Forget
about the seasons of Survivor and The Real World shot in Mexico. The truth
is this where reality gets real. A television bounty hunter will have to learn
that the hard way when he ventures south of the border in search of a million-dollar
bail-jumper in Robert Kirbyson’s Boone:
The Bounty Hunter (trailer
here),
which releases today on VOD.
Boone
was an elite military commando, who became a legit working bounty hunter. Unfortunately,
TV turned him into a showboating caricature, only suited to running down minor
celebrities with delinquent parking tickets. Apparently, the shtick has worn
thin, because his producer just received a cancelation notice, but as John “Bluto”
Blutarsky says in Animal House, when
the going gets tough … So, Boone hatches a plan to apprehend the entitled son
of notorious drug deal, who just skipped out on charges he accidentally
murdered his girlfriend with a mixture of roofies and designer drugs.
Bone-headed
Boone assumes he and his tech support crew, Kat and Denny, can just waltz down
to the cartel-dominated town and whisk Ryan Davenport away, but he
underestimates how thoroughly Cole Davenport’s operation has entrenched itself.
After the initial snatch turns sour, Kat and Denny find themselves incarcerated
in the town’s sketchy prison, while Boone is forced to stash Davenport in a
porta-potty.
Boone the Motion
Picture certainly
isn’t shy about physical comedy. Most of the gags revolve around Boone’s wildly
flamboyant but impractical wrestling-derived style of fighting. At times, it
could be described as a redneck Kung Fu
Hustle. Yet, you have to admire all that physicality, because it shows
Kirbyson and John Hennigan, the executive producer, co-screenwriter and lead,
aimed to please.
Pro-wrestler
Hennigan (a.k.a. John Morrison, a.k.a. Johnny Mundo in Lucha Libre circles) definitely
has the size and over-the-top action chops. He is also willing to look totally
ridiculous as the pig-headed, believing-his-own-hype Boone. As Kat and Denny, Spencer
Grammer and Osric Chau keep things relatively grounded and give the audience
figures to identify with. Lateef Crowder and T.J. Storm show off some real deal
martial arts skills as Davenport’s enforcers, the Cardoza Brothers (or “Milli
Vanilli,” as Boone drolly calls them). Former Zakman King repertory player
Richard Tyson hams it up passably well as the villainous senior Davenport, but
probably nobody makes a greater impact than Kevin Sorbo, gamely playing himself
as a celebrity feeling Boone’s parking ticket wrath.
