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I have watched the LOTR films, and read The Hobbit. I have not even read the LOTR books, although I do have them in a pile of waiting to be read books...I read quite a bit, but...eh to be honest I never got into LOTR. I'm sorry. I like the fantasy genre, I like the story, I've read so many series within this type of genre. But I've just never gotten deep into LOTR. I will say I did enjoy the movie series and the original book that started it all.

Why do I say this? Because I want people to know I'm not just some die-hard fan of the genre period. I don't really follow it except as a media thing.

My point? This short movie was damned impressive. I hear it was done on a shoe-string budget by honest fans of the film, and damn it...this thing looks legit. This is seriously talent being played out here. I enjoyed the camera work, I enjoyed the acting, I enjoyed the scenery, the story, the casting...well I couldn't find something wrong with it.

Look at my past reviews and comments on movies. I am not an avid reviewer or commenter on this genre...and lets be honest, a lot of my reviews plain out suck. But I caught this short, and I was impressed. I honestly would not mind seeing fans like this be allowed to write and direct an entire shot-by-shot series, or movie franchise. They just flat out did it well.

I give this two-thumbs up, if you are a fan of LOTR, then this is a must see. If you're like me, just a casual fan...this is still a super fun thing to watch.

Like I've said...I'm impressed. I've seen so many indie films that have been such garbage, with much larger budgets than this. This is just properly done.

Nuff sed.

This is a wonderful fan-made film that really surprised me. A friend recommended me to view this one - glad I did.

Well acted, beautiful costumes and set designs, good directing and the CGI Gollum was impressive. The script is a little bland, needs a little bit more spice, but the action makes up for it. Overall it's worth watching if you enjoy Tolkien and fan inspired film-works.

8/10

It sure is one hell of a job done. In fact it would be ten if only the fighting was better. I know I am sorry. It WAS amazing. Great editing helped a lot, but man... I hate when the duelists keep pushing blades against each other. It has nothing to do with fencing. Really. I don't really expected class-A sword fighting, but I did expected just a little more.

Othherwise, I can not find a single reason why this should not be a vital movie wort seeing. I had a lot of fun watching it. Loved the atmosphere and the feeling. Sort of a sleepy and dreamy feeling(there is a word for it in my language and I am sure, that there is something I might be satisfied with out there in English), that is so typical for Tolkien. For me at least.

Thumbs up.

A team of Tolkein fans, with an estimated budget of $3,000, have produced their own addition to Peter Jackson's film series. For such a small budget, it's impressive how close they come at times to reproducing Jackson's big-budget style.

The movie takes its inspiration from one of the many appendices to the original novel, events that are hinted at in the first movie. The wizard Gandalf goes to Aragorn with a crucial mission: find Gollum, who knows the location of the One Ring, before Sauron's forces do. Success will allow for more time to plan, failure will result in a forced hand for our heroes, requiring that the ring be moved, with Frodo and the others put in imminent peril. Those who have seen Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring will know how this movie ends, but then that manages to add some more tense elements to the story.

If you had some favorite technical element from the movie trilogy, writer/director/producer Chris Bouchard has likely re-created it here on a fraction of the budget. No less than a half- dozen cinematographers were used to evoke the atmosphere and rich, somber colors that helped distinguish the first movie. The score by Adam Langston and Andrew Skrabutenas is less conspicuous and "epic" than the Oscar-winning strings of Howard Shore, but that's perhaps fitting for this small, more personal movie. Gollum is envisioned with creativity, the filmmakers confining him to a burlap sack for most of the movie, yet whoever plays him in the sack, combined with Gareth's Borough's keen impression of Andy Serkis, are a worthy low-budget substitute for Jackson's extensive motion-capture. The appearance of a full-CGI Gollum addressing the camera at the very end was sufficient payoff for me.

The acting styles of Adrian Webster and Patrick O'Connor as Aragorn and Gandalf are both quite interesting, surely both were cast in part for their resemblances to Viggo Mortensen and Ian McKellen respectively. Still, seeing them in their roles on the big screen is not a great stretch of the imagination.

