Bounty Hunters Blu-ray despite solid video and audio falls short as a Blu-ray release
Wrestling champion and fitness icon Trish Stratus explodes onto the screen in her feature film debut, Bounty Hunters, a thrilling and sexy ride through crime-infested streets where everyone has a price.
For more about Bounty Hunters and the Bounty Hunters Blu-ray release, see the Bounty Hunters Blu-ray Review published by Casey Broadwater on April 22, 2013 where this Blu-ray release scored 2.0 out of 5.
I once worked with a grizzled old dude who fancied himself an after-hours bounty hunter. He liked to talk big about driving
down to Florida on weekends to track bail-skippers—and he did keep a pair of .357 Magnums in the glove compartment of his
truck—but I think it was all self-aggrandizing bluster. He was probably just staying in, watching Cops on Fox and
reading Guns & Ammo during the commercial breaks. My point—and I do have one—is that his Saturday afternoon
exploits on the couch were probably about as interesting as Bounty Hunters, a dull straight-to-video actioner that's
more routine than a cop scribbling a traffic ticket. With low-budget production values and a stultifyingly pointless story, the
film is notable only because it stars the hard-bodied former WWE wrestling idol and current fitness guru Trish Stratus, who
can kick serious ass, yes, but has the acting chops of...well, a former WWE wrestling idol. Director Patrick McBrearty—whose
only other credit is 2007's poorly received slasher Psycho Ward—seems to be banking that his target audience cares
less about performances and storytelling than seeing the 37-year-old Stratus dolled up in a schoolgirl costume. Maybe he's
right. Regardless, Bounty Hunters is bad.
Stratus plays tough blonde Jules Taylor, a Bond Enforcement Agent by early evening, waitress at a strip club by night. We
never see her during the day, but I imagine she watches Cops and reads Guns & Ammo. Jules is the third
member of an independent bounty hunting crew, along with her boss, Ridley (Frank J. Zupancic)—with whom she may or may
not have a thing—and her partner, Chase (Canadian comic Boomer Phillips), the joker of the group. We're introduced to the
team as they cooperatively take down a mohawked brute at a gym, Ridley running distraction, Chase wielding a dumbbell as
a weapon, and Jules straddling the criminal's face and bludgeoning him with her fists until he submits.
After dropping the goon off at lockup, they get a tip about Peter (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll), a harmless low-level drug dealer
who jumped bail and is hiding out at his girlfriend's house. They round him up too—he lamely tries to fend them off with a BB
gun—and load him into their van, where he offers them a deal: if they let him go free, he'll tell them the location of Mario
Antonio (Enrico DiFede), a mob-connected thug whose capture would net them a cool $100,000. It's morally questionable,
sure, but this seems like a no-brainer. Mario is holed up in a massage parlor/brothel—of course, and yes, the thong-
wearing goods are on display—and after some gunshots and martial arts action, they take him into custody. There's only one
problem. Mario's boss, Hal Lambino (Joe Rafia)—a mafioso with a penchant for Tai Chi—is determined to make sure his
underling doesn't talk to the cops. He offers the bounty hunters $1 million for Mario's immediate return, but the ethical
dilemma is even iffier this time. If they turn Mario over to Hal, he'll almost certainly be executed, while they'll be a million
bucks richer. If they turn him over to the cops, they're out the money and Hal will probably still find a way to kill the guy.
