One for the Money (2012)

 This was not a good movie.  It wasn't my idea, though.  My favorite human and center of the Experiment, Christy, popped into town for a surprise visit and one of her requests was to go see this piece-of-shit movie.  We love the book series and she was curious how different the movie would be.

One of the few good things is that it follows the book very closely...right up until the end where it goes completely off the rails.  It was probably a time-saving measure, but they could have cut out any number of scenes so they do not get a pass from me.  We'll get to all the negative things in a second.

Stephanie Plum (Katherine Heigl) is down on her luck.  She needs a job and quick.  Her spunky grandmother (Debbie Reynolds) suggests she apply with her cousin Vinny, a bail bondsman.  She goes to his office and learns that cop Joe Morelli (Jason O'Mara) is a wanted fugitive on a $500,000 bond.  He shot a guy named Ziggy Kulesa while off-duty and it looks bad.  Steph has her own history with Joe, who took her virginity and then never called.  She decides to become a bounty hunter and enlists the help of badass Ranger (Daniel Sunjata) to get her up to speed.

Problems:  1) Katherine Heigl's Jersey accent.  God, it was terrible.
2) Katherine Heigl's voice over narration through the entire movie.  Unnecessary.  If I had wanted a book on tape, I would have gotten one.
3) Zero chemistry between Heigl and O'Mara.  He handcuffed her naked to a shower rail and I felt nothing.
4) Supporting characters.  All of them.
5) There is a character named Benito Ramirez in the book that is supposed to be a psychotic boxer/rapist.  The guy playing him (Gavin-Keith Umeh) has these huge puppy-dog eyes that do not say "I will giggle while I bounce your head on the curb".  Just because you gave him a sleeve tattoo does not make him look dangerous.  Especially if you're going to "time save" and cut all the menacing build-up (in the book, Benito is much more stalker-ish), you need an actor who is going to come off as threatening.  I was not threatened.