Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

not horrible nor great

How sad is this?

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

As I'm a product of the 60's, this is classic fare for the movies. Campy yes, but many were. Someone mentioned the soft nude scenes, etc. Well, that was the usual fare as well. We didn't get 'in your face' sex. I miss those days, to be honest.Now, as far as the music is concerned, whether the music matches the movie is debatable. One should realize 'The Mike Curb Sound' was quite popular to the straight-laced of my era. I enjoyed it but I enjoyed Zappa and Reed too.. go figure.As a record collector, The Big Bounce soundtrack is one that should be included in one's collection. In fact, the original pressing is collectible now. There are a few quite nice tracks on it. Curb almost got a little out there on couple tunes, but, he reeled himself back in.I think I know music pretty well as I have collected since the 60's and I say, in and of itself, the album is pretty darn good.

Most of the other comments on here are pretty accurate. This movie really showed the loosening up of Hollywood as far as female nudity went. We get to see the beautiful Leigh Taylor-Young in various stages of nudity and looking good dressed too. Ryan never looked better. Lee Grant perfected the role of a perpetually uptight woman in Valley of The Dolls and this seems to be a continuation. The only actress in this movie that really shined was Cindy Eilbacher who could act rings around any other child actor of this or later era. Her few scenes really stand out and almost seem to be from another movie. Loved the cars, the clothes, the great character actors and YES I did love the music but it was all wrong for this movie. I think this music was meant for Dean Martin's last Matt Helm movie with Sharon Tate that never got made. It was lush orchestrated loungy pop music but was all wrong for a crime-noir movie. It really threw me off but I enjoyed hearing it from another room when I wasn't watching the screen. This also has some really great campy lines mainly from Van Heflin calling Leigh a "Quiff" in one scene and various other vague vulgarities. I really enjoyed watching Van go near the edge of camp and then pull back a bit. James Daly was perfect as a high class sleazebag. Look for Ryan's brother Kevin as the passenger in the dune buggy scene.Overall much better than the horrendous remake, especially if you like movies that are so bad they are good.

