neumu [ cinematronic ]




	The Hunted
	William Friedkin Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Connie Nielsen 2003		In the ostensibly serious, plausibility-challenged thriller "The Hunted," a U.S. special forces operative trained as a methodical killer loses it and starts murdering people in the Pacific Northwest. The government needs to find and eliminate the rogue, so the man who trained him is called into play. Teacher and former pupil face off in hand-to-hand combat, fall off cliffs and slash away at each other with sharp objects. They turn out to be as indestructible as James Bond or Batman. For the final confrontation, when film convention requires a winner and a loser, you know somebody's goin' down. But often, unintentional humor generated by the combatants' unnatural durability undermines the tension. The instructor, tagged as the good guy, is a long-in-the-tooth expert at wilderness tracking and efficient slaughter. He's played by — who else? — Tommy Lee Jones. (Clint must've had other plans.) Benicio Del Toro brings all of the emotional depth of a video game protagonist to the role of the tough, younger protégé-gone-around-the-bend. Since director William Friedkin ("The Exorcist") knows how to shoot action, he rescues this from the trash heap.