L'homme coyote

SHADOWHUNTER looks like a terrible movie since back in 1993 it never went to theaters but straight to TV and it has a score of 4,6. Up until I saw it last December I was afraid I would have hated it but instead I kinda liked it for what it was tho I had to wait for the second half, not that it's a bad thing nor that it didn't happened before.

John Cain (Scott Glenn) is a burned out city cop that in the beginning is seen bickering with his chief because of a case gone wrong but soon the chief gives Cain another assignment: to bring to town a fugitive Navajo Indian named Nakai Twobear (Benjamin Bratt) for trying and send him in jail. Cain goes in the reservation with guide Ray Whitesinger and after lots of walking (where you have also the chance of seeing the great outdoors where civilized men aren't allowed) he finally meets Nakai but soon the task becomes like a trip to hell where Cain is engulfed in the world of Navajo witchcraft up until the big confrontation on a steep slope where Cain manages to kill Nakai making him fall to his death and free Ray who was tied and kept as an hostage.

The acting by Glenn was good as usual, Angela Alvarado was a decent sidekick without being annoying and Bratt surprised me since he almost always plays nice looking guys and here he plays a terrifying character. The settings were great both at daytime and at night-time, and also the soundtrack by Robert Folk (who two years later would also do it for ACE VENTURA WHEN NATURE CALLS) gave a lot to the chilling factor... you have to see the last part for believing it! Not life-changing but still recommendable.

By the way, if you can find this film anywhere other than the #M channel on the website M4HD Movies 4 U, please see it that way instead. This channel places blocks of five minute breaks throughout the film spaced every ten minutes or so, and I have never seen a movie interrupted by so many breaks in my life, not even on TV. If I wasn't trying to see all of Scott Glenn's movies and couldn't find it elsewhere I would have just given up on the film. I really hope that this channel goes out of business and soon, as seeing a movie this way is some sort of torture that probably would be allowed only by the Geneva convention for torturing prisoners. To make it worse, it made me last this 3 hours and a half while it lasts only 1 hour and 34 minutes!!

Good cast. Very well acted. GREAT scenery. And although my knowledge of such things is a bit limited, the Navajo beliefs were portrayed accurately. What's not to like?

Here you have a big city homicide cop whose life is in a shambles and whose wife is leaving him. He wants to quit, but his boss sends him on a "simple" prisoner retrieval.

Turns out the prisoner is a shape-shifter, escapes from the big city cop (Scott Glenn), and the ensuing search for the prisoner (Benjamin Bratt) brings the lead tracker (Angela Alverado) and cop together for an interesting and tense adventure.

Some of the dialog in the ending scenes was a bit cliché and tedious, but it did not detract from the overall enjoyment I had of the movie.

I liked it well enough, I may watch it a 2nd time in the future.

jonesey65244

IMDb's current rating of 4.7 is unjust: the film isn't perfect, but it is way better than that score suggests.

Scott Glenn stars as burnt out L. A. homicide cop John Cain, who escapes the rigours of his professional and personal life by travelling to a Navajo reservation in Arizona in order to transport a Native American killer, Nakai Twobear, back to the city. However, Twobear possesses supernatural powers that enable him to escape, and so Cain joins a posse to track down the fugitive and bring him to justice.

I'm not the biggest fan of the 'Magical Native American' trope wherein Native Americans are depicted as mystical, possessing of magical abilities, with the stupid white man refusing to believe - it's a tired cliché - but Shadowhunter manages to makes it work better than most thanks to tense direction from J. S. Cardone and solid turns from all involved, the cast including Robert Beltran (Star Trek: Voyager) as Navajo cop Frank Totsoni, Angela Alvarado as sexy tracker Ray Whitesinger, and Benjamin Bratt as the despicable Twobear, who is genuinely terrifying. The desert scenery is also great, with a suitably creepy setting for the finalé: a ruined Native American settlement high in the rocky hills, crawling with rattlers and scorpions.

The romance between Cain and Ray is a little unlikely (Glenn being Alvarado's senior by 25 years), and Cain taking a severe beating in the film's climax, but still pulling through, seems a little far-fetched, but the film is well written, competently directed and exciting enough for me to be forgiving of such things.

John Cain (Scott Glenn) is a homicide detective passing through personal problems. His wife has just left him, after nine years of marriage. His chief is aware of the problem, and asks him to bring a serial killer, Nakai Twobear (Benjamin Bratt), arrested in an Indian reservation. While driving back to the city with the prisoner, Cain hits the car and the murderer escapes. Cain joins Ray Whitesinger (Angela Alvarado) and other Indian policemen in the chase of the criminal, who has some sort of psychic powers. Weird things happen with Cain, whose soul was possessed by Twobear. In the end, Cain finds again the meaning of life with Ray. This movie has a good mystic story, well constructed, having action, romance and mysticism. I am a fan of Scott Glenn, but he really has a good performance, as a tormented man in a hard time. The slow pace is the unique problem in this good film. It is not a masterpiece, but also it does not deserve such a low rating. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): `A Presa' (`The Catch')

"Shadowhunter" is not perfect, but it is different. Scott Glenn in his usual sleepy performance mode, is the Los Angeles detective assigned to bring back a Navaho killer from the Arizona reservation. When the "Coyote Man" fugitive escapes from Glenn, a desert pursuit commences. Benjamin Bratt is strong as the rarely seen villain. Robert Beltran, the reservation sheriff, is along for the ride, and Angela Alvarado is the love interest female tracker. The scenery is gorgeous, the mystical aspects are interesting, and our hero takes some real punishment. My only objection is that the rather shallow romantic scenes between Glenn and Alvarado, are nothing but a damn distraction. - MERK