The Hunted
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: March 14, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
14
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Walking in, I thought I knew what to expect, but i didn't anticipate how William Friedkin would jolt me with the immediate urgency of the action. This is not an arm's-length chase picture, but a close physical duel between its two main characters. Read full review
80
Washington PostRita Kempley
It's a good ride, briskly paced, well played and vividly photographed by Caleb Deschanel. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Engrossing as it is, The Hunted is more a showcase for formidable talent than anything else. It's a brainy, exciting but shallow show -- an expert's action movie that almost runs out of breath. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Isn't exactly fraught with psychological depth and nuance, but as a stalker-stalkee suspenser, the pic has some nice things going for it. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
While the plot of The Hunted is tiresome and the character development is phlegmatic, the picture holds fascination in its determination to trim away chat and guff and focus on tempo and filmic textures. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
All about the thrill of the chase, and Friedkin challenges the antiseptic spectacle and fantasy flamboyance of computer-enhanced blockbusters with a lean, mean manhunt thriller and gritty, hard-edged style. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Few modern thrillers aspire to look this striking. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
What keeps you watching isn't the story or the actors, none of whom are at the top of their form, but the relentlessness of Friedkin's vision. The film has great forward thrust -- Friedkin's a full-throttle guy -- and the director knows where to put the camera. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Aided by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, Friedkin works economically, lending the film the mark of a master craftsman, albeit of the coldly efficient variety. The terseness and surplus of technical skill make The Hunted surprisingly engaging. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Just a "Rambo" rehash. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Friedkin has huffed and puffed and blown up a single chase sequence into the whole damn movie. You got your hunted, you got your hunter, and away they go. And go and go. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Brutally exciting and sometimes brutally inept. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The Hunted is so openly, defiantly derivative of 1982's "First Blood," you figure there has to be a copyright lawsuit brewing right this very minute. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Routine, superficial manhunt stuff. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
In one slack exchange, Del Toro intimates that the government wants to shut him up because he knows too much, but apparently someone decided that this thing was silly enough already and the matter was dropped. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverAndy Klein
Jones seems to have trouble keeping up with the large amount of action he's required to participate in. And Del Toro seems ill-cast and ill-used. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is schlock -– by-the-numbers action that ignores character development to the point where we find it hard to care whether L.T. catches Hallam. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The Hunted stalks the masculine psyche with sharp knives, but it tracks its audience too noisily to bag us. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Aspiring to pure action -- several very long passages are wordless -- the movie ends up teetering on the brink of self-parody.
40
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
If your idea of a good time at the movies is watching two grown men go at it with fists and shivs and nasty wilderness booby-traps, then you're in luck. Read full review
40
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
The bottom line is the movie's a mess. Friedkin would like one to believe there's more than meets the eye to his tale of two trackers. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
As in "The Edge," in which Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins were stranded in the wilds, you can earn a wildernesssurvival merit badge just from watching. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Del Toro does remind you of Brando here; unfortunately, it's the Brando of ''Apocalypse Now,'' the one with the green face and puffy line readings. Jones fares better, even if he wears the same grieving-for-humanity expression throughout the film. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
To be fair, Friedkin does amp up the tension when called for. If only it were all for some purpose, or in service to a story that actually went somewhere. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Has so little going for it, you wonder if you've missed something. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyHenry Sheehan
This superficial nonsense is easily ignored; that the movie runs out of gas at the midpoint isn't. Read full review
30
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Essentially a reheating of 1982's "First Blood" -- a psychologically wounded warrior-vet pits himself against civilized America -- but the fallout this time is simultaneously more ruthless, less emotional, and duller. Read full review
30
Film ThreatRobert Learner
The movie appears brutally cut which might explain its inability to develop a thought, much less any narrative momentum. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Friedkin is steeped in gore, like some cinematic Macbeth, and it's obscuring his artistic vision. Read full review
25
USA TodayMike Clark
You keep waiting for there to be more, but there never is -- other than the fact that it all gets gorier and uglier as the dyspeptic look on Jones' face progresses from a four- to a six-a-day scotch-and-peppermint schnapps hangover. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
The only prize this shamelessly derivative schlock is likely to be in the running for is the year's dullest thriller. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
It soon gets down to its real business: fights, face-offs, and showdowns mired in the shallowest sort of Hollywood machismo. Read full review
20
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The stripped-down narrative is almost an apology for the ludicrous story -- but it's just not enough of one. Read full review
10
SalonCharles Taylor
It's an A-list movie for the most brain-dead elements of the action-movie crowd. Read full review
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