Night Hunter

I am not a wannabe critic waiting to be discovered , normal everyday bloke. So no comments on the lighting, script, audio, scenes, etc. If you want a semi suspenseful crime thriller, no insanely twisted plot, just a good film to spend time watching with chips and pop, then this hits the mark. I will say that I am a Ben Kingsley fan but that did not sway my view.

This story (premise) had such opportunity to be a great film, but I guess the budget went more towards the top-billed cast, than in the production.

I certainly give credit to new filmmakers for taking the leap, and often don't critique them as hard due to their lack of experience. But newbie writer, director and producer David Raymond should've maybe had one lesser top-lead and invested in a seasoned screenwriter and editor - of where this film failed drastically in a missed golden opportunity.

The screenplay had major plot and technical issues, that could've been easily avoided, or edited properly. Then the editing in general was atrocious. A few scenes popped in and out within seconds and made no sense. The music/score was so overbearing it was annoying, and in some scenes louder than the dialogue. Raymond's lack of directing experience was evident in the poor shaky-cam shots, as it was in his failure to direct his sub-cast properly (the seasoned pros clearly handled their own). Brendan Fletcher was perfectly cast and great playing the character of Simon. But casting Henry Cavill was a huge mistake. His acting was stale and unconvincing, as well as annoying with his monotonic dialogue and poorly executed macho demeanor.

Nevertheless, for a newbie writer and director (this film being his 2nd/3rd resume entry as a filmmaker), it was surprisingly decent all things considered. Too bad it could've been great with proper editing and screenplay review. Still, a solid and well deserving 7/10 from me.

I honestly don't know what is going on, maybe it's people who have an all or nothing response. I didn't expect this movie to be amazing, but for something streaming free on Prime, I thought it was great! Wonderful cast and acting, good thriller and action. Yeah some things, if done differently would have made this better, in my opinion the finale came out of nowhere and was one more clue that wasn't really needed. A couple of other things, like the father, weren't really sketched out. And I had a hard time buying into the Rachel-Simon relationship. But overall, if you're looking for an entertaining Friday night thriller, I definitely recommend this!

Rotten Tomatoes didn't like it much and there is talk of a hold-up in the release of this flick. I thought it was pretty good. If you like Silence of the Lambs type flicks and give it a willing suspension of disbelief, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Plenty of star actors, great production value and crazy, crazy script. There are some holes here and there but hey, it was fun. Give it a chance.

Gandhi and Superman couldn't save this movie - and they were in it! They just seemed detached and were just going through the motions for the paycheck. Plus, the story wasn't that great to begin with, so I suppose they had to make do with what they were given. The young Canadian actor I'd never heard of before, Brendan Fletcher, did a good job as the weird guy. It reminded me of the first time I saw Ed Norton in his first film, Primal Fear. He was really believable in that movie, so much so that he was even nominated for an Academy Award for it. I really thought Ed Norton was mentally challenged in real life, like Giovanni Ribisi in The Other Sister. This movie is really a '5'. The additional point was for Fletcher.