The Hunted (Widescreen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: God said to Abraham "Kill me a son"
Review: The wind is in the thorn tree.

Yep, there is nothing exceptional to this Rambo formula remake. They use all the same cliché 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?



Rating:
Summary: Two Acting Powerhouses!
Review: I love it when two of my favorite actors are in a movie together. When one's off screen, you have the other to keep you entertained. And when they're on screen together, it's movie-making at its best. The plot itself leaves a bit to be desired. The film's production was stop-and-go for so long, I heard that the director changed direction before it was finished. My guess is that some of what was lost was what was missing from the movie, particularly in regards to understanding Benicio's character properly. Nonetheless, Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro shine throughout.
P.S. Being an animal lover, I love that two leads in a movie are pro-animal too.

Rating:
Summary: Rambo Revisited.
Review: I don't mind that the idea of this movie was pretty much taken from Rambo, however, it would have been nice if the idea was improved upon. In some ways it was but not enough to give this movie any real depth or realism.
What I REALLY liked about this movie is its use of Johnny Cash's music. At the very beginning and at the very end we are presented with songs by Cash that I was previously unaware of. The idea to use these particular songs for this movie was a great choice and gives us an excellent prelude and conclusion to the theme of the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Bloody horrible.
Review: The Hunted (William Friedkin, 2003)

You're never sure what you're going to get with William Friedkin. You could get Cruising, or The Exorcist, or his remake of 12 Angry Men. Or, you could end up with Jade, The Guardian, or The Hunted. Yes, The Hunted definitely gets tossed on the pile of "films William Friedkin will disown later in life." If anyone else involved with the movie wants to be remembered fondly by the masses, they, too, will disown it.

It's painful to watch Hollywood in action sometimes. The trailers for The Hunted made it seem like ninety minutes of Tommy Lee Jones chasing Benicio del Toro through the woods. That might well have made for a good movie. Instead, we get about five minutes of Tommy Lee Jones chasing Benicio del Toro through the woods, a bunch of minutes of him chasing Benicio del Toro through other places, and a whole lot of backstory, subplot, and exposition that is entirely unnecessary to the film.

The basic plot (what the film should have been in its entirety) is that Aaron Hallam (del Toro), a very nasty government military type, has gone renegade after losing his mind during an assignment. He has become paranoid, and believes the government is now hunting him. (Whether he is correct is never truly exposed, one of the few plot elements where the film does refuse to capitulate to "we need this in a Hollywood movie.") The government brings in L. T. Bonham (Jones), a tracker for the Canadian forestry service who used to work for the government training people to become very nasty government military types. You can see where this is going.

Obviously, you've got a rehash of David Morrell's fine novel (and, with the exception of the final five minutes, Ted Kocheff's equally fine film) First Blood, with del Toro as John Rambo and Jones as Col. Trautman. The trailers made this look like a different, and intriguing, take on the same material, with nothing but the two main characters hunting one another through the woods. But Hollywood doesn't like to do two-character movies, despite the breathtaking success of some memorable examples of the subgenre in the past (Closetland and My Dinner with Andre being the obvious examples). So somehow, somewhere, someone decided that Aaron Hallam needed a makeshift family, there needed to be a whole bunch of FBI agents, etc., and the movie ends up being more about the other stuff than about Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro chasing each other through the woods. Worse, when the obviouis showdown finally does occur, any semblance of realism the movie might have had goes flying out the window; it's the Grizzly Adams version of the scene where neither six-shooter ever runs out of bullets. Thoroughly stupid, and the movie gets knocked down half a point solely for its last ten minutes.

There are many, many better films in William Friedkin's oeuvre. Do yourself a favor and watch those instead. * ½

Rating:
Summary: THE HUNTED = A MASTERPIECE ! ! ! !
Review: I love it. I got the DVD three weeks ago along with TRAFFIC. I loved both. Great action and story. Dynamite performances and fighting sequences. Did you know TOMMY LEE JONES broke his arm in an intense fighting sequence with BENICIO DEL TORO ?
Very interesting. Poor guy. Anyway, one of the best action films ever made. Buy this one. A TRUE MASTERPIECE ! !

