Bullet Points: Boone: The Bounty Hunter

I think Menahem Golan said it best when he said “The name of the game is to do. Not just to, blah blah blah blah blah blah, talk about it.”

Now we have all talked about our dreams and our aspirations, but how many of us have actually done the work required to make those dreams and aspirations come true? Five years ago John Hennigan (aka Johnny Mundo/John Morrision) had a dream… that dream was to make an action comedy about a parkour practitioner who also happened to be a TV bounty hunter.

Hennigan conceptualized the idea and then started putting in the work to make the dream a reality, including the monumental task of finding someone to finance the deal. When he couldn’t find the money to bring his movie to life, he decided to finance the movie himself. That’s called doing what you have to do to make your dream come true.

It was a long five years, but John Hennigan’s passion project, Boone: The Bounty Hunter, has finally come to fruition…

• Introduction: The movie kicks off with some really slick opening credits featuring a Boone silhouette parkouring off the credits and then we go right into live action with Boone (John Hennigan) and his team of Jackson (Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson), Denny (Osric Chau) and Kat (Spencer Grammer) in hot pursuit of Kevin Sorbo (When you think about it, Hennigan chasing Sorbo was really Hercules going after Hercules). Sorbo gets taken down for all his unpaid parking tickets and another episode of Boone: The Bounty Hunter concludes as several Boone groupies gleefully get an autograph from their favorite TV bounty hunter. But all is not well in Boone land…

• Nielsen Defeats Boone: Boone’s ratings are on the decline and the steady drop over the last two seasons means Boone: The Bounty Hunter is about to get the axe when the current season concludes. Boone and the team start to brainstorm ideas of how they can make the season finale so huge that the TV execs will reconsider and renew Boone for another year. Boone thinks they should get away from the C-List celebrities and go back to the show’s roots of hunting down real bad guys. Boone calls in a favor from a friend who works at the DEA (played by Corbin Bernsen) and gets a hot tip on a party boy named Ryan Davenport (Jonathan Lipnicki) who has fled to Mexico to avoid standing trial for the murder of a young lady who attended one of Ryan’s pool parties and snorted some of the new designer drug that Ryan’s father, drug lord Cole Davenport (Richard Tyson), has recently put into production. Boone’s producer Olivia is against the idea due to the danger, Jackson is on her side and refuses to be a part of it. But Boone, Kat and Denny want to go for it and for it they do.

• South of the Border: Boone, Kat and Denny make their way to Mexico and a small town where they believe Ryan Davenport is hiding out at. The team stops by the town’s bar/brothel, Boone orders a drink from the scar faced bartender (played by Lorenzo Lamas), and then starts asking the patrons if they know where Ryan Davenport is. This leads to the obligatory bar fight, but for all the action movie bar fights I have seen, this is the first I can say the hero utilized parkour inspired fighting moves to win. Boone finds out that Ryan is hiding upstairs in one of the bedrooms, once he finds Ryan (with not one but two hookers). Now Boone could have easily taken Ryan into custody right then and there, but instead throws Ryan out the window and the chase is on… because the pursuit of the bad guys is what draws the ratings. Boone does eventually catch Ryan, but in the meantime Kat and Denny are stopped by the Federales and this is where we start to transition from reality TV show to actual reality.

Of all the action heroes I have seen in my life, the Boone character is without question the biggest smart ass. John Hennigan’s one liners are as rapid fire as the action. The movie allows Hennigan to showcase his unique physical skill set, that is a blend of his professional wrestling background and his parkour passion. The physicality really gets turned up when Boone matches up against Cole Davenport’s hired guns The Cardoza Brothers Juan (Lateef Crowder) and Benicio (T.J Storm of Kickboxer: Vengeance fame) creating some of the action highlights of Boone: The Bounty Hunter.

The  movie also allows the Boone character to grow… we see Boone go from self-absorbed reality TV star, to a man who is willing to risk his own life for his friends and the townspeople who have been under the thumb of Cole Davenport for far too long. It was obvious to me as the movie was headed into the big action finale that John Hennigan knows what makes for a good action hero.

It was also obvious that Hennigan and all the creative forces behind Boone: The Bounty Hunter know what it takes to make a fun and entertaining blend of action and comedy. And I sincerely hope the tease at the end of Boone 2 (Electric Boonealoo?) isn’t just a tease and we actually get more Boone in the future.

If you want more Boone: The Bounty Hunter bullet points, you’re in luck because I have some Bonus Bullet Points just for you… you’re welcome America!

• If You Ever: …wanted to see John Hennigan ride a child’s bike, then this is the movie for you.
• Booneisms: I lost track of all the Boone phrases that were used through out the movie, but I think the most ridiculous one had to be “Haboona Matada”.
• Familiar Faces: I’ve already mentioned a bunch of names that would be familiar to fans of action entertainment, but one I did not mention was Zeus himself Tommy “Tiny” Lister of No Holds Barred fame. Lister and Hennigan actually worked together before in 2015’s American Justice. There are a few other cameos but I’ll let you watch the movie and discover them for yourself.
• If You Ever: …wanted to see Johnathan Lipnicki locked inside a porta potty, then this is the movie for you.
• One Sick Bitch: Another of Cole Davenport’s minions is a woman named Tess. Tess (played by Jane Park Smith) is a sick and twisted individual and reminded me a bit of Bai Ling’s character in The Crow.
• If You Ever: …wanted to hear Quinton “Rampage” Jackson do a “Macho Man” Randy Savage impersonation, then this is the movie for you.