Highly Overrated But Still Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A Disappointing Continuation

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Samurai movie with well staged scenes , colorful ambient , professionally directed and Japan set . The story starts with a quote by Daidoh Yuzan , 16th Century : ¨One who is a Samurai must before all things keep constantly in mind . By day by night..the fact that he has to die¨. It deals with Paul (Christopher Lambert) a computer-chip executive from New York travels to Tokyo , there he finds a gorgeous Japanese girl (Joan Chen) . After that , he inadvertently interrupting his meeting by a killing . As he is now the only man to have seen the figure of the cult's warrior-chief (John Lone) named Makato and nobody has survived after seeing his face , as he soon realizes that he is taking on a markedly foreshortened life-expectancy . Then , he joins forces with a friendly samurai couple (Harada and Shimada) who helps him . Later on , at a speed train takes place a violent face off between Ninja-sect hoodlums and Sensei , his wife along with Paul ; the result is an astonishing massacre . Ultimately , Paul recuperating on an island-fortress and learning about life and sword-play . Finally , there occurs the definitive final duel between Ninjas from Makato clan and Takeda faction . This Ninja film packs bloody swordplay , spectacular martial-arts and noisy action sequences . This is a colourful , mostly filmed in Japan and medium budget movie ; leave no cliché untouched , though the rife fighting is magnificently staged . Amid the glamour of the scenarios is developed an intrigue about feud among Japanese factions , a two-centuries-old blood-confrontation with the Ninja and Takeda clan , including betrayal , crime and exploring the dark side of vengeance . Overwhelming and rousing fights with deadly use of Katanas , feet and palms , along with such weapons as swords , sticks , lances and ¨Shuriken¨. It contains usual learning period in which the naive businessman learns a little about courage, honor, love, swordsmanship and loyalty . The picture is full of tumultuous sequences with frenetic action , surprises , climatic combats and groundbreaking struggles . Passable acting by Christopher Lambert as a businessman who finds himself struggling to survive in the wrong place at the wrong time , and John Lone is good as a feared Ninja chief . And enjoyable couple formed by Yoshio Harada as Takeda Sensei and Yôko Shimada as Mieko Takeda . Nice production design with exterior shots of the train were filmed on location on Japan, however, the interior shots were filmed on a set at Bridge Studios in Vancouver, B.C. ; the scenery rushing by outside the windows was simulated using large rotating drums with "blurred" scenery painted on it . Colorful cinematography by Jack Conroy , full of red shades and bright images . Monotonous and syncopated musical score by means of continuous drum sounds .The motion picture produced in moderated budget was well directed by J.F. Lawton, though with no originally . He wrote a number of feature film scripts including one called "Three Thousand", which was selected by the Sundance Institute , Touchstone Pictures purchased the script and later he changed the title to Pretty Woman (1990). He also wrote a script for Blankman (1994) , Chain reaction (1996) and DOA: Dead or Alive (2006), a film based on the huge video game series success of the same name . After that , he then wrote and directed Jackson (2008), a failed comedy-drama-musical . ¨The hunted¨ turns out to be one an acceptable film , including exciting attacks and groundbreaking fighting perfectly staged , the result is a strong entry for action buffs

I believe liked this movie The Hunted better ten years ago, when I saw part of it on television. Despite I like watching movies uncut, I was that much younger. This was not a bad movie, I found it be all right. It was about an American businessman Paul Racine witnessing a murder of a local Japanese woman. The Ninja Cult attempted to kill Racine, and after learning of Racine's survival, they were out to finish the job. Today, I told a friend about this movie, and he thought of it as a comedy. If anyone seen this movie and saw the great lengths and amount of people, they will kill in order get to their target, they would not find it to be so funny. I recommend to this movie to anyone who likes intensity.

