![]() ![]() “Oh God said to Abraham, ‘Kill me a son,'” Cash intones, his gravel voice lending the proceedings a weight that will be wholly unwarranted in about ten minutes. It begins in a rage, with those ominous, painfully self-important lines from Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited,” recited by Johnny Cash Himself (currently in brilliant resurrection in his single-and-video, a cover of Trent Reznor’s “Hurt”). And The Hunted is a mess, no matter it got that way. Such conjecturing is mildly intriguing, but it only leads back to the film now released. With the original project yet unmade, the disjointedness of the second (or rather, now the first), scripted by David and Peter Griffiths (who wrote Collateral Damage) might make sense. Or it may have to do with the fact that it is a designated “prequel” to a film that has not yet been shot, also to be directed by Friedkin and star Jones, tentatively called Shooter and based on Stephen Hunter’s novel, Point of Impact. This rampant confusion may have to do with the film’s reported rush to production, due to the infamous actors’ strike that wasn’t, followed by a lengthy period on the shelf (consider that most of those non-strike fallout moves were released last year). None of the characters is particularly compelling or committed, and so, you end up not caring much what happens to any of them. But while this might allow for an intriguing ambiguity of moral ground, the film rather lapses into a soupy lack of perspective. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones, survivor of Friedkin’s Rules of Engagement) and mostly-by-the-book FBI agent Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen, about to be a survivor of John McTiernan’s Basic). In fact, it cuts around three ways, among Aaron and two other characters, super-sober teacher of assassins L.T. It might be argued that this turmoil reflects the poor guy’s internal roilings, but William Friedkin’s movie never makes that commitment. Unfortunately, Aaron’s dilemma is exacerbated by its position in a film that becomes increasingly incoherent. And, given that Aaron is by definition a “killing machine,” he has a hard time expressing himself. As Aaron Hallam, a hyper-trained military assassin who loses his bearing when he slices open one too many gullets, De Toro is burdened with the film’s emotional and moral significance. Benicio Del Toro looks appropriately haunted in The Hunted.
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