Bounce

Rating:
Summary: An well made Drama about being Honest and Romance.
Review: An young alcoholic Hot-Shot Los Angeles ad agency worker by the name of Buddy Amaral (Oscar-Winner:Ben Affleck) gives his Plane Ticket to a Writer (Tony Goldwin) stranded at O`Hare Airport. Buddy learns that the Plane, He was Supposed to be On, it`s Crashed with No Survivors and Buddy seeks Out the Scribe`s Widow (Oscar-Winner:Gwyneth Parltow).

Written and Directed by Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex) made a Believable but Occasionally Fatfetched Romance. Affleck and Paltrow brings Touching Performances in This. This film is about Love, Fate, Commitment, Guilt and Spin Control is a Terrific Date Movie. This Movie is a Dramatic Comedy with Romance. The film is a Underrated Gem. DVD`s has an fine anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an clean Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD`s Extras are:An running Commentary Track by Director:Don Roos. Also a Specific Commentary Track by Affleck and Paltrow. Deleted Scenes with/without Commentary by Ross. Bloopers. Behind the Scenes feautrette and More. This is Affleck`s Best Performance to Date. Grade:B+.

Rating:
Summary: AMAZING..................
Review: I LOVED THIS MOVIE I AM A HUGE FAN OF GWYNETH PALTROW AND BEN AFFLECK THIS MOVIE IS MUST HAVE.I WENT TO SEE IT WHEN IT WAS IN THEATERS I WANTED TO SEE ANOTHER MOVIE BUT IT WAS SOLD OUT SO I WENT TO SEE THIS INSTEAD AND THOUGHT IT WAS EXCELLENT.I RECOMMEND THIS TO EVERY FAN OF THESE TWO ACTORS.IT WAS GIVEN "TWO THUMBS UP" FOR A REASON.

Rating:
Summary: Formula romance is pleasant diversion
Review: Romantic comedies and dramas are still the kinds of movies girls tend to drag guys to, although I suspect the guys enjoy them more than they let on. I know my Dad and his buddies did. They never admitted they did, but it wasn't that hard to persuade them to go and they always seemed to be in a good mood afterwards. I've always liked them, because the best ones take us to a special place where Cinderellas and Prince Charmings are everywhere and where the worst disagreements are quickly and happily resolved.

Sadly, Bounce is not an especially good romantic film, which is too bad because it is likable enough. The problem is in the plot structure. It is utterly predictable, one of those stories where you know exactly how it will end thirty minutes into the picture.

Ben Affleck plays Buddy, an amiable guy whose small California advertising agency has just won a major account with Infinity Airlines. We find Ben in a Chicago airport hoping that his plane will depart before a big snowstorm halts all the flights. Waiting in an airport bar, he meets two other Californians. One is a beautiful woman, and the other is a man named Greg, who is eager to get home to his wife and two kids. The three talk until Buddy's flight departure is announced. It's the last flight out. He almost goes, but then decides to spend the night with the woman. He gives his ticket to Greg, who boards the plane in his place. The flight never arrives. Instead, it crashes, killing everyone on board. Months later, Buddy, who has been plagued with guilt, decides to look up Greg's widow, Abby [Gwyneth Paltrow]. He simply want to see if she needs anything. You can probably guess where the story goes from there.

Affleck and Paltrow work well together, and why not? They used to be an item in real life. Paltrow has no problem with her role, which requires her to lose her glamour queen image. She is completely believable as a struggling young widow. Affleck is pleasant to watch, but he has trouble with his two or three big emotional scenes. I think he is more comfortable when he isn't playing the nice guy. Alex B. Linz and David Dorfman do good jobs playing Abby's two small sons. Johnny Galecki has the best small part. He plays Buddy's wisecracking, no nonsense gay assistant. He's very funny and, by far, the wisest character in the movie.

Director Don Roos, who has done splendid work on ironic comedies such as The Opposite of Sex, seems a bit lost dealing with such a mainstream story, which ironically he also wrote. As a result, Bounce makes for a pleasant diversion, the kind you more or less enjoy and then promptly forget.

Rating:
Summary: Romance without the Cliches
Review: In Mirimax Picture's 'Bounce,' an admittedly extraordinary circumstance becomes the catalyst for a story about ordinary people living ordinary lives and being all the more extraordinary for that. Far from being yet another 'chick-flick' romance, 'Bounce' is a movie that explores how guilt and love and friendship and kindness and dishonesty and fear can all intertwine and how average people respond to the randomness of life and chance. It is, in short, an outstanding movie that is refreshingly free of the cliches that normally burden romances of this type.

The story revolves around Buddy Amaral (Ben Affleck), a jet setting ad executive who, in order to get a one night stand with fellow passenger Mimi Praeger (Natasha Henstridge), gives his airplane ticket to Greg Janello, a TV writer and failed playwrite who is anxious to get home to his wife, Abby (Gweneth Paltro) and sons Joey and Scott, played by David Dorfmann and Alex Linz. When the plane on which Buddy was supposed to fly subsequently crashes, killing all including Greg, Buddy is overwhelmed with guilt and descends into alcoholism. After spending time in rehab, Buddy decides that he must make amends to Greg's family and arranges for Abby, now working as a struggling real estate agent, to sell Buddy's advertising agency new offices. Buddy and Abby fall in love, but he cannot bring himself to tell her the truth. At that point, Mimi has a chance meeting with Abby who discovers Buddy's secret.

