all just one big set-up…is the Judge involved?...what about Mrs. Ray Ritchie???...well, the main problem, is I just didn’t care one way or the other where this story went.

The Big Bounce is really one big disjointed film that boasts a wasted name brand cast on a story that isn’t really worth telling…for me, this was a simple story about stealing some money…there weren’t any special plot twists…nothing that made the film special…the three films mentioned earlier were very good because they combined different elements of story telling to make a crime novel a hip, fun, and sometimes romantic ride on screen…I got none of that out of this movie.

The acting was sub par at best which is disappointing with some of the talent employed here…but that isn’t to say it’s the actors fault…I think the material was extremely weak…I guess their choices to take roles in the film are what is really in question…Wilson is good as Jack the drifter, but again, not much going on…a actor like Morgan Freeman seems out of place…and Gary Sinise maybe sees five minutes of screen time…I mean, its obvious Charlie Sheen is looking for any kind of good work possible, and I can’t blame him for signing on with these actors, but his role was stupid and almost pointless in terms of the story…Sara Foster takes the female lead as Nancy and although she is very, very hot, she is also very, very annoying to watch on screen.

Overall, this film falls way, way short of expectations considering where the material came from…I don’t know if it was a case of trying to sell an Elmore Leonard story wrapped in shit and thinking people will buy anything…or just a total swing and a miss…either way, The Big Bounce doesn’t’ have that cool, pulpy edge to it…its just more or less a boring, kind of pointless movie that leaves you very unsatisfied in the end.