THE HUNTED

Starring:
Tommy Lee Jones
Benicio Del Toro
Connie Nielson
and Leslie Stefanson

Director:
William Friedkin

Running Time:
94 mins

Out to buy on DVD 6th October

After two hunters are brutally murdered in a ritualistic fashion in the forest outside on Portland, tracking and survival specialist L.T. Bonham (Jones) is asked to assist FBI Agent Abby Durrell (Nielson) in her investigation. When he arrives at the scene L.T. discovers that Agents on the scene have got it all wrong and the killer is in fact an ex-military assassin, who he trained.

An Oscar winning director and two Oscar winning actors come together to produce an action flick that is slight on story but filled with action.

Director William Friedkin has been very hit and miss with his movies. For every French Connection there is a Rules of Engagement but he always manages to attract top notch cast and this movie is no exception.

Tommy Lee Jones provides another powerhouse performance as L.T. Bonham. His is the only character with any real substance and that is because of the actor's superb ability of bringing that little bit extra to any role. He does extremely well with this physically demanding part, holding his own in the action scenes with the younger Del Toro. Benicio has little to do, acting wise in this flick, as his character only gets to look mean and mentally tortured and he has very little dialogue. Connie Nielson's part is seriously underwritten and a waste of her talents. Also she seems to change cloths an awful a lot between scenes. She must either have a wardrobe in her car boot or this is really bad editing.

The action scenes are very good however, with Del Toro and especially Tommy Lee Jones getting stuck into the action. There is a particularly bloody knife fight that is very well choreographed and a good car chase through the streets of Portland that are the highlights of the movie.

The script is very slight and here lies the problem. The two leads don't have enough to say and you don't even have any reaction to having to hunt down one of his students by Jones's character. There was a chance for the character to wrestle with his conscience or even blame himself but this never manifests itself.

The Hunted is a decent enough movie that could have been so much better. With a stronger script for the excellent cast this could have been a more memorable film that is actually is.

Audio commentary from director William Friedkin, Deleted scenes, 'Making Of' featurette, Cast and crew interviews, TV spots, Trailers, Interactive menu & Scene access


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2003