Traqué

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.

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.

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!

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.