The Hunting Party

Based on an article that was published in Esquire, The Hunting Party tells the story of three journalists—actually five as the end of the film will explain during its comical "what was true and what wasn't" montage—who took it upon themselves to find the most wanted war criminal in the world, Bosnia's "The Fox". Brought to screen by Richard Shepard, this is a movie that keeps you highly enthralled throughout. It may not be as solid a film as his previous effort, the underrated comedy The Matador, because it tries to push an agenda against all that was working for it. At its best, everything is absolutely pitch-perfect: taut thrills, suspenseful story, and great acting. As for the worst, it becomes a diatribe on how the world's governments care more about money than safety. Honestly, we all know this and don't need our entertainment to jam it into our skulls even more. Falling into a growing category for me—one that includes Blood Diamond—the end result here is a great film that just can't stop from trying to be more than it is, stumbling on its misguided mission rather than allowing its natural momentum to carry it through to the finish.

Stylistically this thing is beautiful to look at. I enjoyed the use of freeze-frames during the exposition scenes and the moments in warzones come across as real, dangerous, and above all else exciting. The joy and genuine laughter emitting from our leads after they narrowly escape death over and over again adds to the code of living life to the fullest that they both follow. Shepard holds some cards close to his chest also, showing us events leading up to Simon Hunt's breakdown, all but killing his career, however not explaining the entire story until absolutely necessary. Each character's motives aren't exactly the same towards the end as they were in the beginning. What's first a quest for redemption (Hunt), youthful vibrancy (Duck), and an excuse to show his father that he is made of more than a cushy Harvard school lifestyle (Benjamin) soon becomes a mission to do the right thing. These men are fighting for civility and humanity, two things that have left that part of the world and is in desperate need for return.

One can't fault any of our journalistic trio for anything they may find wrong with the final product. Richard Gere is spectacular as the fallen reporter, who we will eventually find has lost more than just his career. The desperation is always true and his actions perfectly played against the more sane members of the troupe. Terrence Howard shows us how great he can be and makes us wonder why he still feels the need to choose some god-awful movies between his good ones. The transformation he takes, in just a few short cuts, is rather staggering while essential to his role's motives later on. Going from an adrenaline junkie cameraman to a stand-in executive whose field work entails setting up outside the White House and Capital Hill almost makes you wonder how he ever could have changed so much. Then you think about the money, the security, and the relaxation time and soon the concept seems too good for anyone to pass up. The taste of danger never left, however, and it is his wrestling with that, by using some nicely timed humor, that helps carry the story to its conclusion. As for the boss's son, on his first foreign correspondence, Jesse Eisenberg epitomizes the book-smartass attitude someone in that position would have. It is his willingness to learn and bullheaded mindset to not let these two guys do anything to make him out to be a wuss that lead him to becoming an integral part to the team and mission at hand.

Along with them, every character that is met with on the journey to find "The Fox" adds just the right amount of infused quirk needed to keep interest. While familiar faces like James Brolin and Diane Kruger play their parts well, it is a guy like Mark Ivanir as Boris the UN executive that shines. He is caught up in this imaginary scheme of CIA hit squads coming in to do that which he wishes he could. It appears he has watched too many American movies and the dream of being a real live Deepthroat seems to appeal to his sensibilities as he attempts to help the trio in their quest to find that which is never found. These bit parts bring much of the laughter and absurdity that counterbalances the abundance of drama and high emotional toll seen at every turn. The Hunting Party does not try and sugar-coat what is going on in the Balkans and pays much attention in showing the truth and not what is read in the history books, both figuratively and literally—the book in physical form during a nice scene of Howard opening the innocent eyes of Eisenberg in a bar, along with the help of four of the real-life reporters on which the film is based.

Shot with some wonderful compositions and blocking of actors to build a sense of suspense and fear, Shepard has crafted a winner. Besides a too-long scene that goes on and on about how the UN and people in power are only out to create good PR without any work going towards punishing the monsters running free, I have little to complain about. I was almost completely removed from enjoyment with the horribly trite and overused joke with the ending subtitled words, but was redeemed with the inventive "what was real" sequence. To see the humor that was bubbling under the surface for the duration stick to the screen even after the story was finished brought the smile back to my face and made me remember all that worked, letting the more wrong than right final act to dissolve into the background.

The picture is set during 2000, five years after the Bosnian/Servian war.A successful cameraman named Duck (Terrence Howard), a discredited journalist affected for war named Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) and a youngster correspondent named Strauss (Jesse Eisenberg) undergo an unauthorized mission to find the most wanted war criminal in Servia. They find themselves in serious danger when are chased and mistaken as a CIA agents and their objective, the Fox/ Rodovan Karadzic (Kerekes), the number one war criminal, decides to come after them.

