The Bounty Hunter (2010)

There’s a nasty feel to the rom-com/thriller “The Bounty Hunter.” Gerard Butler is Milo Boyd, a crude, drunken ex-cop who strikes karma gold: The chance to haul his ex-wife (Jennifer Anniston) to jail for skipping bail. Nichole is a reporter at a NYC newspaper, hot on the trail of a big story.

In the course of a single day, Milo pulls a gun on his former spouse in a public before tossing her in a car trunk, manhandles her at a Jersey casino, and then later handcuffs her to a hotel bed to keep her still. This is romance? If Nichole were a real woman that I knew, I’d plead with her to drop this dick as quickly as possible.

But there’s nothing real here. Nichole wears a skintight mini-dress and stiletto heels to chase leads, because that’s what female reporters do in these movies. Chased by Z-grad villains, his car shot full of holes, Milo dishes some such nonsense as, “These guys are professionals!”

That I didn’t loathe Nichole’s character is a testament to Anniston’s charisma. All praises to Christine Baranski who shines comic gold as a martini swilling Atlantic City singer, and mom to Nichole. She should be the lead character. C-