BOONE THE BOUNTY HUNTER – Review

Review by Mark Longden

Coming soon to a VOD platform or Walmart near you is BOONE THE BOUNTY HUNTER , and it’s one you definitely should be checking out. You don’t even need to be like me, a person who loves movies starring wrestlers and good old 90s-style action, to have a good time watching it.

John Hennigan is our star / producer / co-writer. After graduating from college with a film degree, he wrestled for WWE under the names Johnny Nitro and John Morrison, and he was pretty good at it; he now works for AAA (a Mexico-based promotion) and Lucha Underground (the MTV wrestling show). But he’s always had a passion for the same sorts of movies I love – 80s / 90s comic action, kung fu, chase movies – and given the chance, he’s made this.

He plays Boone, a TV bounty hunter – his resemblance to any famous TV bounty hunters is unknown to this reviewer, because I never watch those shows – with a team of assistants who go round capturing mostly celebrities for stuff like parking tickets (the first criminal brought to justice is none other than Kevin “Angry at Hollywood” Sorbo). This team comprises tech guy Denny (Osric Chau, “Supernatural”), muscle Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (MMA superstar, “The A Team”, playing himself), general sidekick / ass kicker Kat (Spencer Grammer, “Rick and Morty”) and producer Olivia (Dominique Swain, “Lolita”, “Face/Off”, plus a surprising number of modern Eric Roberts movies). Hennigan is a “traceur” – someone who does parkour, apparently – so Boone is too, and we get lots of shots of him demonstrating his skills while chasing down goons. All is going well until…the team is told their show is getting cancelled!

Luckily, Boone has an ace up his sleeve, which is a DEA agent who owes him a favour. Corbin Bernsen! I love Corbin Bernsen, and even here, where he was obviously just hired for a day (all his scenes are in one location, tight shots) he’s a lot of fun. Boone’s plan is to do a real case, like the good old days, and Corbin gives him the case of drug dealer Ryan, who’s escaped with his father Cole to the small Mexican town that’s their drug-producing base of operations, after the prostitute he’s with is murdered by Cole’s assistant. That is way too complicated a sentence and I apologise!

The majority of the action takes place in that small Mexican town. Will the locals help out Boone, or will Cole’s money keep them quiet as his goons hunt them down? Will Boone be able to save his show and his friends’ lives?

In what seems to be becoming a trend, the casting is sort of stunt-y. Ryan is played by Jonathan Lipnicki (the kid from “Jerry Maguire”); the dad, Cole, is Richard Tyson; the local barman is Lorenzo Lamas (complete with a scar that looks bright-red and fresh, but is clearly supposed to be old); and showing up as a former victim of Boone in blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo is Tiny Lister, who was only there to promote, via a t-shirt, his faith-based charity. My favourite of the non-stunt casting was Cole’s assistant, Tess, played by the excellent Jane Park Smith, who’s done lots of episodes of TV but hasn’t had a chance to shine in bigger movies and deserves the chance.

There’s lots to appreciate. The scene where Boone falls down a hill is hilarious, and it treats some of the hoariest old tropes in movie history with an appropriately light tone, such as the “hey, something metal in my pocket luckily stopped that bullet” thing. I also expected to get tired of the endless plays on his name – “you got Booned”; “Boone-atics” and so on – but I didn’t. Kudos, movie! As would be expected from a pro wrestler with a parkour background, he’s a great on-screen fighter, too, and surrounds himself with lots of similarly talented guys. Plus, it’s a huge thumbs up to the movie that Hennigan appears to do most of his own stunts, allowing the camera to go wherever it wants.

While we’re on the subject of camerawork, kudos also go to Jeffrey R Clark, who appears to have just done TV up to now. He films the fights very well, you know exactly who everyone is, where they are in relation to each other (not always a given), and gives them a great flow.

So, it’s a rip-roaring good fun adventure with a star who is a little bit of polish away from a legit movie career in comedies and action movies. If I was looking for stuff to criticise, I’d say the dialogue is the weakest part – the plotting is solid – with a lot of jokes falling flat and conversations that go nowhere (the whiff of poor-quality improvisation can be detected, perhaps). But everyone tries their best with what they have.

I hope there are future Boone movies, and I hope someone with a few $$$ gets on board for the next one. A few big effects and stronger dialogue and this would be a complete gem; as it is, it’s still great and is definitely worth a few of your entertainment dollars.

BOONE THE BOUNTY HUNTER will release on VOD platforms on May 9th and on DVD June 6th.