I too don't understand the negative comments here. The Hunted is a great action flick. It features great leads from Tommy Lee Jones (as you would expect) and Benicio Del Toro (my first film experience with him, I thought he added an amazing presence to his character) plus good support from the surrounding cast. The film has some amazing locations and scenery and was very well paced. The fight and actions scenes were excellent with some decent gore thrown in where necessary. My only nit pick was I felt it could have been a little longer in duration. Ignore the bad press on The Hunted. I just don't understand how you can't enjoy this film - that simple! Oh,..and doesn't Tommy Lee Jones really suit the beard.
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asphyxion_6 February 2020BDT and TLJ are both in top form here. Del Toro gives us prescient glimpses of 'Sicario,' while Jones serves us up a two-finger shot of his 'US Marshalls' character with a sort of 'Life Below Zero' twist added to the rim of the glass.
The Hunted is clearly inspired by the famous short story, "The Most Dangerous Game." However, Hunted manages to flip "The Most Dangerous Game" on its axis by giving us a primally brutal wolf fight between two alphas instead of TMDG's original novel of helpless souls wandering into a rich psychopath's well-placed bear trap. This time around, it's not an expert killer hunting down a fatigued cast-away with no combat experience but instead two special-operations-capable-veterans-turned-bushcraft-survivalists testing each other's capabilities and prowess to their absolute limits.
But there's also a little more complexity to The Hunted than just a life or death versus match between two hardened soloists in the bush. The movie also explores the horrors of war on the psyche, the way such unbridled brutality erodes even the soundest of minds when time progresses, and how PTSD can deconstruct a person at their very core.
This movie is harrowing at some points, particularly during the war crime flashbacks that are absolutely barbaric like the desecration of skeletons and mass Graves being filled with groups of living prisoners who are than obliterated at point blank with M249 SAWs weilded by laughing guerilla fighters.
There's a thick air of tension that runs through the entirety of the film's run time, something I would largely attribute to three things: it's realistic, intense violent subject matter; it's lack of a consistent music score flooding the speakers every five minutes and sparse dialogue; it's setting mostly taking place in the desolate bush. It's quiet, lethal and bloody--just like BDT's sadistic knife weilding character.
The Hunted is a unique action movie that deserves your time. Its pacing is slow and methodical, purposefully scripted as such to match the film's title no doubt. The slow burn of the story and the film's execution is almost reminiscent of a 70s film before massive explosions and ridiculous, cheesy one liners from steroided freaks took the genre over; back when movies were smarter and crafted with more earnest and inspiration. It's also a recommended watch if you're into Bushcraft survivalism or military drama--much of The Hunted feels like you're watching the first day of SERE school when you're being dropped into the forest.
7/10, one of BDT and TLJ's best. -
Although it would be easy to write The Hunted off as a simple chase film (I can see the pitch now: "It's First Blood married to Predator with a dose of The Fugitive", and in reality that is a pretty fair description) but it's straight forward manner lends a constant sense of urgency. Throughout this gory (yeah it's pretty graphic) cat and mouse thriller we are also given some real insight into Del Toro's character. Unwilling to make sweeping judgments about nearly any of the characters (Connie Nielsen's FBI agent is a bit stubborn and single minded and occasionally very careless in discharging her firearm in public, Tommy Lee Jones'survivalist trainer has a guilty conscious of his own and even Del Toro's transformation is understandable), the finale is exciting but emotionally complicated, even tragic. The camera work and editing are very effective and affective while not overwhelming the finished product with the typical Hollywood style over substance dilemma. Combined with some very strong performances by the leads THE HUNTED makes for a very intense and satisfying thriller experience.
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terenceallen1 July 2004This is one of those movies that people will either love or hate. It has it's flaws for sure, but this movie speaks to primitive, macho mano-a-mano movie lovers.
How realistic the knife fights are in this movie remains to be seen, although kali, the martial art used as the base for the fight scenes, is a powerful fighting style. But they are exciting to watch, and both Jones and del Toro inhabit their characters with enough gusto and panache that the movie can be very enjoyable to watch.
It definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea, but the Hunted will make lots of action movie and martial arts movie fans pleased and satisfied. -
savanna-28 January 2005How could they have made this story better. There wasn't a need for more dialog or love story and the fight scenes were amazingly well done. Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro played expertly off one another. I didn't flash onto another film when I was watching this. I was surprised to read a comparison to Rambo. What? How is that even possible. Other than the military theme (which is rather minimal in this film, since Aaron could have easily been CIA, etc.) and people being killed, what is the connection?
While Rambo is gory and violent and rather gratuitous, The Hunted is none of these. The worst we get with the "killings" are a few glimpses of *photos* if the hunters killed at the beginning of the film. I guess this is a thinking man's action film and for those that don't want to think, they will be quick to put it down. -
My posting a review of The Hunted is in direct contradiction of my beliefs about this film, but so is anyone reading it, so it's a moot point.
I saw The Hunted last night, a spontaneous hire at my local video store based on the premise, actors, director, and director of photography.
The Hunted smacks of The Fugitive, with vast echoes in the form of the presence of Tommy Lee Jones - who seems to be unofficially playing the same character - and a daring escape by the 'title' character, jumping from a high point to seeming certain death in the form of imposing water.
There are bountiful references to other films also. Predator, First Blood, and Apocalypse Now all spring to mind. Indeed, the film could be thought of as being a scenario on what might have happened to Capt. Willard from Apocalypse Now after he returned home after Viet Nam. Another connection is that The Hunted DP, Caleb Deschanel, served as insert DP on Apocalypse Now.
Early on, a payoff is set up when the filmmakers go to a small amount of trouble to show the audience that Tommy Lee Jones is afraid of heights. One of those moments where the viewer thinks 'that's gonna pay off later', it is never paid off, despite Jones being caught in some tall situations as the story progresses.
But I liked the film. Also worth noting is that I saw it having known absolutely nothing about it coming in. I have noticed a trend in my tastes where I seem to be drawn to films featuring deeply-flawed characters who nonetheless remain extremely capable. Think of John Anderton in Minority Report, Agent Sands in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and even Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, and you begin to get the point. Well, The Hunted features two such characters, and they are in direct competition. I always liked films featuring worthy adversaries, and The Hunted rates highly in this department. The scenes in the city where Jones attempts to track del Toro play this well, with del Toro trained to vanish, stalked by Jones, trained to see.
The Hunted also features a subtle and effective score by Brian Tyler, and excellent photography by Caleb Deschanel, with more than a slight nod to the aforementioned Apocalypse Now. Jones is good, even if the audience does feel they have 'seen it all before' from Jones. But to his credit, Jones is very physical in his performance, and gives his all. Del Toro is also good, playing a character murky of motivation, and damaged of psyche.
In closing, I will say I see the film for the hugely derivative vehicle it is, but I liked it anyway, mostly because of the visuals and the physicality of the performances.
Not recommended, unless you can look past the similarities to other films. Or see it knowing nothing about it, like I did. But if you've read this, that is now impossible :) -
TonysLittleFriend3 September 2004The Hunted is a bloody good ride. Literally, this movie is violent. I was shocked to see that not many people liked this movie. It's like The Bourne Identity, only with more action, and A LOT MORE BLOOD!
Here's the story: In the green woods of Silver Falls, Oregon, Aaron Hallam, a trained assassin AWOL from the Special Forces, keeps his own brand of wildlife vigil. After brutally slaying four deer hunters in the area, FBI Special Agent Abby Durrell turns to L.T. Bonham-- the one man who may be able to stop him.
At first L.T. resists the mission. Snug in retirement, he's closed off to his past, the years he spent in the Special Forces training soldiers to become skilled murderers. But when he realizes that these recent playings are the work of a man he trained, he feels obligated to stop him.
Accepting the assignment under the condition that he works alone, L.T. enters the woods, unarmed--plagued by memories of his best student and riddled with guilt for not responding to Aaron's tortured letters to him as he began to slip over the edge of sanity.
Furious as he is with his former mentor for ignoring his pleas for help, Aaron knows that he and L.T. share a tragic bond that is unbreakable. And, even as they go into their final combat against each other, neither can say with certainty who is the hunted and who is the hunter.
The acting is so-so. Not very good actually, but it's still a enjoyable flick.
