This week’s Dissection continues with a christmas tale featuring bounty hunters, weird music, and a weak tie to Christmas itself. No, they didn’t re-release the STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL, it’s actually a WWE Films production starring the other half of the Dirt Sheet duo, The Miz. Will this movie be as AWESOME as his catchphrase claims?
The Story
A former bounty hunter turns into an elementary schoolteacher. Determined to have a normal life and keep her bounty hunter past a secret, she reluctantly returns home for Christmas to help save the family business by catching the one bounty that got away. But when her fiancé follows her home for the holiday, she struggles to hide her wild family business and a bounty hunter ex-boyfriend she thought she’d left behind.
The Cast
Francia Raisa as Tory Bell, a schoolteacher who is getting prepared to get married to her fiance, when she gets tossed back into old life as a bounty hunter when an old foe returns.
Mike “The Miz” Mizanin as Mikey Muscles, Tory’s ex-boyfriend who still hangs with the family and is back to partnering up with Tory when she returns for the bounty.
Will Greenburg as James, Tory’s fiance. A member of a prestigious New York family, he’s ready to wed Tory, though he can’t help but wonder why she keeps to herself.
Aleks Paunovic as Manucci, a former con who was sent to jail due to Tory and her family, and has returned to the area to both go to an event and get even.
The Dissection
CHRISTMAS BOUNTY is a movie that could have been set on any holiday, and it could be the same movie. It’s really a bit of a triangle romance story mixed in with this pursuit movie, and Christmas is really a setting for the film than anything else.
One of the story points in the movie is the whole story of Tory and her having to choose between a life in the upper social life with fiance James, or go back to get Jersey lifestyle with her friends and family, and her ex, Mikey. And the whole movie revolves on “oh, what world will see go into? Will she choose the good life with James, or with the fun times with Mikey?”
However, it’s never really shown as this “either/or” situation. It’s not an issue where Tory is forced to choose. Her parents, while goofy in that family comedy way, are extremely nice and supportive, and James is never really shown to be looking down at Tory and her family. Aside from James having some snooty parents, and even that is based on her being secretive, it’s never shown as something either party could not bond over.
Mikey (Mizanin) and Tory (Raisa) setting up for a mall sting.
Also, the big secret for Tory is that her family are professional bounty hunters, something that, as far as anyone seems concerned, is not that scandalous or bad.
The more action portion of the film is decent. The movie is really made for TV, so a lot of the action moments and the effects reflect that. It’s not bad, though. The segments with actual pursuit of the bounty is interesting and has a couple of nice action pieces during point of the film.
On the acting side, most of the cast is really playing more of a stereotype, since the film is set in this JERSEY SHORE style environment for most of it, though the dialog comes off more like gangster and gun moll talk than guido speak. The Miz himself is a bit more subdued, though, and he does develop his own character beyond that.
Man, this Magic City/Secret Life crossover’s getting dark.
On extras, the disc has a video on some of the action scenes in the movie, as well as a video about the Miz and how his acting is, and compared to him being in WWE . There’s also a third video of a fan who won a cameo in the film after an audition at a WWE Axxess event, and the trip from signing to the filming and some interviews. There’s also some trailers for other films, including the Scooby Doo/WWE crossover film.
The Verdict
The film is not so much a Christmas movie as it is a relationship movie set around Christmas, and it does have some good moments in it. Still, it’s not something to rush out to get, but it could be good if you run into it on TV.