Rating: 
Summary: A Fun Chase Film...
Review: This film has mediocre acting, and some annoying plot holes - and yet, somehow, it's still a good movie. The action sequences are spectacular, and brutal. The plotline is engrossing despite a few niggles, and the film's length makes it a quick, bloody ride that's hard not to enjoy. I've never seen anything else quite like it, and I recommend it heartily.
Rating: 
Summary: If I can keep just one person away with this review...
Review: The title of the review says it all. I haven't written any reviews before for Amazon, but after coming home from watching this movie, I thought that I should warn all who would listen. I went into the theater looking only for an hour-and-a-half diversion. I knew that I was going to get "The Fugitive" all over again. I was fine with that. I wasn't expecting fine art, or high drama. But this is ridiculous.
I'm not even going to comment on the plot - enough people have done that below. It's predictable, stupid, and filled with cliches. I almost burst out laughing at two points (chuckled at many more) - your introduction (and I'm not giving away anything here) to Tommy Lee Jones is watching him track a wounded wolf and then walk right up to it to free its paw from a trap. Watch him speak with the animals! See his "natural" inner self!
Then, when the finale is being set up, while millions of FBI agents are mobilizing to go after Benicio, while TLJ goes to track him alone, the two of them have time to fashion weapons out of rocks, metal, string, etc. I mean, it's not like there aren't plenty of people with weapons around to give TLJ a knife or two.
Looking over those two things, words cannot describe how stupid it is. Trust me. The requirement for suspension of disbelief exceeds any reasonable bounds. Fine, Benicio moves quietly and stealthily. Last I checked, however, he can't fly, although you'd think he must judging from the way that he seems to be able to get from one place to the next in less than 10 seconds.
The action is not that great, either. It's just a lot of grunting and shoving. I will agree that the cinematography is nice, especially the wooded scenes. But that can't make up for this atrocity. Thank god I got to see this with a free pass I had left over. If I had had to pay to see this disgrace, I might have gone on a killing spree of my own.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 1/2 Stars: Papa Can You Hear Me?
Review: The idea of Benicio del Toro: the rebel, the mumbler, the intense, the super-duper sex symbol in the same movie as the stalwart, full speed ahead, no nonsense, go by the book Tommy Lee Jones is a film goers dream. Well, here they are together in the director of "The Exorcist," William Friedkin's "The Hunted."
Del Toro plays Aaron Hallam a covert, military assassin gone berserk and Jones plays L.T. Bonham his combat trainer, recruited by the FBI to capture him after a series of grisly murders in the wilds of Oregon and Washington.
A lot of the action is hokey. And much is made of secret military commandos working undercover that the "government" is hell-bent to keep undercover. But when these two meet and fight mano-a-mano, the action turns towards the exciting and unusual. They don't use guns or even manufactured weapons at all but stuff that they fashion out of what is available in nature. One would think that because Jones has 20 odd years on Del Toro that any kind of fight between the two would be a mismatch. No way. Jones is a marvel and matches punches with Del Toro with no problem. Jones, well into his 50's, I would think, is in every way a match for Del Toro's physicality.
Hallam's motivations are fuzzy at worst and bizarre at best but Del Toro's performance, as always is committed to making Hallam as truthful as possible. There are psychological allusions to Hallam's need for a father and some letters he has written to Bonham, which Bonham has deigned not to open, much less read or answer. "Why didn't you answer my letters?" Hallam tearfully asks of Bonham towards the end of "The Hunted." Now this is a subtext that should have been explored...hmmm.
Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2
Review: Ok, I really liked this movie. But I was a little upset that they didn't make it a bit more realistic. It's similar to First Blood/The Fugitive. Some of the things in TL Jones's character to me was a little too Hollywood. "He doesn't like guns"-makes his own knife, that sort of thing. These are not preferred methods when putting your life on the line. And when someone is tracking a government assassin, they will not go in with just a knife...The fact that Del Toro's background is in this Spook Assassin Squad is a bit far fetched too. True--guys like this exist BUT it's not very common. I think it would've been good enough for him to be a SEAL and for him to turn Serial Killer or something along those lines. Sometimes I just think Hollywood takes it too far on BS and practicality rather than making it more real. But then the majority of the American public seems to like that sort of thing. Good movie as far as entertainment, and better than Die Hard 2 or something but I would've made the movie different.
Rating: 
Summary: greatest movie ever
Review: This was the best movie ever. It was pretty bloody at times, but at least it was totally fake. The knife fighting was great to. It was way better then those mindless gun fights when only 3 guys die when 100's of bullets are going everywhere. And Tommy Lee Jones and Benico del Toro were good at the knife fighting too, unlike some movies when the fights stink. There were a couple holes in the movie, but overall it was great.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a new FUGITIVE movie but not a good movie either...