***/**** -
rbverhoef19 January 2004I had a pretty good time watching this movie, although it is not really good. Actually it is a movie I have already seen, only then it was called 'First Blood' starring Sylvester Stallone as Rambo. Not that both movies are exactly the same, even the atmosphere is very different, but the basics are the same.
Benicio Del Toro is Aaron Hallam, a guy who fought in Kosovo in 1999. Four years later, in the woods of Oregon, he starts to kill hunters because he does not approve their methods. His technique is learned to him by L.T. (Tommy Lee Jones) and he must be the one to find Aaron. In one scene L.T. explains why Aaron does this and it sounds pretty reasonable. From this point the movie is basically a chase. Two men chasing each other.
Like I said I had a good time. The story goes the way you would probably guess but it doesn't really matter. The images are always beautiful or interesting, there is suspense and the man to man fights look very good, especially the final one. Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro and also Connie Nielsen as a FBI-agent make their characters believable. Not great, but definitely entertaining. -
psuddeth-290-88413912 February 2012Here are several reasons for the low scoring reviews, for those of you who thought it was terrific. Watch again and tell me that any one of these is incorrect (NOTE. I'd warn about possible spoilers, but if you're actually thinking about what you're watching, you'll see the following plot elements coming).
The repetitive chase (hunt, find, fight, escape, hunt,find,fight,escape, huntfindfightescape) leaves little room for character development, e.g. what was it ABOUT his war experience that made Hallam decide to kill irreverent sport hunters? Do he and Bonham feel a father/son bond for each other, and if so when and why did that come about?
The sloppy digital effects (Tommy Lee's flailing torso spliced into the waterfall, flashes of Benicio's face spliced onto the fountain's cascade, as if he were in the cavity behind it.
Really? You're going to stop in the middle of the chase to forge a knife from scrap iron? Really??? You know how long that would take, and how noisy? So Bonham doesn't like guns, he's gonna knap one from flint rather than ask an agent for a combat knife? In the middle of a pursuit? REALLY????
The battlefield Kosovo set looked like a cross between Disneyland and Colonel Kurtz' most apocalyptic delusional nightmare. Too many pretty explosions, overstuffed setting, too populated by extras (who don't even react to the pretty explosions occurring feet away), too designed and manufactured looking, etc.
Yes ,the knife fight scenes were well choreographed, bloody, and inventive, with nice portrayals of effort and gravity (no wire work or movieland physics), but they needed to be cut more tightly. The way aging Tommy Lee broadcast his moves, Benicio would have filleted him like a fish, nine ways to Sunday.
If there's a deeper message to the film (Show some respect for the beings you kill, Honor thy Fatherfigure, whatever) it's trampled as badly by the pursuit as the ground is by the set dresser making blatantly overdone footprints for Tommy to "track".
I'd add more but this film's hardly worth it. -
ma-cortes8 July 2020In the green woods of Silver Falls , Oregon , appears Aaron Hallam (Benicio del Toro) , a trained assassin AWOL from the Special Forces , he is a disturbing man who is over the edge of sanity and keeps his own sense of life . After Hallam cruelly slew four deer hunters in the area , FBI Special Agent Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen) assigns a retired expert FBI , deep-woods tracker L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones) to chase him . At first L.T. resists the dangerous assignment . Snug in retirement, long time ago L.T. spent in the Special Forces training soldiers to become skilled murderer machines . But when he realizes that these recent slaying is the work of a previous soldier he trained , he feels obligated to pursue him . Accepting the assignment under the condition that he works alone , L.T. enters the woods, unarmed against his implacable friend/enemy . And, even as they go into their ending fighting each other, a no-holds-barred hand-to-hand combat , neither can tell with certainty who is the hunted and who is the hunter . Some men should not be found . In This Game Of Hide And Seek, If You're It... You're Dead. Some men must be found .What happens when the hunter becomes the hunted?
From the beginning to the end the comic-book action-packed and extreme violence is continued and it is fast movement and that's why the picture is quite entertaining . Concerning a strong battle of wits and physical force between two tough protagonists , both of them holed up in the wet and tangled wilderness of Oregon's Silver Falls State Park . The outdoors are frankly spectacular , the landscapes have been filmed in natural parks . Duo starring is pretty good . Benicio del Toro is enormous as the two-fisted and rebel soldier with dark nightmares and Tommy Lee Jones is top-notch as the anterior trainer officer who is plagued by memories of his former pupil and riddled with guilt for not responding him , in fact he's the one man who may be able to stop him , eventually both of whom share a dramatic bond from the past that is unbreakable . Nice support cast is plenty of familar faces such as Connie Nielsen , Leslie Stefanson , John Finn , José Zúñiga , Mark Pellegrino , Ron Canada , Jenna Boyd , Eddie Velez and Rex Lynn of CSI Miami .
