Hunted

"I will teach you how to kill. Quickly. Accurately. Efficiently. It will become a reflex action." - L.T.

release year: 2003
genre: action
viewing setting: home DVD 2/3/23 and 9/5/05

synopsis: A government assassin goes berserk, and it's up to the man who trained him to catch him.

impressions: I had mixed feelings about this one. There were good elements (the chase scenes, the knife fights, the shadowy government involvement) and bad ones (lack of clarity about exactly why he lost his mind, lack of "justice" in general.) Clearly put, the movie just didn't answer some questions, the sort of questions I tend to have. At the (rather sudden and unexpected) ending, I sat there and wondered "but why?" - and that's never good. It felt like this movie was just an excuse to have some chases and knife-fights. And as I said, the knife fights were top-notch; they demonstrate, in a strong and bloody way, how such fights really play out.

something this movie has that no other movie has: A pursued and pursuer, who both pause in the middle of the chase to create new knives.

acting: Tommy Lee Jones is the elder character; I liked his survivalist/wilderness mentality. Benicio Del Toro is the homicidal younger character; he did a good job, but the movie needed to present his motivations a little more clearly. Connie Nielsen is the head agent in charge of the pursuit.

final word: Good, but could have been better with a little more explanation and a few more answers.

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