Hunt Club

Well this COULD have been a good movie. But it's not even close.

The director has no clue how to direct a movie and keep the action movie forward. It's just so slow you'll be nodding out.

Next, the hunt male characters are so thinly drawn you'll find them annoying at best. IF you can get past the absolutely horrible acting.

Mickey Rourke is unrecognizable. His face literally looks like he's wearing a mask. I'm not kidding. It looks like you can pull it off like a plastic Halloween mask.

Mena seems to want to prove she is overrated as an actress. All of the acting is dismal.

Throw in a bunch of stupid poorly written toxic masculinity BS and you have the biggest bomb of the year on your hands.

I am convinced this movie is meant to be humorous. I am also wondering whether Mickey Rourke took the job as a favor to someone else. I had read that Mena Suvari had been through a rough time -having overcome a struggle with addiction. Perhaps, she merely needed to get back to work. Perhaps she owed a favor to others in this production (filmed in Mississippi-another strange aspect of this film). Something tells me that the backstory would be more more entertaining than the movie.

All I can really say is that the movie is entertaining enough and stars 2 very accomplished actors in Mena Suvari and Mickey Rourke. I would not pay extra to watch it but it was available as part of my regular Prime subscription. No one should take this movie very seriously.

It's nothing spectacular, the story has been done many times like in "Ready or not" and "the hunt". Those two films are entertaining and well directed. This is just a low budget rip off of said films with terrible fight scenes where people are punched from a meter away and take the hit like we aren't meant to notice they have just punched thin air. So even though I have given it 4 stars for the poor acting and lack of original story it is watcheable and if you have watched the two I mentioned already and looking for something to pass the time then this passes the time but the story is as expected. Nothing happens that isn't already mentioned in the films plot description.

As the majority of reviewers here have pointed out, this film has strong echoes of films that have been done earlier and better. It reminded me of those old low budget women in prison movies shot in the Philippines - the only difference being the women in this film get to keep their bras and panties on.

Written by two men, it's supposed to be a feminist thriller. And that calls to mind the 1982 "feminist" slasher film The Slumber Party Massacre by Rita Mae Brown, which was ironically loaded with t'n'a and other sexist standard conventions. But at least that film matched the quality of films in its genre.

Hunt Club pulls its punches. While there's plenty of spilled blood, we're spared some of the gory kills, probably due to budgetary limitations.

The costumes do stand out, but not in a good way. When the two male leads first appeared, I thought they were dressed for some Lone Ranger and Tonto cowboy and Indian cosplay. And both male and female actors are decked out in the gaudiest cowboy boots imaginable. I kept thinking it had to be a "perk" for the stars.

The script is structurally sound but the story lacks the kind of Death Wish credibility that makes reenge films work and the cliched dialog isn't helped by the pretentious references to ancient mythology. The plot is paper thin and its premise is ludicrous. The characters are preposterous.

I feel sorry for Mena Suvari. I'm sure she had high expectations for this, based on the director's stated objective to make meaningful films. And I have to wonder about who runs the show at Uncork'd. The quality of their movies is all over the place.

This movie is effectively the same movie as Death Hunt, also released the same year. This has a few small twists on the Most Dangerous Game formula, mostly bringing in a third party instead of just making the protagonist able to turn the tables.

It held attention fairly well, but it also felt cheaper than it should have. Blood looked poorly done. Injuries looked especially fake.

But the movie gets more silly than it should once things kick in for the third act. There's way too much quipping. This is a common problem, and it makes me cringe every time I hear one of these lines, knowing that the writer thought this was the right way to lead into a kill.

It's nice to see Mena Suvari having a bit of fun with an action-heavy role.

I couldn't say it's any good for someone who wants to value their time, but it's a thoroughly decent movie to eat snacks to.