It packs a thrilling and stirring musical score by Brian Tyler . Colorful and adequate cinematography by great cameraman Caleb Deschanel , shot on location in Mount Hood , Columbia River , Old Town , Hawthorne Bridge , Ross Island, Silver Falls State Park , Sublimity, Portland, Oregon . It was professionally directed by William Friedkin , the notorious filmmaker of popular films as The Exorcist , French Connection , Live and die in Los Angeles , Cruising , Rampage , Bug , Jade , The guardian , Killer Joe , among others . Rating : Good , entertaining but violent . Although the movie has some aspects a little tough to take and we have already seen in other similar films as First Blood , this intelligent film still has its moving moments . This large-scale and lavishly produced picture attempts a special atmosphere with spectacular results . Two thumbs up. -
emperor_bender9 May 2008Some movies are made just for action, some just for story.
Unfortunately, the Hunted doesn't seem to fit either category.
There is not much depth to the story here, although they try hard to make it seem that way.
Simply: A killing machine is on the loose, so they send the guy who trained him to get him. No side story needed to forward the plot.
Tommy Lee Jones gives a decent performance as L.T. Bonham, the "hunter". Nothing spectacular, but not bad either.
Benicio del Toro gives a good performance as Aarom Hallam, the killing machine who does not give much purpose as to why he IS a killing machine.
Connie Nielsen and Jose Zuniga are OK as FBI agents Durrell and Moret.
There were some great action scenes, and a few interesting moments. I wouldn't call them extraordinary though.
Over all: OK movie. Watch if you have nothing better to do.
5/10 -
berkeleybuzz19 August 2003Jones and Del Toro show why they are amongst the best of their respective generations. Not only with strong acting, but also for the precisely coordinated and physically demanding fight scenes. While it may be hard to believe that Jones can deliver such impressive action at his age, he is more than believable as the type of grizzled ass-kicker who can square up against Del Toro's world-class assassin. The movie's plot is too simple; its basically two men hunting each other. Still, legendary director William Friedkin delivers a sharp well-paced 90 minute chase through the film's third star, the beautiful city of Portland and the magnificent forestry that surrounds it.
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gavin694214 October 2015An FBI deep-woods tracker captures a trained assassin who has made a sport of hunting humans.
With all due respect to director William Friedkin, he has a record that is less than consistent. Back in the 1970s, he blew everyone away with "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection". After that, it has been up and down. I really liked "Bug", but it seemed to go largely under the radar.
This one is less than perfect. It starts off okay, and the concept is good, but as it goes on, the acting seems to get worse and worse. How does that happen? Even Benicio del Toro, who is a pretty decent actor, just sort of falls apart. That makes me a sad panda. -
bob_bear13 May 2006For those who don't get the negative comments, I am equally confused by the positive ones, believe me.
Take the "deep and meaningful" subtext about the consequences of training people to kill? Oh, puh-leeze...give me a break!! Replace "deep and meaningful" with "hokey and obvious" and you might just come somewhere close. And all that "Kill me a son..." BS? Ooh, ya, throw in some Scripture, that gives it substance - NOT!
No idea why a talent like Tommy Lee Jones effectively opted for "The Fugitive" mark two. Money must've been good I guess. Otherwise, the pacing is dreadful. One note throughout. He hunts, he finds, he loses, he hunts, he finds, he loses...on and on and...
The death of the secondary lead FBI agents was totally predictable. Like, what was the Chief even doing going down underground??? And like you really would pursue a "killing machine" through unfamiliar and unlit tunnels solo...I don't think.
But it's the way TL tracks the fugitive that is most unconvincing. Fact is, he doesn't. He just turns around and he's "there" more than half the time. Too many coincidences. Too many unexplained sightings.
