The Return of Hunter

Rick Hunter looks really old now. He is engaged to Vicki, who is played by Beth Toussant. She is 16 years younger than Fred Dryer in real life, but she looks even younger than that. She has a son by her ex-husband, played by Barry Bostwick. Barry Bostwick as the abusive ex-husband comes across as a jerk in every scene. Unfortunately, Dryer never beats him up.

About twenty minutes of the first 45 are spent with Dryer taking his girlfriend out on dates, and playing with her kid. Really boring stuff. When Dryer and the kid (around 14 years old) are together, it is sad. He easily looks like the kid's grandfather, and he is old enough to be the kid's grandfather.

A couple of murders occur, and the first 43 minutes of this movie is basically about the media coverage and the police dealing with the media. It is insanely boring. Wendy Malick provides some relief from the boredom as a TV news journalist who is a friend of Rick Hunter.

At about minute 43, Rick Hunter finally starts doing some detective work, and almost immediately he hears from the killer. The killer is a very predictable actor who usually plays a jerk in every role he I have seen him on. There is not much to guess when the killer is constantly talking to reporters, shows up at a funeral, and is constantly communicating with the media.

So without any mystery, the movie just plods along to the predictable conclusion. I had hoped the movie would follow the action formula of the Hunter TV series. Too much time was spent on the girlfriend and her kid, and on the villain's persona. It would have been better if Hunter was let loose to crack heads and the villain had been kept a mystery.