Review: Director William Friedkin is a prolific director. There's no argument there. Friedkin has made several movies throughout his career that people *deem* classics. His last effort, THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, I thoroughly enjoyed aside from the bad performance by Guy Pearce whom I usually am a big fan of. However, THE HUNTED is not THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. Not even close.Knowing the talent involved (Friedkin, Tommy Lee Jones, and most notably Benicio Del Toro) I went to the theatre expecting a rare breed of action movie. Sure, it looked like another FUGITIVE sequel from the trailers but I had heard others say that it was really something very different and something that I would enjoy. Is it different from THE FUGITIVE movies? Yes, it's very different. Is it a good movie? No, absolutely not. What THE HUNTED is, is the biggest "B" movie I have ever seen and I am no stranger to "B" movies. I even enjoy a good "B" movie on occasion but THE HUNTED suffers not only because I expected more but because it is just plain bad. I have no idea how it attracted the talent that it did. The actors even seem embarrassed to be on the screen. Tommy Lee Jones wonders around aimlessly in his beard pretending like he's not Lt. Gerard. He's such a cardboard character that the director feels the need to try and give him character by trying to throw in things like his love for animals and his fear of heights. Neither works. Connie Nielson (GLADIATOR; BASIC) has the thankless role of being thankless. She's here for no reason and does absolutely nothing. And the biggest disappointment...Benicio Del Toro. Someone must have told poor Benicio that acting bad on purpose would leave an audience to believe your character is insane because that's what he does. He's horribly bad and he has absolutely no motive for the things that he does. I wish that I had liked this film. I thought I would. It's the type of film that I usually like THE HUNTED is really just a bad, bad movie shamelessly narrated by Johnny Cash...that's right Johnny Cash. I won't bother explaining. If you see the movie you'll see what I mean...it's pointless and all in all just a bad ninety minutes captured forever on film. D+
Rating:
Summary: "He didn't use a hatchet, he used a knife"
Review: The Hunted was a really cool film. Sure they've made many films just like it, but who cares. It was still a very fun movie to watch. Tommy Lee Jones is my favorite actor and was awesome in this film. Benicio Del Toro was also great. Though violent in parts it was still a very fun hour and half.
Rating:
Summary: A shallow but intense thriller!!!
Review: "The Hunted" is a pointless remake of "The Fugitive," which was already remade as both the Harrison Ford film AND its lackluster sequel, as well as a short-lived series in the early 00's. This plays like the third film in the modern film remake, with Tommy Lee Jones once again reprising his role. The plot is almost non-existant, just like the character development. Tommy Lee Jones is an FBI deep-woods tracker who captures an assassin (Benicio Del Toro) who makes a sport of killing deer hunters. When the killer escapes in the city, he must team up with with another agent (Connie Nielsen) to hunt down this thrill killer before he starts to hunt them. Problem is, you know nothing about the characters, therefore, you don't care for them. The film is one long chase scene after a half hour of set-up, and while it does get intense and suspenseful, it is also tasteless and extremely bloody. "The Hunted" is definitely not a thinking man's film. William Friedkin may be a great director, but he needs better material than this. He's a master of pursuit scenes, and this movie is full of them - chases on foot, on bicycle, on train and in cars, roaring down sidewalks or locked in a traffic jam - each staged with a wicked pace and bravura. Friedkin's camera is always searching out the significant detail, the oddball moment. And in "The Hunted," he has a bonus. His lighting cinematographer is Caleb Deschanel, that master of landscapes whose lyrical outdoor work in "The Black Stallion" and "The Right Stuff" is matched here by the way he and Friedkin turn the forests into great, breathing backdrops, alive with beauty and threat. It's this skill that makes "The Hunted" so watchable. Few other directors and casts could have transcended this script as well as Friedkin, Jones and Del Toro - but it's a script that needs transcending. There's still something shallow at its heart, and something strained about Del Toro's character. One believes every second of Jones' performance, even when he's tumbling down rapids or dropping through elevated train roofs. But one really wonders why Aaron is so exercised about the slaughter of deer that he goes on a killing spree. (Couldn't he have just trussed up and humiliated these macho-creepo hunters without killing them?) Good as they all are - and surprisingly effective as Connie Nielsen is, playing an initially unlikely FBI agent - they can't always disguise the Griffiths' short cuts. This movie stretches everyone physically rather than emotionally, which is too bad, because at the end, "The Hunted" reaches something near-operatic. Engrossing as it is, "The Hunted" is more a showcase for formidable talent than anything else. It's a brainy, exciting but shallow show - an expert's action movie that almost runs out of breath.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie!
Review: The Hunted is not based on a very original idea, but it is executed in a unique manner. Some people might think it looks like the third "Fugitive" movie, and the idea is similar--Tommy Lee Jones has to chase down and catch Benicio Del Toro, but unlike Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes, Del Toro is actually guilty of murder. Jones plays "LT," the man who trained Hallam (Del Toro) to kill for the government. This is why he is the one to track Hallam, because he taught him. This element makes Jones' role much more believable. This movie is full of violence, none of it overdone, but every act of violence is shown onscreen, and not much is left to the imagination. The hunt for Hallam is intense, and the skill with which Hallam continuously evades his hunters is intriguing. This movie is well worth watching, because both Jones and Del Toro offer terrific performances.
Rating:
Summary: A very well acted & directed action/adventure flick.
Review: 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!  Â
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