You'll have plenty of reason to give up the ghost long before Tommy Lee, trust me. -
Wizard-820 September 2003The movie is pretty well-produced overall, though there are a couple of glaring editing goof-ups (the knife being dunked into water, for example.) And the fact that it's clear Jones and Del Toro are doing much of their own stuntwork in the fighting sequences (and other places) is pretty impressive.
However, there is really nothing of substance here that will make you remember the movie long after you've seen it. While the action gets bloody at times, the actual struggling around is only okay at best. The Jones and Del Toro characters are thin, with little background revealed about them, and they don't have that much dialogue. There are some interesting themes that start to peek out, but they are simply not expanded on. (Like: Why didn't Jones' character answer those letters he got? You have to hear the explanation from director Friedkin on one of the DVD documentaries!) Ultimately, the movie becomes a simple-minded action movie, of the mentality of many direct-to-video movies.
A P.S. to Hollywood filmmakers: If it is heavily snowing in British Columbia, it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that at the same time it would be sunny and warm in Oregon! The weather patterns in both places are more or less the same! -
billion_mucks1 November 2007"The hunted" is an accelerated version of the mythical cat and the mice chase. Given in between some theme taming by the captious master William Friedkin, the script sticks in squirming the hunting minds and souls of two alike yet different snoopers dedicate to hunt: one hunts phsycologically and the other likes to hunt...well, humans.
The woods glow, the snow falls quiet and welcoming. The city envelops a new layer in the middle part of the movie for the characters to run more, to fasten their rates and hide and run again.
Tomy Lee Jones is a gazing panther, sleek and aware making treats with the Wind. Some supporting, efficient actors and a great camera work profit the respiratory rate of the main organ of this movie: action. See it expecting not for a masterpiece; a nice time. It is hard to know the impact it will create on someone; you have to study their personalities to see if they will be attracted by this daring chase. P.D-You have to prepare your chills thus the knifes cut and slash effectively and the two characters shed some blood -
Leofwine_draca9 October 2014I personally believe that 2004's THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, directed by Paul Greengrass, changed the look of action thrillers forever. Gone was the clean, sometimes lethargic of Hollywood thrillers of old, to be replaced by fast editing, shaky cam action and gung-ho story lines. THE HUNTED is one of the last of the old-school fugitive thrillers and inevitably it pales in comparison to BOURNE, although somewhat ironically the music rips off the original BOURNE IDENTITY at one point.
The film itself is pretty much a re-run of THE FUGITIVE and US MARSHALLS, thus completing an unofficial Tommy Lee Jones trilogy of such thrillers. It's got a noticeably harder edge than those movies though, particularly when it comes to the hard-hitting action; there's an eye-popping knife fight in this one which beats anything I can remember in a 1990s Hollywood fight scene in terms of realism and brutality, outside of a Seagal film of course.
Unfortunately THE HUNTED has two things working against it, and surprisingly one of those things is William Friedkin. For the guy who brought us THE FRENCH CONNECTION, this is Friedkin off the boil; the direction is stodgy and somehow lacking, leaving the viewer coldly distanced from the action. The second problem is with the script, which never fleshes out the antagonist and never explores the back story properly, which is really annoying. You've never quite sure whether Del Toro's the bad guy or not, and the viewer is left feeling wrongfooted as a result. It's just unsatisfying.
