The Hunted (2003) - Review

Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Connie Nielsen
Country: U.S.

Note: As of Oct. 2013, the review format changed. Some reviews, like this one, feature the old format.

Short and Sweet:
Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro face off in this okay action thriller that feels like a mix between First Blood, The Fugitive, and Apocalypse Now.

Screening Source:
I viewed Paramount's Region 1 DVD copy of the film. It could use a Blu Ray upgrade. Either that or the film's particularly bland photography makes it look like it has low quality imagery.

Plot:
The Hunted has a basic action movie plot. Aaron Hallam (del Toro) is a Special Forces guy who witnesses horrible stuff while on an assassination mission in a foreign country. He than comes back home, snaps, and starts killing people in the woods. The police ask for the help of expert tracker and resident badass L.T. (Jones) to hunt down Aaron and stop him. It's as simple as that. Another cool aspect of the plot is that L.T. trained Aaron long ago during their stay in the military. I love this type of plot cliche. The film deals with the whole mentor/apprentice set up quite well. Overall, Friedkin's actioner doesn't demand much from its viewers. It has a basic plot with no real twists or turns. Just a set up for drama, action, and suspense.

"I'm the better Oscar winner!"

Notable Performances:
Benicio Del Toro is Aaron Hallam - I feel very conflicted about this role. Del Toro looks the part so much and handles the physicality of it perfectly. But when it comes to extensive dialog scenes, I feel that he really hams up this tortured soul kind of character. I really don't feel bad for this guy at all. I know we are supposed to, but a mere 90 minutes of this stuff and all I see is a crazy guy who needs to be stopped. I will say that Del Toro does a great job during the final knife fight. His portrayal of the action choreography is very impressive and its clear that he trained very hard for this scene.

Tommy Lee Jones is L.T. Bonham - Tommy Lee Jones walks into a bar and asks whose hunting snare he has. When a guy replies, Jones wraps the snare around the guy's neck and smashes his face into a table! So badass! Besides that, Jones is your typical underplayed action protagonist. Jones is natural in every role of his. There is seriously nothing wrong going on in this performance. In fact, I would say that Jones is the saving grace of this film and the main reason to view the film at all. It's really cool to see him in an action role as well.

"Hey man, what are the chances we'll survive this movie?"

The Rundown:
Since I'm so conflicted about this film, I'll start with the pros and than finish up with the cons. This film is rated R, thank goodness. I can honestly say that this film's R rating is one of its biggest saving graces. The film's brutal knife scenes would be dead in the water if graphic cuts and blood weren't inserted. I'm not certain how I feel about the framing of the action scenes, but it could be worse. I do feel the editing at least does a good job of showing you every little detail in each character's knife fight choreography.

But this film does not quite hit its mark. For one, this film is only 90 minutes long. I am all for short action films every now and then. Taken is a great 90 minute actioner packed with enough drama and badassery in its small run time. This film is one of the few occasions in which I think that the film should actually be longer. Everything happens too quickly. The events need to be more drawn out as well.

Better yet, the film needs a completely different visual style and tone. When I see this film, I feel that it should mirror the tone of other bleak films that lament on violence like The Proposition or The Road. Those films are deep character studies with slow and meditative paces. They pack the violence but have lots of meaning behind each and every scene. The Hunted on the other hand just flies through things and feels dead in the water during every single scene of drama. It's all so bland and generic, I don't feel for anything in this movie. This movie just needed a different director than William Friedkin.

However, the film's worst offense is its score. Oh my gosh. This is one of the worst film scores I have ever heard. Everything about it is so generic and cookie cutter. It feels like a stock score on an Apple Computer's editing program. The sound design is all around lousy as well. All of these issues with the film's background noise took me out of every scene. This soundtrack should never be released. It should be burnt and than permanently deleted.

"Man, this movie is just like The Fugitive."

Action:
Opening Massacre - It's tough to call this one an action scene but I think it is one. Del Toro has to sneak through a battle as explosions and soldiers run all around him. He does not take part in any action himself, but his squad mates fire a few rounds at soldiers pouring out of a building. This scene is extremely violent and disturbing as well. This whole sequence was clearly the set up for why Aaron snaps and goes crazy. If any of the drama and emotion in this film is affective, I would say this is the only scene that works really well.

Jones vs. Del Toro, Round 1 - Jones and Del Toro have a small but sweet skirmish. It's more of an animalistic brawl, but features a nice amount of hand to hand combat.

Jones vs. Del Toro, Round 2 - So this isn't really a fight. Instead, Jones chases Del Toro through the streets of what I recall as New York. The chase leads them through a park, the sewers, and eventually onto a subway train. This scene isn't really all that intense unfortunately. Its sheer length and ridiculousness make it the film's biggest and most impressive set piece though. I love the moment when Del Toro holds a knife to a passenger's neck and Jones yells, "This is between you and me!" Love those kind of moments.

Jones vs. Del Toro, Round 3 - The final fight that we all know is coming lands. And it sure is a good one. The two duke it out on the rocks right near a very loud waterfall. I really like how the waterfall is the dominant sound during this entire sequence. But yes, it is also a great knife fight. Jones gets cut up really bad during this. It gets quite intense. If I had to make a list of the 20 greatest knife fights I have ever seen, this would make it on there somewhere.

Spoiler Alert: There is hunting in this film.

Conclusion:
The Hunted is an alright action thriller. Tommy Lee Jones, the film's final action sequence, and its graphic R rating are what make the film worth watching. Jones is so natural in his role I just can't get enough of him. Unfortunately, the film's awkward pace, generic score, and lack of a distinct style give this film a very uneven feel. The film is a few notches short of being a basic and standout action flick along the lines of The Replacement Killers, Mission Impossible, or Rumble in the Bronx. What is there though is not horrible. I would recommend this film to only the most die hard action fans. Other viewers will walk away feeling quite bored and empty handed. But us action junkies will appreciate good knife fights and a badass Tommy Lee Jones any day.

Rating: 6/10 - A disappointing action film that makes up for its flaws with Jones' performance, its lush forest settings, and gritty fight sequences. Think of it like a combination between First Blood and The Fugitive but nowhere near as good.