Fight choreography was one of the movie's strongest points, Bouchard has a very good eye not only for cat-and-mouse suspense, but complex sword fights. Too often with fan films, (or action/fantasy in general), fight scenes are handled poorly, leading to audience boredom. Far from it here, where the action drew me in a surprising amount.

Bouchard and company have created something most impressive, and with a running time of 40 minutes and a price tag of $0, there's really no excuse to not see it. I can only hope that the people behind this movie will have their hard work here recognized, and maybe next time they'll make a movie they can actually profit from. This is likely the best fan film I've seen since Grayson in 2004.

I am in awe. "The Hunt for Gollum," made by Lord of the Rings fans for £3000, is a resounding success! It is adapted from material gleaned from the appendices of the world-renowned trilogy, and it covers a short period of time between "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" in which Aragorn searches for Gollum before Sauron's forces can find him.

At 38 minutes, this moody piece is short enough for non-fans to commit to, yet long enough to really linger in your memory. All areas of the film succeed. The cinematography is bleak and beautiful, exquisitely capturing the Middle Earth that we have come to know and love. The costumes are appropriate and elegant. The special effects are convincing, as is even the digital effects work, despite the limited budget. The fight scenes, while not on the level of the trilogy (that would be nigh impossible), are still better than most fight scenes in normal movies. And even the acting, which is often the scourge of all amateur productions, works wonderfully.

Tolkien himself would be proud. This may seem like hyperbole, but I'm being serious. Tolkien always longed to create the great English mythology that his country never got, and with Middle Earth, he did. But the greatest part of a mythology is that others carry it on. Kudos to everyone on this production for doing just that.

This is a great film. Not just for being an amateur production, but for being a film in general. Nobody can match Peter Jackson, but next to some of the tripe that finds wide release in this country, "The Hunt for Gollum" is magnificent. I hope to see everyone involved with this production (and I mean everyone) break out into the film industry in a big way.

Go to the film's official website and watch it now. Being fanmade, you get to see it for free. And it'll only take 40 minutes of your time. Worth it? Definitely!

I was truly surprised and very happy to realise that this film was actually very good!

Expecting a well meaning but very flawed fan piece, I have to say my presumptions proved to be nonsense. The hunt for Gollum is a masterpiece in what can be done with talent and determination, regardless of money. It looks good, sounds good, is well written and even has a great fight scene with an Ork war-band.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TEAM BEHIND THIS! Excellent job, thanks a lot for all your hard work!

BTW. for anyone who doesn't know, you can watch it on the official website in HD for free: http://thehuntforgollum.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html

Considering this was done on 1/100,000th of any other films catering budget, it is good to look at but there are a few grating mistakes in dialogue that irked me, costing it a star. When Aragorn meets Arithir, he claims to have heard the name Strider and that he's a "Ranger of Arnor". EEERRPP! Want to try for Double Jeopardy? Aragorn is, by birth, Aragorn II, Chieftain of the Dunedain of the North - meaning the Rangers. Arithir should have known him instantly. All the Rangers know him. Another mistakes, Arithir says he has to return to "My people." His people are Aragorn's people, the Dunedain of the North (and, once he's King of Gondor and Arnor reunited - something Jackson left out of the movies), he's King of the Southern Dunedain as well. For me, having been reading Tolkien since 1976, these mistakes are unforgivable. But it is an enjoyable short.

This movie was made for $3,000 and is being offered for FREE! around the internet. Simply it has unbelievable production values for a budget of only three grand.

It tells the brief story of Strider as he treks across Middle Earth to find Gollum and unveil the mysteries behind the ring of power.

Story aside the movie was very professional, cinematography, fight choreography, editing, sound, and the acting all have giant check marks by their side. The whole movie I was thinking, "no way this was made for $3,000, no way." The volunteers who worked on this movie must have worked very hard to get the finished product as polished as it is.