There are also some rather silly goofs along the way, including a scene where a guy somehow builds an extensive trap in about five minutes, and also gets the ability to superheat metal on a wood fire. Del Toro and Jones are on strong form here, but the rest of the cast is weak, particularly the actresses involved. But the action is plentiful and well-shot and you could do a lot worse, so this is middle of the road rather than bad. -
willhaskew17 January 2015A soldier (Benicio del Toro) with PTSD takes to the Portland, Oregon woods in Rambo-like fashion. He's paranoid and kills a couple of businessmen from nearby Medford who were weekend deer hunters. The soldier believed the men were CIA spooks sent to find him. The film reveals that he's a Special Forces operator named Aaron Hallam who is AWOL. Hallam is shown to be haunted by his service during the Kosovo War, where he assassinated high priority targets with his hand-forged combat knife. The knife and others like it were forged by Hallam and the others he trained with and is a weapon of significance in the film. An FBI-led manhunt manhunt begins with Special Agent Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen), who's assisted by L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones). Bonham was a civilian survival and combatives expert who instructed Hallam during his advanced training. Bonham is a recluse but the FBI bring him into the investigation as a consultant. He's able to identify the specific type of knife and footwear, a moccasin with no tread, used by the killer. It turns out Hallam felt a paternal connection to Bonham that the latter didn't reciprocate. Bonham reveals during a conversation with Durrell that he was never in the armed forces because his father, an Army colonel, had kept him from enlisting after his older brother was killed in Vietnam. His father was also an outdoorsman and survivalist who taught Bonham everything he knew. Hallam becomes more violent and dangerous as the manhunt for him tightens and increases in size. Bonham and Hallam are forced to confront each other in a strange almost kung fu movie style student-mentor battle. There are a few problems I had with this movie. Why would a Special Forces soldier have a hand-forged knife as his only weapon? If the FBI and police had arrested an armed and dangerous fugitive with specialized military training wouldn't he be in a maximum security lock up? A civilian would probably not be allowed to interrogate him either. Oh, well. The Oregon wilderness of Silver Falls State Park where the wilderness scenes were shot is magnificently beautiful. The combat is intense and well-choreographed. It was base on the Filipino martial art of Kali. Kali relies on close-quarters grappling, striking, stick and of course knife fighting. It resembles the close combat style featured in the Bourne films with Matt Damon.
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MarkCrozier4 June 2009Even though this is a subject very close to my heart and made by one of my favourite directors I cannot rave about this movie. The problem is that a lot of it just doesn't add up.
The subject matter of a special forces operator going off the reservation is very complex but Friedkin turns it into a chase movie. You therefore don't get any real insight into the mind of Hallam and why he has gone loco. You also don't understand why his attempts to contact LT were rejected. Was LT also a burn-out? Its not properly explored.
The character LT is also half done. Having read Tom Brown Jr's work I know how superficially they treated the subject of man tracking. They could have really made a meal of this, given the complexity of the subject but it is only given a cursory treatment.
A couple of things just didn't work for me:
The business about making a knife on the run is a nice little plot device but complete hokum of course. The scene with the wolf also stretched belief a bit. I'm sure a wounded wild animal would be a LOT more difficult to handle.
Where the movie DOES work is in the use of locations, which are fantastic, particularly the wilderness areas, and the actual fight sequences, which are very realistic and nicely done. The movie looks fantastic throughout and the two leads are excellent. The chase sequence through the city was well handled too, although one wouldn't expect much less from Friedkin.
What a wasted opportunity, given the fascinating subject and caliber of the director and two lead actors. If you want to see Friedkin do this type of story properly, I highly recommend To Live and Die in LA. -
evs66623 February 2004When you see a movie with Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones on the front, you expect a half decent movie. To be honest, I'm shocked Benicio agreed to such a half assed project.
The plot is thin at best, and gets thinner throughout the movie. There's no real explanation given for the characters actions. Relationships between characters are non existant, and it's hard to see why they bothered casting anyone but Jones and Del Toro since all the other characters are without direction or purpose.
In the end we come to a predictable outcome and with very little idea why any of this happened.
********Minor Spoilers************
"guy goes to war. guy sees bad stuff. guy wakes up in middle of night. guy starts killing randomly" is not adequate explanation. the movie required a lot more detail surrounding del toros descent into madness. flashbacks of things that happened between the time of him returning and the killings in the woods would have helped, or some more development on his dreams. -
morgansimpson-54-39128630 June 2021This movie contains some of the best motivated and choreographed knife fights. The narrative is a mixed bag but is anchored by solid performances and good visual direction.
It's not a great movie in its entirety but for the best parts I give it a seven and a recommendation to watch. -
wlpeak15 March 2003True to his action thriller credentials even when Friedkin flops it's more a train wreck than a dud.
Poor acting from great actors, terrible plotting & scene transitions, an inevitable car chase more an embarrassment to the genre than an homage to his former mastery, what else... well let's start from the beginning.
