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The Hunted (Widescreen Edition)

The Hunted (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $12.99
Your Price: $11.69
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fight scenes are so real that I could almost feel the blows.
Review: The film starts off in 1999 with a battle scene in Kosovo. Benicio Del Toro, in camouflage, is a good guy who risks his life to murder bad guys. The next scene shifts to the year 2003, in a wooded area in Oregon, where Tommy Lee Jones rescues an animal who has been caught in a trap. He's a retired CIA trainer who lives like a hermit and works occasionally for the police as a tracker in solving crimes. It seems like several deer hunters have been viciously murdered, and the FBI is stumped. Film casting being what it is these days, the FBI leader is a woman, Connie Nielson, who is just too good looking for the role. But hey -- this is Hollywood.

As the film moves along, we learn that it's all because of shell shock as well as a high regard for animal life, that has pushed Benicio Del Toro over the edge and makes him the killer. The plot thickens because Tommy Lee Jones is the one who trained him to kill. And so the rest of the film is a cat and mouse game between these two men.

The director, William Friedkin, did an excellent job in creating the tension and making the fight scenes seem so real that I could almost feel the blows. He also gave the two main characters complex personalities. The action was fast and the plot held my interest throughout. And the theme of hunting and savagery towards animals was also explored. Also, the excellent acting as well as a well crafted screenplay made the film rise above its genre. Recommended.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: How can U get a refund for buying this sophomoric flop.
Review: I would have rated it FIVE negative stars if the movie rating icon was there for that, for this is a totally stinker of a movie.. I would be ashamed to tell an adult or child with an I.Q. above 100 that I viewed it or was an actor in it.. As for acting, this was worse than the worst of the 50's B movies, at least they good act.. Okay, I'm wandering here, let me be clear, I feel like I was robbed buying this movie.. Okay, I will stop beating this dead horse.... Thank you

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: hack job
Review: Just how long can a once-great director coast along on his early-career reputation? That's the question I found myself asking while watching "The Hunted," the latest fiasco by William Friedkin, the renowned filmmaker who gave us "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist" thirty long years ago. Is it possible to find another director who started out so promisingly and tanked so badly? And, yet, somehow, because of the extraordinary quality of those two seminal films, his name still conjures up a great deal of respect and affection among action and horror film aficionados.

"The Hunted" is a bland, hopelessly run-of-the-mill, would-be thriller that asks the age-old question, "What happens when a man, who's been trained by the military to be a 'killing machine,' suddenly goes off the reservation and starts eviscerating people he, through sheer paranoia, believes are up to something evil?" (it should be pointed out that this last aspect of the scenario is never very fully developed in the course of the film). Benicio Del Toro plays Aaron Hallam, the psycho with nine lives (and seemingly nine hundred escape plans) who leads the FBI on a merry chase in and around Portland and its scenic environs. Hot on his trail is Tommy Lee Jones as L.T. Bonham, the man who trained Hallam in the ways of killing and now has to find a way to put a stop to him before he can do more damage.

Del Toro and Jones are far too talented to be stuck in a vehicle such as this one, with Jones, in particular, looking tired and understandably baffled as to why he is still playing out variations on his "Fugitive" role ten years after the fact - even though, in this case, it is HE who finally gets to plunge over the waterfall into the roaring rapids below. Maybe he's been waiting a decade to do that and saw this film as the perfect opportunity. Hallam is so effective at dodging his pursuers and inflicting mega damage on all around him - while escaping unscathed himself, of course - that his character achieves all the truthfulness and plausibility of a Freddy Krueger knockoff. And there is certainly enough splicing and dicing, flesh-cutting and bloodletting to fill a typical "Nightmare on Elm Street" installment. Most of the stunt sequences are standard-issue and downright laughable, while the FBI, as usual, emerges as a bunch of incompetent hacks who can't even catch a single suspect while the object of their search is able to effectively dispose of a number of their finest agents armed with nothing more sophisticated than some well-honed hunting knives. What is, perhaps, most dismaying about "The Hunted" is the fact that the script doesn't even try to put any kind of new spin on this old material. The film is, literally, nothing more than a distended chase sequence with no interesting plot twists or character revelations to distinguish it from a hundred other films of a similar nature.

"The Hunted" also trivializes the kind of trauma soldiers suffer as a result of their experiences on the battlefield by showing yet another army veteran flipping out and committing wholesale slaughter once he's returned to civilian life.

As for Friedken, all I can say is that his glory days appear to be gone forever. "The Hunted," despite the pedigree of its director and the big names in its cast, is clearly the work of a hack.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: lost potential
Review: This movie had a lot going for it; a plausibly good story-line, great actors in Jones and Del Toro, and a director with a proven (albeit distant) track record. It did not live up to its' promise. The acting was fairly good. Tommy Lee Jones gives his standard (in his case that means "good") performance but shows his willingness again to put his talent into lesser productions (remember "Double Jeopardy"?). Benicio Del Toro has shown his talent in the past but is given little opportunity to do so in this movie. His role is essentially non-verbal. The other acting is adequate or better.