Many technical elements of the film are borrowed from other films (mostly Lord of the Rings but there was also some music borrowed from Clint Mansell's Requiem for a Dream score,) but don't let that turn you away, after all it's for fans, by fans.

An absolute must see for anyone who wants to be entertained, 40 minutes and it's free. Watch the first few minutes or the trailer and you'll be hooked.

Kudos to these guys, lots and lots of kudos. I hope we see more films produced like this.

Most of the time I would avoid something like "The Hunt for Gollum" but, I have to say, this was quite enjoyable and well done. The cinematography is very reminiscent of that found in Jackson's adaptation of the Trilogy. This is both a strength and a weakness; Jackson had a tendency to let a moody shot of some forsaken moor, or a sweeping vista of snow-capped mountains pad-out the running time of his film, and I feel the same thing happens here. On the other hand, with a minuscule budget, and much less experience or support, Frazer, Phillips, Ritchie and Stie manage to create similar shots that are not simply copies.

The problem for me -- and I had the same problem with Jackson's work -- is that these shots don't make-up for the lack characterization. If I hadn't seen the Lord of the Rings, or read it, would I have much idea who Strider is? Gandalf appears without much explanation, although his disappearance is, at least, explained. Things are a bit better with Gollum, although it is hard to relate to a voice from inside a sack. (I appreciate the reasons why this was done, but could it have been handled differently?) I think the actors in this could have handled more characterization -- their efforts are really quite above that found in most student and amateur films.

The voice-over is, simply, a bad idea, because it is such a non-cinematographic solution. If you are *showing* a story, then why assume it is necessary to *tell* the audience what it is seeing? If exposition is necessary (And I usually dispute that it is) then it is better to create a short dialog exchange, rather than the disembodied voice. Now, the creators of this film are merely echoing something that Hollywood has been doing far too much of late but, since this film is early in their careers, in needs to be said. Don't do it again!

I gave this film 7/10 stars, which is what I would rate Jackson's as well. With an amount that probably would not have covered the catering for a week on the Lord of the Rings, they have created a work that is similarly enjoyable and similarly breathtaking. All in all, well done.

I'm sure I will going to get a lot of negative votes from the fans for this comment, but after reading so many glowing reviews I feel I need to tell my truth.

It's true that the visuals of the film are pretty impressive (at times, not all the time) for a no-budget short, and that the makers have made a mighty good attempt at reproducing the atmosphere of Jackson's movies at a tiny fraction of the cost; also, there is a notably well choreographed fight scene of Strider against the orcs; but once you get past all the shiny packaging, it's impossible not to notice that the plot is not just thin, but practically non-existent. There are absolutely no surprises, and in 40 minutes it hardly manages to go beyond its one-line synopsis. All the film seems to do is its own little riff on some of the characters of Jackson's trilogy without adding anything new or meaningful. It certainly serves as a good calling card for the director, but it left me with a feeling of... nothingness.

An extremely well made film by the fans of The Lord of the Rings, both the book & Peter Jackson's film, The Hunt for Gollum is a 40 minute fan-made feature that showcases the 17 years between Gandalf the Grey leaving the Shire to his return to save Frodo Baggins after learning about the magical ring of Bilbo that Frodo has now inherited. It presents the events that was presents in the book but was skipped over by Jackson's film and concerns Gandalf meeting with Aragorn to hunt for the creature Gollum before the enemy finds it & learns the truth.

The direction is very impressive & the amateur cast does put up a performance that is much more improved from what one generally expects from a fan film. Also, the shoe-string budget this film was made at retains an artistic fluidity of its own & is an admirable homage to Jackson's film & its production design, including the rendition of Gollum. On an overall scale, The Hunt for Gollum, apart from a different cast, very much looks like the missing part of Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring that didn't make it to the final print and is a remarkable work by the entire production team.

P.S. The movie is free for all & is available on YouTube as well as their site. So if you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings, I suggest you give it a try. The Hunt for Gollum will surprise you in ways fan-films rarely do.

