The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party ***

Directed by Richard Shepard
Written by Richard Shepard

Starring:
Richard Gere as Simon
Terrence Howard as Duck
Jesse Eisenberg as Benjamin
James Brolin as Franklin Harris
Ljubomir Kerekes as The Fox
Diane Kruger as Mirjana

103 Minutes(Rated R for strong language and some violent content. )
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"The Hunting Party" is a whole bunch of things meshed up into one. One one side we have an action, suspense thriller. We have some moments of extreme tension, violence, and it works like an adventure story. One another side its an interesting commentary (and quite a fun one at that) about how far the United States government is going to actually catch war criminals, or they lack of it. And then one a third side it's, and I really think this is where the heart of the film lies, is a buddy comedy. And I wouldn't expect anything less of Richard Shepard, whose last film-a much better one in my opinion-was "The Matador," and even though that was a character study of a hit man, a mini-thriller, and a love story, it was at the core a buddy comedy. And Shepard has this gift for writing some very funny exchanges between men, and they are played so well by the actors he casts. In "The Matador" it was, of course, Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, and here we have Richard Gere-on a role from his early start in the good film "The Hoax"-and Terrence Howard, who will eventually win an Oscar one day. Not for this, but for something. And Shepard has come once again to make a lesser film than "The Matador," but one with a bit more relevance to politics and the situation we are going through right now. And its cleverness comes from the fact that he connects a totally different situation to ours now, and the only reference to today's times comes at the very end, when he is explaining what was real in the film and what was altered.

"The Hunting Party" is stemmed from a true story, and a disclaimer at the start reads "Only the most ridiculous parts of this story are true." We are introduced to Simon Hunt, a journalist who is at the top of his form. With his camera man, Duck, the two are a hit and hit team, shooting wars in the best ways all around the world. That all ends when Simon ends up going crazy on the air reporting in Bosnia, and he gets fired, while Duck get promoted. A few years later, Duck is in Bosnia reporting a minor story after the war is done, and he runs into Simon who proposes to him the story of a lifetime. Simon has inside information to the location of The Fox-the most wanted war criminal in Bosnia. He convinces Duck to spend a few days with him searching for this criminal, who also was responsible for killing the only woman that Simon could say he really loved. They are also aided by Benjamin, the young son of the network vice president, who manages to weed his way into the mission, and this motly crew goes off into the jungle to find The Fox, and so Simon can get revenge, the reward money, and some of the respect that he lost.

Richard Shepard isn't the greatest director in the world. I had the same problem with "The Matador" as I do here. He uses far too many edits. Everything two seconds or so it felt like there was a different shot, even during heated conversation. It was a bit distracting, and took away from the acting that was on the screen. I would have preferred more like extended takes of the good chemistry between Gere and Howard, who are both in top form here. The writing does do a good mixture of comedy and action, although some of the title cards and at times even the music-done by Rolfe Kent-makes it seem to be a bit more quirky and offbeat than it should be. Even the words "ridiculous" in the disclaimer, and the word "outrageous" on the poster makes me feel like Shepard was debating on the tone for this-should it be a straight comedy, should it mix comedy and suspense, or should it be straight satire. Shepard is also the king at getting big actors to be in his film for only a few seconds, and we have minor work by people like Dylan Baker, Diane Kruger, James Brolin, and Kerry Washington, who was prominent in the trailer and billed fourth, but was in the movie for about four minutes.

In the end "The Hunting Party" is a worthy satire on America at the time, even though most of the action takes place years ago. While this crew of journalists go looking for a war criminal, the CIA has problems finding him for years. This raises the questions of if they are actually looking. Maybe they have more to gain by not finding him than by finding him easy. "The Hunting Party' is what I call a prelude to Oscar season-it came out the first weekend, and while it won't win any awards, it is a good start to the proper "adult movie season." It's a good film and nothing more. A lot of fun, intelligent, and well acted.

Now Playing At:

Landmark Sunshine Cinemas

AMC Lincoln Square and IMAX