Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones are the only things holding
together the intense new action thriller
”
The Hunted,
”
currently playing at Premiere Cinemas.
Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones are the only things holding together the intense new action thriller “The Hunted,” currently playing at Premiere Cinemas.
Despite superior performances from both Del Toro and Jones, the 94-minute release from Paramount Pictures does not live up to their efforts.
“The Hunted” has some great action sequences including stylish hand-to-hand fighting, one-on-one chase scenes and good stunts.
If you’re looking for a tightly woven plot with insightful and meaningful dialogue, then “The Hunted” is not for you. However, if you have a taste for action, fast paced hand-to-hand combat and chase scenes then you’ll have a good time.
Although this movie provides some outstanding action, the writing is almost laughable and the plot is very nearly a retelling of the popular 1982 hit film “First Blood” starring Sylvester Stallone, which I think was the best of the “Rambo” trilogy.
“First Blood” also starred the then-little-known David Caruso of “NYPD Blue” and “CSI: Miami.” It was a movie that at least tried to talk about the effects of Agent Orange on American troops and the disenfranchisement of the Vietnam veteran before the John Rambo character deteriorated into a killing machine.
In “The Hunted,” you have Del Toro’s character, Aaron Hallam, a contract killer for the government whose existence is so secret that his picture can not be taken and his name is not allowed to appear on any documentation. To the public, Hallam is not even considered alive.
After serving on some extra-hazardous duty in Kosovo in 1999, Hallam loses touch with reality and becomes a twisted defender of animal rights and uses his training to stalk would-be hunters in the woods and kill them, followed by a ritualistic dismemberment of his victims.
Using a flimsy excuse, the FBI takes control of the investigation into the mysterious string of deaths and brings in Jones’ character, L.T. Bonham, who works for a wildlife group tracking wolves in the wild and saving them from traps.
Bonham was brought in because he used to be a civilian employee with the Army who trained elite forces to stalk, track, hunt and kill silently and efficiently. As it turns out, the man the FBI is looking for was one of the men he trained. (“Some of the people he’s killed never even knew he was in the same room with them.”)
Bonham feels obligated to catch and bring Hallam in to answer for the murders and to possibly get him some psychological help.
No one is more identified with movie chases than director William Friedkin, whose “The French Connection” and “To Live and Die in L.A.” helped set the standard. Almost the entire movie is an extended chase scene.
Once Bonham and Hallam, who views Bonham as a surrogate father, meet early in the movie and get into a brief fight, the tone is set. The real struggle in this film is between the two of them.
All the other characters seem to be always one step behind Bonham and Hallam as the two act out this deadly dance, apparently oblivious of everyone and everything else around them.
This movie is too violent and bloody for anyone under 16 years old and for viewers who are squeamish or easily upset at the site of blood or realistic death scenes.
