THE HUNTED
A film review by Rodney H. Morrow
Copyright 1995 Rodney H. Morrow
Stars: Christopher Lambert
John Lone
Joan Chen
MPAA Rating: R
THE HUNTED is a variation of the old story. Boy (Christopher Lambert) meets girl in a hotel bar. Boy and girl leave and have sex. Boy is dumped by girl. Girl is killed by Master Ninja Assassin (John Lone). This sets up the whole premise of THE HUNTED. As turns, out the Master Ninja Assassin has never allowed anyone to either see him or live, and Boy makes the mistake of doing both. But the Boy is helped by a Master Samurai and his Wife (Joan Chen).
All in all, THE HUNTED is a fairly interesting concept, but it is just not handled in the right way. The script twists and turns until we find out that the Master Ninja and the Master Samurai are really a Japanese version of the Hatfields and McCoys. Still, Lone puts in a solid performance as the troubled ninja. He wants to leave his life, but he must kill more so he can. As he laments to himself "Why must I bathe in some much blood to get clean?" Lambert sleepwalks though his role as the hapless American thrust into this fight.
As with most movies of the this type the action is key. And there a several excellent sword fights, one on train, as Master Samurai fights a group of Ninjas. Another good one is when a Police Detective explains how there are no ninja's anymore in Japan, while we cut to a group of them killing his officer's to get to Lambert. But still, THE HUNTED falls under the heavy weight of an overly pretentious script, with an ending that is to corny to be believed. Take it for what it should have been, a mindless martial arts movie. Don't pay full price, or wait until it comes out on video if you really want to see it.
On a scale of 0 to 10 Ninjas, THE HUNTED gets 4.5 Ninjas
-- Rodney H Morrow rmorrow@iastate.edu
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