"Quotes From The Movie As Messages" (You must except your fate with courage) : It's for this movie's viewer ! (I'll wait you in hell) : To all the makers of the movie ! (Now he'll rest easier) : About anyone preferred not to watch such a movie ! "Innocent Questions"Why the evil ninja fighter killed the girl at the start ?! I didn't quite get that ! How could a peaceful American businessman manage to runaway from a trained bunch of assassins ? And twice ?! What their point of view in slaughtering all the train's passengers ? Why the big ninja fighter didn't go to that massacre.. He might've had some real fun ! What about his conscience's sudden waking ? That was totally unexplained ?? How the idiot rookie (Lambert) could kill one of the greatest ninja warriors by himself ??, and what is (Lambert) doing in this movie anyway ? And honestly How I could stand all of that in the first place ?!!!"Try To Be Reasonable.. Unlike Them !"I think it's all a Japanese story, production and stars but they needed a name to sell the movie internationally good, so they added the character of (Christopher Lambert) yet they never made it in accord with the rest of the elements so you'll sense all the time that he's an alien who's out of the picture, or a character which has never been made correctly ! As he's not the guest star, the sidekick, the smart student.. etc. They involved him, the character so its actor, and in too hasty way also !"So What's Good in Here ?!!"Despite the impressive performance of the veteran (Yoshio Harada) as (Takeda) the stiff avenger and the mighty hero.. It was utterly poor production, a TV's kind of work and it seemed as one of the poorest TV's work ever ! The direction was a genius but at destroying any good moments especially the fights' scenes which were too dull to continue watching them (and those were the best things you may expect from a movie like this !!). I've only liked 2 seconds : when (Lambert) decides to leave the ring after the Japanese instructor refused to train him, and the image of the whole battlefield when the evil ninja stands alone in the dark among the corpses waiting for the instructor, both of them looked visually strong but still just 2 seconds in 106 minutes !!"Some Comments"The Razzie's award is not that impartial ! Otherwise why to forget a powerful candidate like this one ? Maybe they're giving the awards to the same kind of movies but when it had been produced in millions of dollars ! How merciful they are, and How underrated (The Hunted) is ! It could've been great for the (Worst Screen Couple)'s award ! After I finished the movie (or the movie finished me !) I found myself say : "OH How many movies for Marilyn Monroe I've got to watch just to forget the effect of THIS ?!!". Did you notice that I've said "to forget the effect" not the movie itself as it's assured to be forgettable by itself ! The beautiful thing about (Christopher Lambert) is that he's not (Steven Seagal) ! Thank God that they didn't bring Mr. Seagal for such a role, the Japanese girl could've butchered herself already just because of meeting him !

Christopher Lambert is a foreigner in Japan who gets caught up in a secret world of ninja cults and samurai warriors.... The Hunted is full of Japanese clichés - but that gives it its charm - the film *likes* Japan and enjoys sticking in such quintessentially Japanese scenery like castles, pachinko parlours, robotic toilets, the bullet train, taiko drummers (the famous drumming group Kodo appear), wooden bridges over rivers, paper screen doors, swordmakers, and of course ninja and samurai.Lambert is charming throughout, his encounter with a mysterious lady in a nightclub is a sexy cliché, but Lambert's character is always likable and decent, and not stereotypically macho - he has to cower in a corner in some of the scenes where ninjas attack (although to be fair he was injured...) When Lambert manages to escape the first wave of (bloody) ninja attacks he goes to an island full of samurai who are dedicated to wiping out the evil ninja cult. In some ways it becomes a bit like The Last Samurai at this point, as Lambert's fish out of water has to learn how to handle a katana and bonds with a swordsmith.It is silly, the dialogue is often weak, but it has some nice imagery of Japan, some brutal swordplay, and successfully keeps the film pacy and ... well.. cool. Ninjas are cool. Having said that, it is low budget, the dialogue is often rubbish: (Cop: 'There are no ninjas in modern Japan!' {gets shot with arrow, dying} 'Looks like I was wrong! Lambert: 'Looks like?') Ho ho ho.