This is a short film written and directed by Chris Bouchard that cost £3,000 to produce which begs the question how does the average Hollywood cost thousands upon thousands of times thus ? Okay it's an amateur film with a run time of 38 minutes but even so if it was three times longer this would mean it would cost £9,000 . There's shockingly good about a bunch of amateurs getting together to make something so impressive or the other school of thought is it's absolutely disgraceful that Hollywood productions are so expensive in comparison and seems to illustrate how over paid a great number of people are over at the LA dream factory . The technical merits of THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM are every bit as impressive as those seen in the Jackson movies

Of course there's a serious fly in the ointment and that is if you're having a film with Aragorn and Gandalf , even if it's a fan made non profit film for the internet then it's going to be a major disappointment if you can't get Viggo Mortensen or Ian McKellen in the roles . Aragorn and Gandalf aren't James Bond or the Doctor from DOCTOR WHO and no offence to Adrian Webster or Patrick O'Connor but they're not in the same league and you're fully conscious that Aragorn is played by an entirely different actor from the Jackson movies . Likewise there seems to be a contrived element that the audience don't get to see Gollum fully until the end of the film since he spends much of the story bundled inside a sack and one suspects his one full appearance at the end is courtesy of a clip from Wingnut Films

Not to be too scathing and cynical THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM shows what can be achieved on an absolute shoestring budget and the entire look of the film totally convinces it was shot on location in Middle Earth . I'll repeat it again - what have Hollywood producers been spending their money on if a small fan made film like this that puts Hollywood to shame ?

I just watched this film and I'm totally blown away by the quality and production value by a non-professional crew. I had a smile on my face through the whole thing thinking that these guys (and girls) had the audacity to try this and then actually pull it off...

For me the best thing was the cinematography. The shots and locations were amazing! There was a lot of variety in scenes which hinted at the different locations Aragorn was traveling through in his search.

The music and sound effects was another highlight for me. I found it seemed to borrow some elements from Howard Shore's soundtrack, so that I could still remember being in that world but it was still original. Really awesome job on the effects and 3d sound, especially with the orcs and the fight scenes...

Such a tough job to follow up on Viggo and esp. Ian Mackellan and I think the lead actors can hold their heads high.

For some constructive criticism I would really like to see a 'directors cut' (please?) with more time given to the outdoor scenes, especially in the first half of the film. It seemed like the director/editor wanted to cut them short so that the movie wasn't boring, but I think if you are a fan of the book, then this shouldn't be an issue. There are many parts of the book that are slow and really descriptive, but it's part of the mood to take time and establish the scenes. The photography is so gorgeous and there must have been a lot of video taken that's not in the final cut so why not see more of it?? I think it would also help the viewer get into the story more by drawing you more into middle earth.

Thanks for the inspiring and well made film!

I am very impressed by the fans who made this short movie.

I have seen all the LOTR movies, behind the scenes video's, books etc.

I can only say, congratulations for what you guys have done with a very very small budged. I am very suprised.

I am sorry to see that the actors in the movie, not have made more of this. I am sure that it at least gone be the same quality and better. I apologize that I have seen only today this movie. I have enjoy it, I like it and its better today then never. I look forward the the hunt for gollum from peter jackson in 2026. Many greetings from Belgium from a big LOTR fan.

For a fan film, this was amazing. Best home brewed cinema I've seen in a good long while. Hell for most of the movies I've seen lately this was great. The actor portraying Aragorn did a smashing job. He carried the forty minute mini-epic.

The locations were astounding and often times I wondered if they'd filmed at the same locations as Peter Jackson's films. Gollum's voice was perfect and what CGI I saw was implemented usefully and without excess.

A good look into an unexplored part of the Middle Earth mithos. It gave them some room to work with their own originality. Not of the scope of LotR of course but still, very good, worth the admission price of nothing and I will be watching it again, likely very soon. If you liked the Lord of the Rings films, or better yet, read the novels, give this a go. You won't be disappointed.