Rating:
Summary: Hunting a Patriot
Review: This is the greatest movie ever shown on how the Government takes out one of its own. Makes you think twice about ever wanting to serve "your" country in a war. The military trains you to kill and refuses to acknowledge the damage it causes when you actually battle live enemies. It then sends cold-hearted killers to take you out as if you don't exist.

A sad ending awaits all who serve the greater good. History is proof to this fact. The true patriot in the movie is the only one who could see things from a larger perspective of life, the rest were merely focused on their egos and short-sighted political correctness. You can be sure I ain't betting on Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones) as the good guy.

Bravo for an excellent production! Can't wait for sequels to follow!




Rating:
Summary: The director of RAMPAGE should be able to do better.
Review: Normally I don't seek out major studio releases, but when I found out that William Friedkin, the director of the underrated classic RAMPAGE, had made about a movie about two men stabbing each other I had to check it out.

Benicio Del Toro plays a Special Forces soldier who's battle fatigue has driven him to the breaking point. He starts killing and dismembering hunters, so the Feds bring in Tommy Lee Jones to locate him, cause Tommy is the guy who trained this killing machine.

Things start out enjoyable enough. I really enjoyed all of the stabbings and killing. The character development was descent I actually felt a little sorry for Benicio. But sadly the whole second half of the movie was just your predicable by the numbers foot/car chase that we've all seen Tommy Lee Jones do before in U. S. MARSHALS and THE FUGITIVE. Why couldn't this movie have a unique personality? I'm tired of seeing action movies that play it safe and clone each other.

Worth watching if it comes on cable, but it doesn't deliver enough original violence to merit buying or even renting.

Interesting fact: Benicio Del Toro broke his wrist while filming this movie.

D: William Friedkin (THE EXORCIST, RAMPAGE)

L.T. Bonham - Tommy Lee Jones (THE PARK IS MINE, NATURAL BORN KILLERS)
Aaron Hallam - Benicio Del Toro (THE USUAL SUSPECTS, FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS)

Rating:
Summary: Modern Rambo, Nothing New, Nothing Special
Review: The proposition of Tommy Lee Jones hunting down a psychotic Del Torro lured me in to watching this film. What I didn't know was that its a remake of Rambo with slightly altered characters and sub-plots.

Del Torro plays Aaron Hallam an ex-soldier seriously traumatized by the horror he saw in Kosovo. We find out that Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones), who is sent to stop the killings was also the man that taught him how to kill. A great oppertunity to create a deep, psychological thriller. Unfortunately we get a rather shallow cat and mouse chase full of far-fetched action, while entertaining teenagers, this is nothing new for the rest of us.

What I would have liked to have seen is a better character study of Hallam. Ok so he turns mad after Kosovo, but we never go deeper than that, this could have really boosted the character and the film. Jones was good, but didn't have the script to flex his muscles.

Overall a decent action film, perfect for light entertainment on a Staurday night.

Rating:
Summary: Two men caught in a myth.
Review: Other reviewers have already commented on action, plot, etc., so I would like to take this into realms psychological.

First of all, this film is a wonderful demonstration of a thesis basic to depth psychology: those mythic stories we fail to take account of when they address us get lived out unconsciously. "Mythic" in the sense of a primordial tale, not an archaic explanation. The primordial tale addressing these two men is that of Abraham and his son Isaac. The narrative voice at the start of the film lets us know that: "And God said, Abraham, kill me a son." This, then, is the given, the symbolic framework in which the older tracker/weapons master and the young soldier must operate.

Then comes the personal. L. T. (Tommy Lee Jones) learned how to track, hunt, survive, and kill from his own father. He taught those skills to Aaron, but they were not enough. Overloaded with the stresses of war's insanity, Aaron writes to L. T. for help, but the older man does not know what to do, how to help (perhaps because his own father did not).

There are many traditions and myths describing how the older men initiate the younger ones into adulthood. This film depicts a failed initiation: the dilemma of an elder who ought to be a mentor but, never having been mentored himself, cannot give the male blessing to the younger man who needs it so badly. Because of this, both have little choice but to live out the story of Abraham and Isaac in its most destructive implications.