The first problem with Bounty Hunters is that it can't commit to a tone. On one side, the material lends itself to a
campy, over-the-top, grindhouse-ish approach, and the film does indulge that tendency, trotting out nearly-naked prostitutes,
spewing goofy one-liners, and reveling in its kung-fu fighting-meets-law enforcement premise. On the other, it squanders its
"so-bad-it's-good" cult potential by simultaneously trying too hard to be serious, to make us feel the weight of the characters'
moral decisions and—more generally—make us care. We don't care, really, and the moral decisions aren't that
weighty to begin with. The increasing monetary rewards are just MacGuffins to keep the bail enforcement agents in motion,
and when the plot of a movie is driven by a MacGuffin—Hitchcock's term for an otherwise pointless object or aim that keeps
the story moving—the movement itself better damn well be interesting. In Bounty Hunters, it's not. At all. Bounty Hunters sell the illusion
that we're watching genuinely intense brawls, not overly cautious practice bouts. The no-name acting isn't any better,
although Frank J. Zupancic does a decent impersonation of Liam Neeson in Taken.
If we get right down to it, the movie is basically 79 minutes of Trish Stratus fan-service. The closeup montage of her changing
out of her bounty hunting gear and into her schoolgirl stripper uniform. The lingering views of her curves. The panting,
moaning girl-fights. Longtime Stratus followers might find this alluring—might being the operative word—but wider
audiences will most likely be bored and underwhelmed.
Arriving on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation, Bounty Hunters looks okay for what it is—an ultra low-
budget action movie. Shot digitally with the more-than-capable Red One camera, the film's somewhat flat, uninteresting image
is further proof that careful lighting is just as, if not more important than sharp lenses and a high-resolution sensor. Still, aside
from poor artistry, there's not much technically wrong with the picture here. Clarity is generally strong, with fine facial
and clothing detail visible in closeups, and though I did notice some strange intentional blurring in a few scenes—see the edges
of the frame during the strip club locker room sequence—there are no issues with DNR, edge enhancement, or other types of
filtering. Source noise is present in small amounts, but I didn't spot any blatant compression issues or problems with
aliasing/moire. While the cheap-o lighting does give the movie that low-production-value look—it's basically one step above a
porno—the image at least has a decent sense of density and color consistency. As long as you know what you're getting into
here, picture quality-wise, there are no major distractions.
The disc has four sound options in the set-up menu—the default lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, a lossy Dolby Digital
5.1 mix, a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo fold-down, and a French Dolby Digital 2.0 dub. Providing you're not French and you have a
capable home theater system, the default mix is the way to go. Like the picture quality, the audio is functional and distraction-
free, but short of impressive or noteworthy. Dialogue, most importantly, is clear and easy to understand from the front
speakers, while the rear channels are used for occasional effects, light ambience—falling rain, strip club clamor, etc.—and the
film's aggressively bland, if full-bodied, action-rock score. No problems here. The disc also includes optional English subtitles,
which appear in tiny yellow drop-shadowed lettering.
Audio Commentaries: The disc includes two commentaries, a too-bubbly conversation with Trish Stratus and
Andrea James Lui, and a more nuts-and-bolts-style track with director Patrick McBrearty and producer Chad Archibald.
Interview with Trish Stratus (SD, 5:02): Stratus talks a bit about her role and why she chose to take it.
Epic Fight: Behind the Scenes (SD, 3:28): An on-set look at the filming of one of the fight scenes between
Stratus and Andrea James Lui.
Trish on "The Score" (SD, 17:18): Stratus appears on a wrestling-themed TV program to promote the film.
Trish at ActionFest 2011 (SD, 00:33): A quick clip of Trish saying hello to the camera as motocross bikes leap
through the air behind her.
Unless you're an undiscriminating collector of awful ultra-low-budget action films, a WWE enthusiast, or a Trish Stratus fan
looking for some fan-service, I'd advise you to skip Bounty Hunters, which has a weak story, routine action, and little
to offer general movie audiences. It's like a dumber, artless Domino. For those still interested, at least know that MPI's
Blu-ray release is decent, with good video/audio quality—considering the resources the movie was made with—and a
respectable collection of bonus features.
MPI Home Video have officially announced that they will release on Blu-ray Patrick McBrearty's Bounty Hunters (2011), starring Trish Stratus, Frank J. Zupancic, and Boomer Phillips. The release will be available for purchase on April 2.
