"The Hunted"

Finally caught up with this movie on DVD, only because it was filmed here in Portland. But boy, it was really terrible. I mean, abyssmal. The script had a kernel of interest, but it was full of half-formed ideas and mostly was cause for a sequence of clumsy action scenes. The direction, by once great William Freidkin, felt like one of those movies that had a rough-cut of two hours and got edited down to 90. Although I generally prefer 90 minute movies--it just feels like the right lengh most of the time--I think some longer movies are worth every minute. But it's as if the studio must have understand it was bad before they even released it, so they figured it could just be pared down to its action scenes and slung into the market like supermarket chicken already on the verge of its expiration date. Benicio Del Toro's career really failed to capitalize on his post-Oscar momentum. And Tommy Lee Jones--has he no shame in just dupicating his Fugitive role for a paycheck? But it was fun seeing Portland as the set for a movie. I can't imagine the horror show that would constitute a filmed-in-Portland movie marathon. Other than Gus Van Sant's first few films, of course.

Comments

[Irene]

My favorite part was imagining Benicio del Toro living on Ross Island forging weapons and building enormous Ewok-style lumber traps in the course of an hour or so. Has anyone who isn't actually from Portland ever made a decent film set in Portland?

[Valarie]

"Ewok-style lumber traps"! Exactly. Irene, you're so funny. Benicio was kind of like a grunting, hairy Ewok himself, although it's not like the movie had any real scenes for the stars to actually act in. It reminded me of my friend Neil's assessment of "The Last of the Mohicans." He said it was good, but it should really have been called "Daniel Day-Lewis Running and Jumping and Carrying Things".

[Irene]

...and What His Hair Looks Like When Tossed Whilst Doing These Things" Did you know that the name of Day-Lewis's character was "Natty Bumpo"?