[.ca] Hunted (Widescreen)

a pretty good William Friedkin film(Did i say that out loud?):
the basic premise of this film is this: a trained special forces assassin who has gone AWOL from duty,begins killing hunters in backwood Oregon.the only man who may be able to stop is the man who trained him.and so the hunt is on.Benecio Del Torro is Aaron Hallam,the hunted,while Tommy Lee Jones is L.T Bonham,the Hunter.i should mention right away,that this movie has some very graphic and bloody violence,including scenes of war at the very beginning.both Jones and Del Toro are good in their roles.there is a lot of action and the fight scenes i thought were phenomenal,no flashy camera tricks,just well choreographed fighting.and,i have to admit that the director,William Friedkin made a pretty good movie here.i have not been a fan of Friedkin for some time,having seen a few of his other films.however,he surprised and impressed me here,so i give him give him credit for that. 4/5

This movie is nothing like The Fugitive:
And that is nothing like sarcasm. Okay, it is. It's a lot like sarcasm, actually. Maybe if it weren't Tommy Lee Jones as the star it wouldn't be so obvious, but to me what it came down to was a tough, know-it-all smart guy chasing a resourceful criminal that apparently no one else can catch. The Hunted seemed to have promise in the previews. Jones of course is usually good in everything (others might say this is because he typically plays the same character). And since starring in The Usual Suspects, Benicio Del Toro can really do no wrong. But The Hunted is a strange film, awkwardly left of center, as though it was aware of it's own triteness so it tries to overcompensate for it in random areas - violence, gore, and casting for example. Watching the movie I couldn't help but feel it was far beneath Del Toro's ability. He is certainly more gifted than to play the run-of-the-mill action star that he is in The Hunted. The Hunted is a typical disciple-gone-wrong movie. Del Toro, a deeply covert special forces soldier who "doesn't really exist" is so battle scarred that he goes AWOL and kills some innocent people. Once the government realizes this, they send the man who trained him - Jones - to track him down and catch him. From here it unfolds in an extraordinarily predictable way. The audience is left to feel as though they are watching out of obligation rather than actual interest - 9/10 viewers could probably outline the rest of the story. To try to hold our interest then, the filmmakers include a deep amount of gore in the movie, much more than a typical action film would have. Whether it's photos of decapitations or showing us orphaned children stepping though bodies in Somalia trying to find their parents, The Hunted delivers some disturbing scenes The problem is that the film doesn't really earn the right to do this. What I mean is, if I'm going to look at sickening images then it really needs to be a good movie otherwise. I'm not going to look at it for the sake of looking at it, and unfortunately that's all The Hunted has to offer. I advise avoiding this film despite the promising cast. You'll just be waiting for plot twists that never come and hoping Benicio gets back on track in his next role choice.

On The Run in the Pacific Northwest:
Somewhat reminiscent of the D.C. sniper slayings, this film concerns a battle-fatigued Special Forces veteran of Kosovo, who has seen far too much violence,and becomes an animal lover and wreaks his vengeance by tracking & killing two hunters in the conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest. He is tracked down reluctantly by his former teacher,and by other members of the FBI, again reminiscent of the D.C. snipers, with this critical difference: he has been taught to kill in hand- to- hand combat with primitive weapons he makes himself, not modern high-powered rifles. The film is not for the faint-hearted, and starts with 15 minutes of fiery Hollywood battle footage from the Kosovo War, and its ethnic cleansing. The first half of the remainder might be considered slow by some viewers, but the pace picks up considerably in the second half, as the chase begins in earnest, beginning with the military detention vehicle's accident. The subsequent chase scenes through the streets, construction sites,underground tunnels and whitewater rapids surrounding Portland, Oregon are some of the most exciting you will ever see on film, raising this film briefly to a 5-star level. They culminate is a gruelling hand-to-hand combat between teacher and pupil above some whitewater rapids as the FBI looks on. Second film I have seen in which Del Toro plays a desperate killer on the run, the other being "21 Grams". He seems to be developing into a Sylvester Stallone-type actor. The film has some other notable touches: the music of Johnny Cash, and how Tommy Lee Jones saves a white dog or wolf from a snare in the film's opening scene and later sees the same dog at the end of the film.

