The Hunted (2003)






The scriptwriter needs to be hunted



Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro) is a Special Forces operator who went renegade after suffering from severe battle stress and is now hunting people who come into the wilderness and brutally killing them. In order to stop Hallam, the FBI call in his former instructor, L.T Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones) to apprehend him.






Rather than portray his character as the typically generic tough as nails instructor, Tommy Lee Jones manages to give off a more human side to L.T Bonham, making it feel like he know's he's the one who should take care of his old pupil. Benicio del Toro also does well in his role, as the murderous stress ridden renegade. In fact, if there's one thing this film should be commended on, it's the acting, which is constantly top notch.

I liked how realistic the fights were made to be, as opposed to the tired overuse of wire-fu from yesteryear. However, realistic fights does not make up for the fact the fights were not interesting to watch, or the slightest bit exciting, like fights should be. Also, the blood is very much overdone, as if blood was just stuck in for the hell of it.

"Let me get that bug on you"

If you saw this film, you would be surprised that the director also directed what is considered to be one of the greatest horror films, The Exorcist. The camera angles are glaringly bad, often tilted to the side to the point of being glaringly obvious. The film's plot is thin, pretty much not going any further than the basic chase plot which I posted at the top of this review, and the dialogue is just plain awful.

The Hunted is a film that delivers great performances, but manages to fail everywhere else in the film. The main problem is how the film fails to deliver on the thrills it promises, leaving you with a cripplingly dull movie that you'd be better off to avoid.

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