The Big Bounce

Elmore Leonard’s first crime novel after a stream of Western fiction now has the dubious distinction of being botched twice as a movie. Snaggle-nosed Owen Wilson has replaced pretty boy Ryan O’Neal, who starred in the 1969 version, as drifter and petty criminal Jack Ryan. Wilson oozes his trademark surfer-dude nonchalance as he gets snarled in a web of intrigue in Hawaii while locking lips and conspiring with the mistress (Barbie Doll-thin Sara Foster) of crooked real-estate developer Ray Ritchie (an oily Gary Sinise) to ransack her lover’s safe. The comic caper provides a few grins but flounders quite rudderless through a series of messy double and triple crosses, as a crafty district judge (Morgan Freeman) and Ritchie’s right-hand man (Charlie Sheen) lurk in the wings.