I personally believe that 2004's THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, directed by Paul Greengrass, changed the look of action thrillers forever. Gone was the clean, sometimes lethargic of Hollywood thrillers of old, to be replaced by fast editing, shaky cam action and gung-ho story lines. THE HUNTED is one of the last of the old-school fugitive thrillers and inevitably it pales in comparison to BOURNE, although somewhat ironically the music rips off the original BOURNE IDENTITY at one point.
The film itself is pretty much a re-run of THE FUGITIVE and US MARSHALLS, thus completing an unofficial Tommy Lee Jones trilogy of such thrillers. It's got a noticeably harder edge than those movies though, particularly when it comes to the hard-hitting action; there's an eye-popping knife fight in this one which beats anything I can remember in a 1990s Hollywood fight scene in terms of realism and brutality, outside of a Seagal film of course.
Unfortunately THE HUNTED has two things working against it, and surprisingly one of those things is William Friedkin. For the guy who brought us THE FRENCH CONNECTION, this is Friedkin off the boil; the direction is stodgy and somehow lacking, leaving the viewer coldly distanced from the action. The second problem is with the script, which never fleshes out the antagonist and never explores the back story properly, which is really annoying. You've never quite sure whether Del Toro's the bad guy or not, and the viewer is left feeling wrongfooted as a result. It's just unsatisfying.
There are also some rather silly goofs along the way, including a scene where a guy somehow builds an extensive trap in about five minutes, and also gets the ability to superheat metal on a wood fire. Del Toro and Jones are on strong form here, but the rest of the cast is weak, particularly the actresses involved. But the action is plentiful and well-shot and you could do a lot worse, so this is middle of the road rather than bad.
The film itself is pretty much a re-run of THE FUGITIVE and US MARSHALLS, thus completing an unofficial Tommy Lee Jones trilogy of such thrillers. It's got a noticeably harder edge than those movies though, particularly when it comes to the hard-hitting action; there's an eye-popping knife fight in this one which beats anything I can remember in a 1990s Hollywood fight scene in terms of realism and brutality, outside of a Seagal film of course.
Unfortunately THE HUNTED has two things working against it, and surprisingly one of those things is William Friedkin. For the guy who brought us THE FRENCH CONNECTION, this is Friedkin off the boil; the direction is stodgy and somehow lacking, leaving the viewer coldly distanced from the action. The second problem is with the script, which never fleshes out the antagonist and never explores the back story properly, which is really annoying. You've never quite sure whether Del Toro's the bad guy or not, and the viewer is left feeling wrongfooted as a result. It's just unsatisfying.
There are also some rather silly goofs along the way, including a scene where a guy somehow builds an extensive trap in about five minutes, and also gets the ability to superheat metal on a wood fire. Del Toro and Jones are on strong form here, but the rest of the cast is weak, particularly the actresses involved. But the action is plentiful and well-shot and you could do a lot worse, so this is middle of the road rather than bad.