Main Cast: Walter Velasquez, Jamal Mackey, L. Vee Anduze, Anthony Young, Pamela Johnson
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 108 minutes
Plot
Film time director Adam Watstein debuts with this urban drama about two rappers trying to keep their lives together while pursuing a recording contract. Lorenzo (Jamal Mackey) is a drug-dealing troublemaker who hails from a welfare family headed by his crack-addicted mother. His rapping partner is the more focused Walter (Walter Velasquez, who also wrote the autobiographical script), who attends college, teaches gym to youngsters, and tends to Narine (Pamela Johnson), his pregnant girlfriend and Lorenzo's sister. In spite of a real chance at getting a record contract, Lorenzo winds up in jail, and Walter tries to further his career by himself. When Lorenzo gets released from jail, he promises to stay clean, though he soon discovers that he is on a collision course with doom. Bounce was screened at the 1999 Chicago Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Cast
Walter Velasquez - himself
Jamal Mackey - Lorenzo
L. Vee Anduze - Lorenzo's Mother
Anthony Young - himself
Pamela Johnson - Narine
Credit
Gary Greengrass - Associate Producer, Walter Velasquez - Co-producer, Anthony Young - Co-producer, Adam Watstein - Director, Ron Kalish - Editor, Lord Finesse - Composer (Music Score), Peter Olsen - Cinematographer, Adam Watstein - Producer, Jennifer Lyne - Producer, Josh Apter - Sound/Sound Designer, Walter Velasquez - Screen Story, Anthony Young - Screen Story, Adam Watstein - Screenwriter
Advertising executive Buddy (Affleck) has just signed an airline in Chicago as a big client, but is ironically delayed at the airport waiting for a flight to Los Angeles on that very airline. He meets fellow traveler Greg (Tony Goldwyn), who opts to be bumped, even though it means missing an outing with his son. When the flight is resumed, Buddy thinks he's doing a good deed by giving his ticket to Greg so he can get home to his son. While spending the night with fellow stranded passenger Mimi (Natasha Henstridge), he discovers via the television news that Greg's flight crashes. Buddy had conspired with his friend Janice Guerrero (Jennifer Grey), the ticket agent that night, to take his name off the passenger list and put Greg's on.
Once he's back in LA, Buddy's new client dictates that the company run a series of feel-good ads about the crash. Buddy feels guilty for putting Greg on the plane, and drunkenly (and publicly) acts out when the commercials win a Clio award. After going through an insincere stint in Alcoholics Anonymous, Buddy arranges to meet Greg's family and eventually falls in love with the deceased man's widow, Abby (Paltrow), and her two young sons.
Buddy helps Abbey sell an already identified commercial property to his firm, accompanies the family to Palm Springs to overcome the boys fear of flying and carefully builds a relationship that frightens both him and Abby. Abby maintains she is divorced, while Buddy never lets on that he met Greg. It all comes apart when Mimi gives Abby a short video of Greg and Buddy me in the airport bar. Buddy goes on trial for Greg's death; he is found not responsible for the airline's disregard for safety, but when he is excused from the witness stand he questions that he is really "excused" for his actions. Buddy then resigns from the firm.
Abby, who had seen the trial on TV, tells Buddy that she feels guilty that Greg had boarded the plane because she pressured him to come home. Buddy persuades her to stay a bit longer by asking for her help to sell or rent his beach home, and the two resume their romance.
