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BDT 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.

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.

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.

This 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.

How 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.

This 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.

The 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.

The 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.

***/****

Here 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.

Some 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

As 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.

The 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!

"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

I sincerely the hope the average user rating goes up on this. This isn't an oscar caliber film by any means(although the leading actors and the director have Oscars under their belts) , but this is an entertaining action film and lives up to those standards.

This movie could have been great if only the story was a little tighter. It is highly entertaining and the hunt scenes areawesome, but the story brings it down just a bit. Del Toro is incredible as always and so is Jones. William Friedkins direction is on and the way he handles the action is great. Nonetheless, check it out.

Oh, and even though it has elements similiar to FIRST BLOOD, it is not a rip off.

This has all the pedigree to be a true classic movie. Both Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Torro are both brilliant in the action sequences, plus at the helm one of the very best chase, sequence directors William Friedkin. Stating this the whole project is missing something quite fundamental and quite possible the thrilling action sequences, take up a large proportion of the screen time; to (possibly) the detriment of such crucial aspects, such as character development. The balance just seems a bit out of kilter and comes across simply as an imitation of 'Rambo First Blood'.

True 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.

Jones 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.

This movie went places that most can't. My colleagues have compared "The Hunted" to "The Fugitive" and "Rambo". I would like to show these to be false comparisons.

Simply put, "The Fugitive" is about a man who does not want to be caught. "The Hunted" is a movie about a man who is dying to be caught so that he can be killed.

"Rambo" is about an army Sergeant who possesses superior vision and morality over his superiors, and is able to rescue prisoners of war. It is also about Sly showing off his big muscles and firing large weapons. "The Hunted" contains very little actual gunfire, in fact, it uses firearms symbolically to represent the fallen nature of human morality.

Tommy Lee Jones cannot be compared with Sly for a number of reasons. He keeps his shirt on, he does not physically attack his superiors (if he has any) at the end of the film as Rambo does, and he has a distaste for violence, even against his enemies.

Neither can Del Toro be compared with the Colonel. The Colonel is almost a flat character, and a prisoner of war waiting to be saved. Del Toro is an insane killer of urban businessmen.

After reading the criticisms of this film, I expected to hate it - but I couldn't. It was refreshing to see a movie fight that did not constantly change camera angles, and did not use fighting techniques that would mean certain failure if ever really used. The action in this movie, especially the final knife fight, is not only viscous and unrelenting, but also highly emotional and symbolic of the greater thematic conflicts in the film.

William Friedkin didn't make that many great movies after all. The Exorcist, The French Connection. I haven't seen his 60s movies but Sorcerer was just the bold but vain remake of a masterpiece.

It seems his earlier successes did hamper his talent or maybe he was an arrogant a-hole from the beginning. Watching his video interview of Fritz Lang, I was baffled by the way he demanded answers from the old man. OK Truffaut was a little too deferent and was also trying to capture some of the spotlight from Hitchcock, but he showed respect.

Now, without over-analyzing the director's profile, The Hunted is just a lifeless movie. Martial characters without emotions, without inner motivation, almost beasts running, hiding and fighting for the entire movie. In the meantime the settings change just to make believe something different happens, but it's just a bland meaningless hunt mingling characters we never care for.

What a waste of time, energy, etc.