The works of author Elmore Leonard are not known to make the transfer from the page to the screen very successfully. Sure, 1995's GET SHORTY was a big success, but HOMBRE (1967), THE 52 PICK-UP (1986), and CAT CHASER (1989) were all considered unqualified disasters (although HOMBRE is certainly underrated in retrospect). Unfortunately, 1969's THE BIG BOUNCE is also considered among those disasters, which is a totally undeserved fate for such an efficiently effective little film. In fact, I dare say I enjoyed THE BIG BOUNCE even more than GET SHORTY.The film opened to scathing bad reviews upon its release in spring of 1969, and audiences stayed away in droves (the film was never even released on home video until 35 years after its theatrical release in 2004). I haven't read Leonard's original novel, so I have no idea how faithful the film is when compared to the source material. I can say, however, that director Alex March and screenwriter Robert Dozier do a fine job keeping the momentum going, as the film moves along at a pleasing pace. And while the picture may not exactly have Oscar-worthy cinematography, the film is certainly good to look at, especially in its original Panavision widescreen format.The film's major ace-in-the-hole, however, is the always-terrific Ryan O'Neal in the lead. Although O'Neal was a major star in the seventies, starring in the smash hits LOVE STORY (1970), WHAT'S UP, DOC? (1972), and PAPER MOON (1973), he has never really seemed to receive his deserved props for being the truly topnotch actor that he is. Even in the absolute worst films (and he has made more than a few), I have yet to see him give a lackluster performance. And this film is no exception.After five years of starring on the popular primetime soap opera "Peyton Place," O'Neal made his starring debut in this film, and it is clear he had already begun mastering a respectable craft. From beginning to end, he is completely believable as our hapless hero. You never doubt his genuineness. It is yet another performance that makes you set up and ask yourself, "Why didn't this man get any more respect back in the day?" Of course, even if he never received much critical kudos, Ryan was certainly one of the top male pinups of his era. The reason is clear: in addition to being drop-dead-gorgeous, Ryan also was not the least bit shy about sharing his beautiful body with the rest of the free world. He always gave us exactly what we were wanting to see, and it all began here in THE BIG BOUNCE. Appearing in various stages of undress throughout the entire film, if watching Ryan in this film doesn't get you hotter than hell, then you better run out and get some Viagra.As for the rest of the cast, Leigh Taylor-Young, who was married to Ryan at the time of the film's release, is amusing as the wild and crazy hellion. Although Taylor-Young is far from my favorite actress, she really gives the part her all and is an absolute hoot to watch. The chemistry between her and O'Neal is magnetic, and some of their scenes together are pretty steamy. Leigh also looks terrific here, and does a somewhat surprising amount of nudity (isn't it odd that films from the late-sixties and early-seventies often have more causal nudity than films today).The camp honors for the film must go to future Oscar-winner Lee Grant, who probably likes to forget she appeared in this film. Grant turns in a hysterically unsubtle performance as the hot-to-trot single mom who lusts after Ryan throughout the picture (can't say I blame her). Grant literally trembles with unrestrained horniness anytime she is around O'Neal, and some of their scenes together are marvelously entertaining kitsch. She's basically all over the place at once, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find her entertaining.The young Lisa Eilbacher is surprisingly credible, and displays of refreshing minimum of kiddie star cuteness as the young daughter of Grant's character. In particular, Eilbacher flawlessly handles one very difficult scene with such accuracy and truth that she provides the film with its one true heart-wrenching moment. Not surprisingly, Eilbacher continued acting and raked up numerous credits throughout the seventies and eighties, although she had not been seen in anything new for nearly 20 years now. I'd certainly like to know what she's been up to.The rest of the cast is filled out by a good assortment of character actors, a better lot than I would have expected, including James Daly and Robert Webber. The best of the group is easily Van Heflin, in a touchingly unsentimental performance as O'Neal's boss/father figure. It's very nice little portrait of tough love that feels refreshingly unforced, and it's a fitting bookend to the career of Heflin, who died a few short years later in 1971. All of the other minor roles are acceptably cast as well.Although the film is definitely underrated, it still is not perfect. Although it's enjoyable while it's playing, the film never really adds up to much in the end. It is further marred by an abrupt ending that ties things up too quickly and an absolutely atrocious music score (seriously, it's one of the worst original film scores that I've ever heard). Still, I guarantee that THE BIG BOUNCE will give you a couple hours of grooving, sexy fun. And the young Ryan O'Neal is very much worth checking out, especially here at the peak of his physical beauty.

In its own sexy, shoddy way, this 1969 film version of an early Elmore Leonard novel is better than the recent "hip" version with Owen Wilson. It mixes film noir conventions with teen exploitation riffs and a fair amount of nudity for a guilty pleasure that's redolent of late 60s/early 70s cheeseball cinema.Ryan O'Neal is a drifter (good hearted, of course) who hooks up with Leigh Taylor Young, a bad girl out for "kicks." Leigh gets Ryan into bed and then into vandalism and robbery and...well, you know where the film is going. It's the journey that's the fun.O'Neal had a sort of bruised likability that worked for him on TV's Peyton Place and he uses it effectively here. Young, married to him at the time and his PPlace co star, is sulky and seductive and, oh yes, naked a lot as a girl who just wants to have fun. Their brief love scenes have a fair amount of steam to them and watching them drop their bell bottoms to go skinny dipping gives the whole movie a certain "Boogie Nights" flavor. The (then) O'Neals were one hot couple.There's a good supporting cast: Robert Webber, Lee Grant, doing a dry run for "Shampoo" as a horny divorcee, James Daly, a nice, slimy villain who pimps out Ms. Young to some business men, and Van Heflin in what may be his last role. On the downside, the direction is a bit flat, lacking in the kind of edge that can really make a crime story cook. And the score, as noted in another post, is atrocious, poured like syrup over scene after scene.The Big Bounce definetly qualifies as a guilty pleasure, what with Ms. Young going hysterical and smashing a living room up with a fire poker and O'Neal smashing an opponent smack in the face with a baseball bat, and in the credits no less. All in all, this version is preferable to the Owen Wilson one in which you can practically see the actors' tongues push out their cheeks as they condescend to the materail. Here there's a fair amount of sweat, exploitation and a hint of camp as the good looking leads go through their noir paces. Worth a rental.