Reaction
The overall critical reaction to the movie was somewhat negative. It scored a 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes out of 144 reviews. Many reviewers noted striking similarities to First Blood. Rolling Stone called it "Just a Rambo rehash," while Rex Reed of the New York Observer called it a "Ludicrous, plotless, ho-hum tale of lurid confrontation." The UK magazine, Total Film said the film was "scarcely exciting to watch."
However, the film also received praise from other high profile critics, particularly for the fact it kept the special effects and stunts restrained. For example, Roger Ebert said, "We've seen so many fancy high-tech computer-assisted fight scenes in recent movies that we assume the fighters can fly. They live in a world of gravity-free speed-up. Not so with Friedkin's characters." He reviewed the film on his own site and scored it 3 and 1/2 stars out of four. Time Out London was also positive saying; "Friedkin's lean, mean thriller shows itself more interested in process than context, subtlety and character development pared away in favour of headlong momentum and crunching set pieces."
Read more about this topic: The Hunted (2003 film)
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