Supposedly set in a Kosovo village, we open with a scene, for all it's over-done pyrotechnics, more reminiscent of an oil refinery disaster than ethnic cleansing massacre, proving that Friedkin has no immunity to the plague of CGI overkill. The Serbians evil-doers are so poorly directed, that they fail to take even the simplest of precautions during explosions and bombings preferring instead it seems to just keep maniacally slaying the odd clump of villagers made up mothers and clean, cute, little girls, shot in multiple close-up vignettes lest we idiots in the back row fail to notice the pathos.
Del Toro's Hallem is somehow, not shown, pushed over the edge by this, or something. Anyway, we end up years later in a forest where he goes after some hunters with a knife displaying ghost-like skill missing later in the movie. The hunters seem to know that they are to be hunted and react to hearing a disembodied voice in the woods by turning their guns in his direction. Or maybe they were just really paranoid? I dunno. So they die and in comes Jones' Bonham, a back woods tracker who happens to also be Hallem's old combat/survival trainer from long ago. Okie dokie. Of course the FBI have to defer to Bonham and let him 'track' Hallem all over the woods and through Portland as well giving us the framework of the flick.
Jone's looks old and tired in this movie and I never once believed he was up to the numerous combats he has with Del Torro, but he also delivers his lines in a clipped unconvincing fashion. Speaking of bad acting, Del Torro seems to put little thought into his delivery or character. What to make of these two fine actors slumming through this movie?
The knife fighting was fun and mainly well done and the forest scenery was pretty, but we would have done just as well with Stallone and Richard Crenna reprising their original roles, and sadly, Kotcheff too. -
jdring20071 August 2021As a big fan of both Benecio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones, I might be slightly biased, but that's only because I really enjoy seeing them act. That said, there are in fact movies with BDT in them that I don't care for, and the same goes for TLJ, so obviously there's more to it than that here. To me, this movie pays homage to, or at least was clearly inspired by, the first Predator movie and in ways also US Marshals which starred TLJ in a similar role. But what I really loved about The Hunted was the polarity of the characters; the coldness of Del Toro, with a pinch of humanity at the beginning, and the civility of Jones, while being detached from the world and conscious of his deeds. Action wise the movie is a little scarce, though the war-like prologue wasn't without it, just a different kind of violence. The climax was satisfying, albeit a little drawn out even for my taste; it was the cat and mouse second act that kept me going.
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adamdustin66 June 2019The Hunted is a basic formula movie and if starring someone other than Tommy Lee Jones and directed by someone other than William Friedkin, this film could've fallen into direct to Netflix Steven Seagal territory. However, Friedkin brings a brutality to the fight scenes that adds depth to the human trait brought by Tommy Lee Jones. The PTSD story could have been a lot smarter and elevated the film overall, but if you like detective vs killer movies, this film has that element, with two excellent fight sequences. A fun way to blow a couple hours.
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Ality14 March 2003Its pretty sad when after the first half hour, you're already thinking "how are they going to kill the next forty minutes?"
The entire plot...lock, stock and barrel, is played, replayed, and replayed over and over with just enough variation to make you wish that they had done it once well instead of half assed many times. Nut job escapes into wilderness, gets chased, gets caught, does it again. Lather rinse repeat.
Just for additional torture, we get all sorts of missed opportunities that could have made this movie bearable.but instead wind up as clichés that feel like they're only there JUST IN CASE we might wind up with some sympathy for Benicio Del Toro. He's a war hero that can't take it anymore; he dupes a woman into taking him in and lying for him; he views his trainer as the father he never had; he marks passages in the Bible. All these things that could have developed into something interesting are left flapping almost as if they're only there because no whacked out guy in the woods movie should be without them.
Why did this man join the military? How did he get into Special Forces? What was his relationship with L.T? What was his relationship with this woman like? What about the kid.is it his? Sadly, we'll never know but it sure does provide a nice distraction to think about when he evades capture..for the third time.
The fight scenes, while especially bloody and personal, are something of a disappointment. Granted, they're probably more realistic this way, but they pretty much boil down to two middle aged men slapping each other and rolling around in the dirt. You WANT it to be exciting, but it just doesn't deliver. Same goes for the cat and mouse escape and evade scenes. You want them to be suspenseful, but a camera cutting away, returning to the same spot and, *SURPRISE!* he's not there anymore!, just isn't edge of your seat material.
In one of the most predictable moments in the film, L.T. reads a letter addressed to him from our nutty soldier saying that the people after him are robots.
If only it were true..