Notwithstanding a somewhat contrived situation, 'Bounce' succeeds because its characters are multidimensional and very human. Buddy and Abby are attractive people because they are real people that the audience wants to get to know. Buddy is a hot shot at the start of the movie, but he is also vulnerable and lonely and desperate to be liked. Abbey is the grieving widow, but she is also an attentive mother, a suburban housewife and a working woman who has to support two young children but is not sure, even a year after her husband's death, that she can do it. What is more, both are wracked by guilt caused by a situation that they could not predict or control, but that has radically changed their lives.

Make no mistake, Abby and Buddy are not the traditional Hollywood romantic movie heroes. These are not characters who start out flawed and whose romance redeems them from their sins. Rather, both of these characters are striving to overcome their flaws. Not in the typical 'run away to find yourself' soul searching Hollywood way, but rather in the little every day ways of their growing love.

This is powerful stuff because screenwriter/director Don Roos has avoided the snappy dialogue and corny speeches that make most Hollywood romantic characters seem inauthentic. Rather, Roos makes them human and therefore sympathetic. When Abby fails to understand a joke that Buddy makes, the audience can laugh with her because they've been the ones who have missed the joke. When Buddy struggles to tell his secret, the audience can sympathize with his struggle because they have sometimes had trouble telling the truth.

As for the acting, Paltrow puts in an absolutely riveting performance. She deftly avoids the cliche of the happy widow or the tough mom. She makes Abby a totally believable character whose pain is real to the audience, but whose understated courage calls for admiration. In this movie, Paltrow masters a character that could easily have become a one dimensional caricature, but instead takes on real flesh and blood characteristics.

Typically, Ben Affleck's performance does not get quite the rave reviews that his co-star and former real life girlfriend gets. However, this is unfair. For while Paltrow avoids the pitfall of making her character into a cliche, Affleck has the harder job because his character's motivations are less straightforward. Buddy vulnerabilities are harder to define, harder to see and his guilt is more complex than Abby's. For where she feels guilty because her last words to her husband were made in hasty argument, Buddy's guilt is strictly speaking unwarranted. He did a man a favor and random chance saved Buddy's life. Yet Buddy's guilt is real, and is perhaps more rooted in the emptiness he feels in his life and in his sense that the frivolousness of his actions were repaid in tragedy for another.

Affleck conveys this brilliantly and in subtle ways. When a flight attendant spurns Buddy's advances, he looks both amused and baffled and genuinely hurt. When Abby mentions Greg's name after having just clinched the real estate deal that Buddy threw her way, Buddy looks hurt and disappointed in spite of himself. When Abby finally confronts Buddy about his secret, the pain is palpable but restrained. He tears up, his voice cracks as he says good bye and asks for forgiveness, but he does not gush or create the emotional scene that is normally requisite in a Hollywood romance. This is emotionally complex stuff and Affleck deserves credit for what is surely the best performance of his entire career.

As to the rest of the cast, their work is stupendous. Johnny Galecki as Seth, Buddy's gay assistant, is brilliant, more than compensating for the fact that his character is a sort of glorified Jimminy Cricket. Tony Goldwyn is instantly likeable as Greg, as is Natasha Henstridge as Mimi. David Dorfman and Alex Linz are also quite good as Abby's sons. One only wishes that there had been more time to develop the relationship between Buddy and the boys. Fortunately, what the audience does see is both believable and touching.

'Bounce' is emotionally compelling without bludgeoning its audience. Although there are a few plot contrivances that do not quite ring true, this is more than compensated for by characters that are real, sympathetic and engaging. At the start of the film Buddy asks, 'Am I that much of a cliche?' No he is not, and that is what makes 'Bounce' such a moving and human story.

Rating:
Summary: Is it over yet ... ?
Review: Although the family hyped this movie up, I was disappointed. The good news was that I was able to go to sleep as soon as it was over because it was quite unexciting. There were a few funny moments, but I got tired of watching Ben Affleck continue to look like a sleeze-ball. Sorry family ... maybe next time.

Rating:
Summary: Had to own it!
Review: I rented this movie not expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. And wanted to watch it over & over so I bought it for myself! I feel Ben & Gywneth have a great chemistry here and when Ben has to deliver emotion here he does! In a day & age where movies just don't seem to end like I want them to, and all to often have been leaving me unhappy & unfulfilled, this one finally did it for me! Thanks Guys!

Rating:
Summary: Better Title: "Thud!"
Review: I had higher expectations for this film, being a big fan of director Roos's previous film "The Opposite of Sex". Unfortunately, "Bounce" plays like a reject from the Lifetime channel or WE.

