The Hunted | | Cast : | Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Connie Nielsen | | Director : | William Friedkin | | Studio : | Paramount Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | March 14, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | December 29, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 18, 2005 | | Summary | God said to Abraham "Kill me a son" | Content
 | The wind is in the thorn tree.
Yep, there is nothing exceptional to this Rambo formula remake. They use all the same cliché they probably recycles some of the old Rambo blood and bullets.
Now you ask "why we should watch the Rambo rehash?" Well I'll tell you. Because instead of Richard Crenna, you get Tommy Lee Jones and most of his facial expressions; when they are not being hidden behind blood and hair. And instead of Sylvester Stallone, who was very good in "Oscar", you get Benicio Del Toro who can look more like a man betrayed than an old boxer.
The story is as old as the hills. L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones) is called out of retirement to track down a mysterious person or persons unknown that killed some hunters. The person turns out to be a soldier Aaron Hallman (Benicio Del Toro) that he trained to kill. Through a series of mishaps Aaron gets loosed and the inept authorities must compete with L.T. for the retrieval or destruction. However L.T. knows he is to only one to do it.
So does Aaron get away so he can kill again?
Does L.T. make his first kill or is he really a pusssy-cat?
Do the inept authorities realize their limits before it is too late?
Do we come away with any new insights?
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| Rating | | | Date | June 04, 2005 | | Summary | Not terrible, good action flick | Content
| I have been on an action kick lately and I cant get enough of them...came across this little piece of work while at work at the local video store...
All other reviews have pretty much nailed this one on the head. Lots of action, but some of the acting is kinda lame. Be prepared to watch lots of blood flow in this one!! With the material that both actors had to work with, I think that this was a good attempt on all accounts!
Christopher Berry |
| Rating | | | Date | March 01, 2005 | | Summary | Two Acting Powerhouses! | Content
| I love it when two of my favorite actors are in a movie together. When one's off screen, you have the other to keep you entertained. And when they're on screen together, it's movie-making at its best. The plot itself leaves a bit to be desired. The film's production was stop-and-go for so long, I heard that the director changed direction before it was finished. My guess is that some of what was lost was what was missing from the movie, particularly in regards to understanding Benicio's character properly. Nonetheless, Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro shine throughout.
P.S. Being an animal lover, I love that two leads in a movie are pro-animal too. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 28, 2005 | | Summary | Rambo Revisited. | Content
| I don't mind that the idea of this movie was pretty much taken from Rambo, however, it would have been nice if the idea was improved upon. In some ways it was but not enough to give this movie any real depth or realism.
What I REALLY liked about this movie is its use of Johnny Cash's music. At the very beginning and at the very end we are presented with songs by Cash that I was previously unaware of. The idea to use these particular songs for this movie was a great choice and gives us an excellent prelude and conclusion to the theme of the movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 25, 2005 | | Summary | Bloody horrible. | Content
| The Hunted (William Friedkin, 2003)
You're never sure what you're going to get with William Friedkin. You could get Cruising, or The Exorcist, or his remake of 12 Angry Men. Or, you could end up with Jade, The Guardian, or The Hunted. Yes, The Hunted definitely gets tossed on the pile of "films William Friedkin will disown later in life." If anyone else involved with the movie wants to be remembered fondly by the masses, they, too, will disown it.
It's painful to watch Hollywood in action sometimes. The trailers for The Hunted made it seem like ninety minutes of Tommy Lee Jones chasing Benicio del Toro through the woods. That might well have made for a good movie. Instead, we get about five minutes of Tommy Lee Jones chasing Benicio del Toro through the woods, a bunch of minutes of him chasing Benicio del Toro through other places, and a whole lot of backstory, subplot, and exposition that is entirely unnecessary to the film.
The basic plot (what the film should have been in its entirety) is that Aaron Hallam (del Toro), a very nasty government military type, has gone renegade after losing his mind during an assignment. He has become paranoid, and believes the government is now hunting him. (Whether he is correct is never truly exposed, one of the few plot elements where the film does refuse to capitulate to "we need this in a Hollywood movie.") The government brings in L. T. Bonham (Jones), a tracker for the Canadian forestry service who used to work for the government training people to become very nasty government military types. You can see where this is going.
Obviously, you've got a rehash of David Morrell's fine novel (and, with the exception of the final five minutes, Ted Kocheff's equally fine film) First Blood, with del Toro as John Rambo and Jones as Col. Trautman. The trailers made this look like a different, and intriguing, take on the same material, with nothing but the two main characters hunting one another through the woods. But Hollywood doesn't like to do two-character movies, despite the breathtaking success of some memorable examples of the subgenre in the past (Closetland and My Dinner with Andre being the obvious examples). So somehow, somewhere, someone decided that Aaron Hallam needed a makeshift family, there needed to be a whole bunch of FBI agents, etc., and the movie ends up being more about the other stuff than about Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro chasing each other through the woods. Worse, when the obviouis showdown finally does occur, any semblance of realism the movie might have had goes flying out the window; it's the Grizzly Adams version of the scene where neither six-shooter ever runs out of bullets. Thoroughly stupid, and the movie gets knocked down half a point solely for its last ten minutes.
There are many, many better films in William Friedkin's oeuvre. Do yourself a favor and watch those instead. * ½ |
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