God said to Abraham "Kill me a son":
The wind is in the thorn tree. Yep, there is nothing exceptional to this Rambo formula remake. They use all the same clich they probably recycles some of the old Rambo blood and bullets. Now you ask "why we should watch the Rambo rehash?" Well I'll tell you. Because instead of Richard Crenna, you get Tommy Lee Jones and most of his facial expressions; when they are not being hidden behind blood and hair. And instead of Sylvester Stallone, who was very good in "Oscar", you get Benicio Del Toro who can look more like a man betrayed than an old boxer. The story is as old as the hills. L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones) is called out of retirement to track down a mysterious person or persons unknown that killed some hunters. The person turns out to be a soldier Aaron Hallman (Benicio Del Toro) that he trained to kill. Through a series of mishaps Aaron gets loosed and the inept authorities must compete with L.T. for the retrieval or destruction. However L.T. knows he is to only one to do it. So does Aaron get away so he can kill again? Does L.T. make his first kill or is he really a pusssy-cat? Do the inept authorities realize their limits before it is too late? Do we come away with any new insights?

A very well acted & directed action/adventure flick.:
Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro), has went off the deep end using his special forces killing techniques to fillet hunters who kill with "irreverence" as some sort of social statement. Now it's up to the man who taught him L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones), a professional tracker and good ol' boy to bring him in. The Hunted is simply a fun, sometimes silly non-stop action extravaganza low on story, dialogue, character development, and overall plot and heavy as a sumo wrestler on visceral, fast paced, beautifully choreographed and even more beautifully photographed action sequences. Staring in Kosovo, in what can only be described as a vision of hell on Earth, we meet Hallam a special forces op/assassin who witness brutal mass murder at the hands of some tyrannical military force. After his mission is carried out Hallam returns to the world and is given the silver star. He then disappears into the woods and begins to carry out his crusade for animal rights, or so we're supposed to believe even though the details are hazy. There's also a moment where Hallam says he was set up, but that's quickly forgotten along with his animal rights stance and we're left to believe that the guy just snapped. Tommy Lee Jones is brought in as is the case in all these movies where only a retired agent/cop/tough guy can bring down this new threat, a threat he helped create. After a brief, very brief, ploy by a shady government official Bonham jumps aboard to help bring in "his boy." From there we're treated to chase after chase, hand to hand combat after knife fight and it's all breathtakingly captured by William Friedkin of The Exorcist fame. A man whose made a name for himself by filming amazing car chase sequences. So who better to call the shots on The Hunted, which is really one amazing chase sequence after another, than Billy himself who pulls everything off...amazingly! You have to give the guy credit for not going the route seemingly all other action movies go these days when it comes to filming high octane action sequences. I'm talking about endless slow-mo's and irritating Matrix-style visuals. Here Friedkin keeps the action going at a fast pace. The many hand to hand combat sequences between Hallam and Bonham are done with so much realism you I almost found myself grunting and grimacing along with the actors. Bravo. As far as the story is concerned it's all pretty much window dressing, thin window dressing at that. Void of dialogue with all other characters (excluding Jones and Del Toro) there just for show. Although Jones and Del Toro, who are great actors, spend most of the movie running and fighting it still took much skill to play these rolls only relying on physical prowess and the ability to show emotion without speaking. Bravo again. There's an out of place theology lesson at the beginning of the film that's just silly. The story of Abraham and Isaac is employed simply for pretentious purposes I'm sure and carry little weight in the film itself. Hallam looked up to Bonham as a father and at one point Bonham refers to Hallam as "my boy." And of course Bonham is brought in by the government to essentially kill Hallam, but that's as far as the Bible lesson goes. The Hunted has it's fair share of goof. I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times at how silly some things came off as being. Hallam's initial motive for killing hunters was simply ridiculous. Also I have to say that Tommy Lee Jones seems a bit old to be engaging in hand to hand combat with anyone. The final showdown is simply a one sided fight to what was ultimately a predictable finale that for a moment had me believing things were going to shift. Alas they didn't and the end seemed like a cop-out quickie to a vaguely symbolic finale. After watching The Hunted I came away smiling, superbly entertained, and recounting the numerous goofy moments. I also praised Benicio Del Toro for his great, creepy performance, the break neck action sequences and director Friedkin. But now in retrospect I find much sadness in the story and the characters. It's really about two people neither one good nor evil, but walking that thin red line between the two. The Hunted isn't a great film, but one that resonates in my mind causing a number of emotions. If you're an action buff, The Hunted will surely suffice if you're in the mood for a quick action fix. However, and it sounds weird saying (or rather typing) this, but I think there's much to be discussed about the characters, Hallam in particular. I've found much to empathize with both men and ultimately feel sorrow for them. Check it out!