What was most surprising and disappointing was the lack of chemistry between Paltrow and Affleck. This was like sitting through an awkward conversation with strangers during a wedding reception when you suddenly realize the people you're speaking with are dim light bulbs. They won't go away, following you and saying things of little or no substance and won't shut up. It's sad, such people with no bounce. Where's the "Bounce" in this film?

Paltrow is always good, but I give credit for sinking this film to Affleck, as well as disappointing, tired writing by Roos. Affleck seems to have somehow sucked the life out of Paltrow the actress. There simply is no payoff anywhere in this film. You walk out thinking "So what? Why did I just spend 90 minutes of my life watching dull characters have dull conversation?" No bounce!

And, sorry Affleck fans, loving close-ups of pondering stares do not an actor make. Affleck should stick to the blue collar roles or the brain dead action flicks where he doesn't have to speak much (he spoke WAY TOO MUCH in "Pearl Harbor", the only film you can walk in 90 minutes late and not miss anything of substance). It's annoying when actors put on suits and "Presto! I've become somebody else!" It's like the brat pack of the '80's putting on wire rim glasses and saying "Look at me, I'm now intelligent!" And may the movie gods help us when Affleck attempts the role of Jack Ryan replacing HARRISON FORD!?!? What were the null sets at Parmount thinking? It will spell the end of the only adult action franchise being produced. Who will play his wife, the intelligent eye surgeon? Tori Spelling? Anne Archer could be Affleck's mother (but what a fine actress!!) I can picture the groans from the existing, fine supporting cast of the Jack Ryan films when the press releases went out. Definitely no bounce! More like "CRASH and BURN!!"

Then there's Roos's writing (heavy sigh and long groan)... with none of the satire and fun of his first film. Okay, maybe it's not entirely fair to compare this to the excellent Christina Ricci starrer...but Roos has shown he can nail a script and characters, and has a deft eye for casting. We have a right to have expectations from a filmmaker. Wha'happened??? It feels like Roos sleptwalk through the first of a 3 picture deal with this script. I hope he wakes up for his next film, cause we sure won't based on this ('kay, I sure won't. I won't speak for everyone, being aware of the Affleck fans out there). The "sophomore jinx" was alive and struck visciously with "Bounce." No bounce!

Wake up, Roos! You're a good filmmaker! Make another one, but have some coffee or something before you approach your word processor (or typewriter, or legal pad, whatever the case is). Just push a bit farther than the back of a cocktail napkin with the next script. Give it some bounce!

Fool me once...

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite movies!!!
Review: This is one of the best romance movies I've seen in a long time! I'm a sucker when it comes to tear jerkers, and this movie was no exception! If you're looking for a great romance movie to watch alone or with a partner, this is the one! I watched it with my husband for the first time, and I felt so close to him afterwards. It makes you truely appreciate what you have right now.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Movie
Review: I just saw BOUNCE on cable. While it starts out well enough (it begins so well that I decided to take a break from writing reviews on here), it somehow made me begin to lose interest after the first 40 minutes. The final half-hour was especially hard to sit through. I think that it's because of director Don Roos's lack of a cohesive narrative style. In the end, it just seems that the whole idea of this movie was to get Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow (who were famous for their on-again-off-again romance in real life) back together on the big screen. (...)

The crucial scene where Buddy (Affleck) and Abby (Paltrow) first meet is done so awkwardly: he arrives at her place of business, stands back to watch her take her Rottweiler out of the car to go inside her office, then approaches the front door and knocks, she comes out to greet him as a potential client, he interests her with a business offer, the dog who's locked in the bathroom barks loudly, she apologizes for that, he then makes a comment about Rottweilers, she freaks out because she hadn't mentioned that she had a Rottweiler (although the volume of the barking alone would've given that fact away), so now she things he's a stalker and as he tries to explain that he's not, she threatens to sic the dog after him, then accidentally opens the bathroom door a bit too much, the Rott then burts out and attacks him, tearing his suit-jacket and dress pants, after which he threatens to sue her till she apologizes profusely, and then they both spend the rest of the day talking outside the tailor's with the dog, who by now for some reason is totally docile. This isn't a Meet Cute: it's a Meet Ridiculous!

So many similar opportunities for intelligent dialogue are missed throughout the movie. I'm not going to go into any further detail, as other reviewers have already done so, but I just wanted to express my disappoinment with the results of a system that greenlights sensationalism over substance. Anybody who seriously thinks that this film would have been made without Ben & Gwyneth is seriously fooling themselves!

Ben Affleck has already proven himself to be a very good, natural actor (especially in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and GOOD WILL HUNTING) and Gwyneth Paltrow is nothing short of the Meryl Streep of her generation--but let's hope that if they ever co-headline another movie, they both carefully read the script first, as well as make sure they work with a director with more than a one-film resume` to his credit.

Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: I really expected to like this movie -- about a woman who lost her husband in an airplane crash, and her budding romance with the man who gave up his seat to her late husband.

The plot was slow, though, and there was little to no dramatic element. Even the chemistry between Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck -- surprisingly -- was sluggish.

I love movies and am not terribly critical when it comes to them, but this one nearly put me to sleep.