The film is an adventure that embark a motley trio (Gere-Goddard-Eisenberg) posing as a hit squad and looking for a famous war criminal who bears remarkable resemblance to Radovan Karadzic. The story blends action, thought-provoking drama, thrills and some of humor with tongue in cheek . It packs a relentless critical to International Community, as UN, NATO, European countries because they are not only attempt on keeping him whereabout secret, but will oppose anyone who even intent to locate him . However he was arrested in Belgrade on 21 July 2008 and brought before Belgrade's War Crimes Court a few days later. He was extradited to the Netherlands, and is currently in The Hague, in the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia .Karadžić is accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia of personal and command responsibility for numerous war crimes committed against non-Serbs, in his roles as Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Serb armed forces and President of the National Security Council of the Republika Srpska. He is accused by the same authority of being responsible for the deaths of more than 7500 Muslims. Under his direction and command, Bosnian Serb forces initiated the Siege of Sarajevo. He is accused of ordering the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, directing Bosnian Serb forces to "create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival of life" in the UN safe area. In addition, he is accused of ordering that United Nations personnel be taken hostage in May-June 1995.He was jointly indicted by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 1995, along with General Ratko Mladić.

The movie contains an excellent main cast as Richard Gere and Terrence Howard and good secondary cast as Diane Kruger, James Brolin as anchor man , Dylan Baker as CIA agent and of course The Fox/ Karadzic played by Kerekes. It packs a colorful and evocative cinematography by the prestigious David Tattersall .Good and adequate musical score by Rolfe Kent with some Eastern sounds. The flick is professionally written and directed by Richard Shepard. He's writer, producer and a fine cinema director (Matador, Mexico city, Oxygen), though nowadays he exclusively works for television (Ugly Betty, Criminal minds, among others). Rating : Better tan average , well wort seeing. The motion picture will appeal to Richard Gere fans.

This film is about a disgraced journalist trying to hunt down the most wanted war criminal in Bosnia.

I understand that a topic like this would attract rather polarised opinion. Putting aside the historical facts or political opinion, I think this film is well made and acted. It has thrilling and comedic elements. Just as things start to get slow, there are gunshots, car chases and road blocks to pump up the action. And just when the thrill gets too much, there are fun and relaxing scenes. The ending is strong and affecting, and it sends out a strong political message (or protest) about how the West is not doing their job. Jesse Eisenberg's role as Benjamin is a little redundant, but still I thought "The Hunting Party" was a good film.

The best part of this movie is that it keeps your interest. It overdoes the language and gets a bit preachy here and there but overall does what you ask a movie: it entertains. If you're looking for a fairly intense 100 minutes of diversion, you'll get it here. However, I wouldn't watch it twice.

Terrence Howard as "Duck" and Richard Gere as "Simon" are both very interesting. Jesse Eisenberg as "Benajamin" was a bit annoying because he looks stupid and has a whiny voice. Since this is a man's movie, Howard and Gere fit the bill better.

The movie has a good mix of suspense, action, intrigue, war, politics and even a couple of doses of humor, which was a nice touch. The minor characters, like "Boris" (Mark Invanir) were as interesting as the leads, and the camera-work and scenery were worth watching, too. Boris doesn't get much billing here but he has several scenes and they are good.

Are a hundred f-words and a 10-20 blasphemes really necessary in telling this story? In a word: no. I was surprised, only because Gere has been in a number of entertaining films over the years and I don't ever recalling him anywhere near this profane in any of his roles. An f-word out of his mouth almost every other sentence seemed out of place, especially for an outspoken Buddhist, wouldn't you think?

As soon as Howard spoke, his voice was familiar. I couldn't remember where I'd heard it but knew it wasn't long ago. I looked it up here on IMDb and now remember hearing/seeing him in "The Brave One," another 2007 movie. Anyway, he and Gere make a good "buddy act" in this film and didn't really need the kid with them.

The "message" of the movie, as they say several times during the movie and in print at the conclusion, is that these Bosnian war criminals are still out there and no one seems to really want to capture them.

Based on a true story of a trio of Journalists looking for a war criminal in the former Yugoslavia. The Original group included Jon Krakauer, in the movie we have Terrence Howard and Richard Gere. Where originally it started as a bunch of journalists getting drunk and deciding to go out and find the bad guys, here we have Gere as a washed up TV reporter convincing his old camera man and a network executive (who got the job because of nepotism) that he can get an interview with "the Fox" if they are willing to go along with him. They go and things instantly begin to go side ways as nothing is as it seems and no one believes they aren't with the CIA. Not to put too fine a point on it I really liked this film a great deal. Its witty intelligent with lots of likable characters and a real sense of both humor and reality.Its probably three quarters of one of the most enjoyable films of the year (even with the nastiness.) What can I say I'm a sucker for great buddy films and Terrence Howard and Richard Gere have an ease when together that makes you certain that they have been friends for decades. Its magical. If there is a problem with the film its that the film kind of loses steam toward the end. Somewhere the need for an "ending" kind of gets in the way of things and the film begins to be a bit less...I don't know, fun. Don't get me wrong its still better than many other recent films, but its just disappointing that things have to be "neat". Of course the pre-final credits explanation of whats real and what isn't a scream. See this movie, thats all I have to say. See it and go with its vibe and I think you'll have a good time.

And forgive me for being spotty about things since I'm trying not to say too much since not knowing what happens is part of the joy.