The main problem with this movie is the story-line. We have seen the story of the returning special forces hero who can't handle society so he drifts away to the wilderness. We're ready to see that again in this movie as the stage is properly set. The problem is that the secenery changes too often and too fast. The actual wilderness scenes are very well done and the photography is excellent. I give the director his due on the first third of the movie. But our anti-hero is too quickly captured and the action switches to an urban surrounding. There is a lot of action throughout the movie and nobody seems to be able to get a solid hold on Del Toro's character (including, at times, Del Toro himself). Ultimately the scene changes from downtown Portland to the wilderness again. You tell me how two men on foot can get from one extreme to the other in a brief amount of time and find each other so quickly. Not only that but they do so while the whole of the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies with all of their technology and resources are unable to do so. It gets worse. Our anti-hero has the time to forge a knife while waiting for Tommy Lee who takes time to create his prehistoric blade. Their fight is not choreographed very well and we are again pressed to accept that a series of deeply embedded wounds will not slow either combatant down. It was too much for me to accept although I'm probably too pragmatic for my own good at times.

There are scenes that are meant to embellish the meaning of the movie. Our hero, Tommy Lee Jones, is first met tracking a wounded wolf. He catches up with the wolf, removes the trap from its' paw and puts a healing solution on the wound. I was waiting for the wolf to lick his hand. This, we come to understand, is what he will be called upon to do for Benicio. There's a children's hide and seek game in an airport that seemed, at first, meaningless. Of course, the meaning is found in Tommy Lee Jones telling the girl where the boy has hidden.

The time of the movie (95 minutes) puts this in the B movie class and much of what happens in it substantiates that. It could have been a better movie than it is. But it isn't.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the rambo 1 first blood variation of new melenium
Review: sometimes the story is inconsequent, but thats isn't so tragic.
the knifefightscenes are very good.
I like the different personalities of the charakters:
the trainer l.t. knows everything about killing, but he never kills somebody himself.
for his pupil arron killing is a daily act like eat and drink.
the end of the film with the letters in fire is very intensetive.
for 37 connie nielsen looks good.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cutlery 101.
Review: For the most part, when you catch a trailer like the one for THE HUNTED, you expect a run of the mill yarn with a plot that is predictable aand slow. This is not the case, however, THE HUNTED is a mature and stylish action potboiler with no fluff and some good old american violence. What transpires is a taut cat and cat game (forget the mouse) that culminates to a great showdown. Both leads are cooly effective, especially TOMMY LEE JONES who shines in a role that is thankfully a lot different than his turn in both FUGITIVE movies. At just under ninety minutes, this film is a nice change from usual Hollywood fodder. Most of the thanks goes to director WILLIAM FREIDKIN who, given a good script, knows how to craft an enjoyable movie. The disc features great sound and picture as well. If you like a good grounded action thriller hunt down this DVD.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Academy Award winners in violent B flick.....hmmmm???
Review: Not sure what hollywood was thinking when they cast these 2 fine actor's in a FIRST BLOOD..meets the FUGITIVE flick but oh well.Although it has some interesting action,fight,and Chase sequences that doesnt save this movie.There are far to many FAR FETCHED moments in this movie,one(squirrel track and racoon tracks)in the front yard El Toro pronouces to the little girl of his one time girlfriends in the movie(and remember they are in the suburbs here).Various rediculous falling scenes,over water falls..off bridges etc.And lets not forget the final fight scene wear Jones and Toro slash 20 holes in one another's bodies but still manage not to Pass out or bleed to death from losing pints of blood.So all in all this movie has everthing ridiculous except a flying dragon.So definate thumbs down to two GREAT actors in a very disappointing film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A quiet action movie.
Review: This is a chase movie at its core but Friedkin's use of silence and the pensive demeanors of the two main characters gives The Hunted a unique type of atmosphere. There is alot of graphic violence, especially in the beginning of the film. It is displayed in a matter-of-fact style which adds more tension to the film's atmosphere.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hunt It Down at Your Local Video Store
Review: In keeping with the spirit of the action genre, The Hunted delivers a fast, action-packed ride sure to please any fan. Without all the plot overdevelopment best reserved for other genres, this film brings action-viewers exactly what they want.
Superb acting from Jones & Del Toro compliment this well-crafted movie. I would recommend this film to any fan, or anyone looking for a thrilling way to spend their viewing time. I give this movie 4 stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A HELL OF A THRILL RIDE!!!
Review: LOTS OF ACTION, BLOOD AND FIGHTS IN THIS ACTION-THRILLER!!
IT'S AN EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT ADVENTURE!!
CHECK IT OUT!!!


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