The Hunter's Prayer

It is his film. Scene by scene. Cliche by cliche. An action film like many others, mixing the vulnerable girl, hunted by bad guy for a sin of her father, a lonely sentimental killer protecting her, fights, violence, drugs. The worse part is the dialogue. The best - the effort to be more than a simplistic action-thriller, with not so bad end. A film about honor and fatherhood who escapes to the temptation to be a simple sketch but proposing few scenes of old fashion . With a decent result.

We've seen similar themes many times over in movies through the years. Here Sam Worthington portrays Lucas, a hired assassin and drug addict who can't bring himself to kill his next assignment, who's the 16-year-old Ella, played by Odeya Rush. Of course, this makes the man who hired Lucas (Allen Leech) very unhappy and so Lucas and Ella must try and escape through Europe from those killers who want to eliminate them.

There's plenty of wooden dialogue and formulaic plot elements here. However on the positive side I was interested enough in the film to want to see how it would all turn out, and it does present its viewers with quite the poignant ending.

Overall, nothing really new here for this genre, but the pacing kept me engaged throughout.

I stumbled across this movie while exploring Sam Worthington's filmography after seeing another one of his movies. Overall I really enjoyed it because I really enjoy anti-hero characters (Mike Sullivan in "Road to Perdition", for example). It adds to the complexity of the situation and the human condition. "Bad guy turned (almost) good guy" sort of thing is always interesting, as are stories about guys doing bad things for good reasons.

That said, I think this movie should've been flushed out a little more. I wanted more backstory. I didn't feel like we got enough information about the characters themselves. This is a good movie to watch on a lazy day if you're craving some good action, but not too much else. I liked it and will watch it again, most likely, because I'm easy to please and I really like Worthington, who was GREAT in it. I just wanted more!

'THE HUNTER'S PRAYER': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

The new action thriller starring Sam Worthington as a hit-man who ends up helping the young woman that he was supposed to kill. It was directed by Jonathan Mostow (who's also helmed such other hit action flicks as 'U571', 'BREAKDOWN', 'TERMINATOR 3' and 'SURROGATES'), and it was written by Paul Leyden and Oren Moverman (the duo also co-wrote 'SURROGATES', 'TERMINATOR 3' and 'TERMINATOR SALVATION', also starring Worthington). The script is based on the 2004 novel 'For the Dogs', by Kevin Wignall. It costars Odeya Rush, Allen Leech and Amy Landecker. The film has received mixed (to negative) reviews from critics, and it was also only released on VOD and in limited indie theaters at the Box Office. I found it to be pretty entertaining.

Lucas (Worthington) is a loner assassin with a serious drug addiction problem. He's hired to kill a young woman, named Ella (Rush), but when he needs to pull the trigger, he can't do it. Instead Lucas ends up reluctantly helping the girl, by defending her from the very same people that hired him to kill her. By doing so, he also makes himself a target of his former employers. When Ella realizes her parents were killed by Lucas's former employer, Richard Addison (Leech), she attempts to hire Lucas to kill Addison for revenge.

I'd say the film is similar in quality to Mostow's other movies, I really like 'TERMINATOR 3' though. It's a fun action film for the most part, nothing too memorable (or special), but it is entertaining. I think Worthington makes an awesome action hero too, and I'd really like to see him make more movies like this. I can't overly recommend it, but it is a decent action flick.

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This film tells the story of an assassin who is hired by a rich tycoon to kill a teenage girl studying in the Switzerland. He finds himself unable to kill the girl, and they both become targets for assassination. They have to do everything in order to survive.

"The Hunter's Prayer" has a thrilling story, and more importantly a story that makes you care about what happens to the characters. The teenage girl gets into a perilous situation, and I really feel for her for not knowing who to trust. The assassin, on the other hand, is also sympathetic. He is a hybrid of a villain and a hero, making him likable. I find this film enjoyable.