This film was made on a budget of about 4000$ contributed by fans. Despite that, the cinematography and action sequences do not feel like a low-budget fan-film but come very close to multi-million-dollar Hollywood productions. If you consider the cinematic value versus the budget ... that makes it the best movie ever. Do not watch this movie unless you are a "lord of the rings"-fan though. The story is very basic and needs you to have viewed the 3 "lord of the rings" movies and preferably even read all the books since this story is in fact the prequel to those. It can hardly be called a story on it's own and will probably leave many people who don't know the characters with a lot of questions ... A new milestone nevertheless for fan-made films!!

I will start commenting the movie with the cast. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Gandalf was interpreted in such a good manner by an actor that also looked like Ian McKellen. I loved the Gandalf from the Peter Jackson's interpretation of the books so i really hoped they will pull it of in The Hunt for Gollum too.

Gollum was a very big surprise. I know from the extended editions of the movie that Gollum was such an effort to bring on screen that i feared they will use a lot of bad CG Gollum that will make me close the movie. Except for the ending scene were the lip sync isn't well made Gollum was very fun to see and hear. Yes and hear because in 90% of the cases the voice resembles with the one of Andy Serkins. I laughed when Gollum sings in the bag on the back of Aragorn.

Aragorn was a bit of disappointment to me because i know no other Aragorn will beat or come close to Viggo Mortensen. His lines were also a bit weird in some places, making him look a bit dumb.

The orcs look like they were borrowed from Weta. They are perfect. No comments. Congrats! Visual effects are in some parts really well implemented and in other places very kitchy. One thing i didn't understand was the overuse of some bad CG ring shots. They also gave an amateur look to the movie, since they didn't even compare to the ring shots in the PJ movie. A ring on a black background rotating isn't much of a shot.Some flames could have been used there or something to make it interesting.All of this is excused since this is completely made for free by people in their spear time.

From the behind the scenes movie we can see how much work and dedication came into making this so no one can argue with the fact that this is a very well made movie in the conditions given. I really don't understand how the director gathered 160 people to work for free, and also where did he get the time since he also had a day job, working at Framestore.

Bottom line, this is a must have/see for any LotR fan, so i am hopping for a way to download the HD version. Congratulations to everyone involved and too bad there are no more LotR fan movies. Star Wars has plenty of them. booooh! :)

Sniffing through my sister's hard drive i saw this movie being a huge lotr fan i immediately stole it. I really don't understand why it got a 7 rating here, i give it a 5. let me start by saying the pros good atmosphere good graphics acting is OK.it feels like a well done movie, but a true lotr fan would look beyond that. The title itself didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. when i started watching it i thought it would fit in with the movie storyline but i realized it hasn't been meant that way. Now in a nutshell, the biggest drawback is the director, i just think he didn't have what it taked, thus why i gave it a 5. the reason it depressed me is that after watching it i kept thinking how the hell should it stay true to the story, i mean while watching it, it just deviated away into an alternative storyline, and i kept thinking is it just me or what? im talking about how the movie made more sense if Gandalf hadnt known Bilbo and never been to the Shire, when in fact he had. The movies never contained or implied that they went looking for Gollum and capturing him, but Gollum was the one who found the hobits. which begs the question; why would they go look for him when he was already captured by mordor. so the whole thing only makes sense when u assume Gandalf never knew Bilbo. Now i kinda feel regret stealing this video, because it really didn't add anything to the experience. and then i realized its probably a bunch of kids who made it, and i shouldn't be stressed out about some fanboy video.

This was awesome. I've seen movies with a budget of millions of dollars and they are many many levels under this production. This was made for 3k dollars! Just imagine what can do these enthusiasts with a budget of 300k dollars or 3 000,000,000 :). I really hope someone to invest money in project like this ( lord of the rings ) with these "fans" who are in my opinion on professional level. It would be awesome! I am sure that all fans of Lord of the rings expect a new movie of J.R.R. Talking's books and I wonder why it is not made already 6 years :).I really hope that soon we 'll watch the next full movie with these guys and a bigger budget , with more CG and actors. P.S. Sorry for my bad English