Barnes & Noble

Edgy and suspenseful, with bursts of shocking violence, this cat-and-mouse thriller represents a welcome return to form for director William Friedkin, the erstwhile wunderkind whose early successes (The French Connection and The Exorcist) preceded a string of highly uneven films, many of them box-office flops. The Hunted demonstrates that Friedkin hasn’t lost the knack of keeping viewers on the edge of their seats. Tommy Lee Jones plays L. T. Bonham, a former trainer of Special Forces assassins recruited by a beleaguered FBI agent (Connie Nielsen) to help track down one of Bonham’s former pupils, Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro), who is currently using his skills to murder hunters in the Oregon wilderness. L.T. recognizes all too well how difficult this will be: Hallam is not only extraordinarily talented, he’s also younger, faster, stronger, and possibly even smarter than his teacher. A great deal of The Hunted seems to have been "borrowed" from the original Rambo story, First Blood. But Friedkin and his stars make the story their own. Jones is excellent in the way he suggests a nagging fear that, as a middle-aged man, he might not be equal to the task assigned him. And yet, feeling somehow responsible for Hallam, he pushes on. For his part, Del Toro plays the deranged assassin with sincerity, conviction, and even warmth. This last trait is obvious in his scenes with Leslie Stefanson, who’s excellent as the single mother who seems to be Hallam’s only intimate friend. Friedkin stages the pursuit with great skill; every time he teeters on the brink of incredulity, he pulls himself back. The result is a grimly realistic but oddly compelling chase film. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

A rogue special-forces soldier is tracked down by his former mentor in this action thriller from director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist). In his first role since winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2001, Benicio del Toro stars as Aaron Hallam, one of the U.S. military's most skilled hand-to-hand combat operatives. In the years following his successful assassination of a Serbian warlord in late-'90s Kosovo, Hallam finds himself plagued by traumatic flashbacks of death and destruction, so much so that when he finally returns home, he regresses into a feral, survivalist state in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. There, he deliberately and elaborately hunts and kills poachers who happen to cross his path. When the FBI investigates the murders, they call in the man who taught Hallam everything he knows: retiree L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones). As the instructor pursues his unhinged former pupil, Bonham begins to learn about key events in Hallam's life that pushed him over the edge. Michael Hastings

Washington Post

A good ride, briskly paced, well played and vividly photographed. Rita Kempley

Chicago Sun-Times

1/2
What makes the movie fresh is that it doesn't stand back and regard its pursuit as an exercise, but stays very close to the characters and focuses on the actual physical reality of their experience. Roger Ebert

Los Angeles Times

The film has great forward thrust -- Friedkin's a full-throttle guy -- and the director knows where to put the camera. Manohla Dargis

Product Details

• UPC: 097360568448
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:34:00
• Sales Rank: 26,013

Features:

DVD MENU