The Bounty Huntress (2001)

*Get a physical copy of "The Bounty Huntress" (AKA Beautiful Bounty) on Amazon here*
*Get a physical copy of "Bounty Huntress 2" on Amazon here*
*Get a physical copy of "Bounty Huntress: Undercover" on Amazon here*
*Get a physical copy of The Bounty Huntress 3-DVD Set on Amazon here*

Take one porn film, remove said element of porn, and what are you left with? This.

J.C. (Mary Shannon as Nicki Dolan) is a bounty hunter who uses her good looks to capture horny unsuspecting criminals. She works for the oily Benny (Dillon Morgan Silver), who teams her with rival Lance (Jason Schnuit) on her toughest assignment yet. They must track down a mob informant last seen in the company of two hookers (Devinn Lane and Kimber Lynn), plus J.C.'s ex-husband Tom (John Russell Hughes as Justin R. Hughes III), a district attorney, gets involved in the case.

Aside from the terrible acting, poor directing, laughable script, and over-reliance on stock footage, how do I know this was porn? For one thing, Devinn Lane's name is in the title. I am familiar with her work from some godawful thing I saw a few months back...I remember her in a book store with some other women, and they were not boning up on their Longfellow. Anyway, at the end of the credits, the producers proudly proclaim, or is it disclaim, that the bothersome "of legal age" law does not apply to this production. To use another less obvious clue, all of the sex scenes are very soft softcore. I am not talking "Red Shoe Diaries" softcore, I am talking about tens of minutes of footage being removed from between two characters' tentative stripping and the naughty post-coital afterglow basking and redressing, with just a fair amount of nudity on display. The story runs all of seventy minutes, including the credits. So, when all the porn is edited away, you are left with just story, and it is a lousy one at that. I am not sure about the cast's ability between the sheets (except for Lane), but when it comes to rudimentary acting skills like delivering dialogue or creating a character, everyone fails miserably. The set design deserves special disparaging mention. I was fascinated with district attorney Tom's office, where his desk and walls are all painted a color best described as "fecal." At one point in the film, a major character is murdered offscreen, and the cast reacts with such indifference I am convinced the actors could not remember what part the victim played in the film.

"The Bounty Huntress" even spawned a couple of video sequels, but I think I have had enough of the series. This is one bad film. Also known as "Beautiful Bounty," and is listed online with many different running times.

Stats:
(2001) 98 min. (1/2 *) out of five stars
-Directed by Madison Monroe
-Written by Karen Stone
-Cast: Mary Shannon, Dillon Morgan Silver, Jason Schnuit, Devinn Lane, Kimber Lynn, John Russell Hughes, Sebastien Guy, David Garrison, Nick Pellegrino, Keri Windsor, Kaz Flair, George Thomas, Brandon Kealona
(R)