![]() ![]() While this title has been out for over a year, The Hunted unfortunately remains one of the most underrated movies of all time.¿ And while it may sound funny, it¿s actually a damn good Christopher Lambert movie. This is where the DVD truly excels.¿ From the opening beats from the soundtrack courtesy of Japanese Drum super group Kodo, you know you¿re in for a wild ride.¿ While the music booms and shakes you in your seat, the ambient sound and expertly done separation effects surround and draw you deeper into the movie.įrom the pouring rain to the falling Pachinko balls, this is a killer audio experience.īeing a Universal title, you get the standard pages of production notes and Biographies as well as the very nicely done trailer.īut as good as it is, the disc really could have used a commentary track from Lawton or Lambert. ![]() Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the film looks very nice with little to no sign of artifacting.¿ The transfer¿s strong colors reproduce the film¿s sometimes surreal cinematography down to the letter.¿ Racine, Takeda, and his wife Mieko (Yoko Shimada) are in the back of the train and as he moves forward to hold them back, she begins to evacuate everyone in the back cars.¿ Meeting in the middle, Takeda single-handedly takes on the invading ninjas.¿ This sequence is as intense as martial arts action gets and is among the most imaginatively choreographed fights I¿ve ever seen.īut if that doesn't get you attention, maybe the sight of Lambert in boxer shorts covered in flying pigs will. THE HUNTED 1995 MOVIELambert turns in his most charismatic and series performance here in many a year and this is certainly his best movie.¿ The same can be said for Lone who is miles away from his campy one-note performance in The Shadow, which is the best known of his non-art house films.īut the real breakout star here is Harada who plays a man bound by honor and tradition who will win revenge for a event that nearly destroyed his bloodline ages before he was born.¿ Also of note is Tak Kubota as Takeda¿s drunken master weapons smith who sobers up long enough to teach Lambert some moves.Īnd while there is plenty of bloody action sequences, one in particular must be seen to be believed.¿ Near the middle of the movie as Racine and Takeda escape Tokyo via high-speed bullet train, there is a near twenty-minute massacre that ranks as one of the most impressive action sequences of all time.¿ The Makato, who boarded the train dressed as pro golfers, begin at the back of the train and sweep forward killing everyone in their path as they look for Racine. Lawton, who among other films wrote Under Siege and created the hit Pamela Anderson series V.I.P., the film is one of few ❺merican¿ ninja movies that seems to have an underlining respect of the noble if violent traditions of the legendary sect.¿ Filmed in part on location, this is a very Japanese movie filled with conventions and ideas not seen in most American explosion based films of a similar ilk. ![]() The Hunted is a great piece of martial arts filmmaking.¿ Written and directed by J.F. Lambert plays Paul Racine, a yuppie scum salesman who meets a mystery woman (Joan Chen) in the hotel bar one night during a business trip to Japan.¿ And in doing so he does what every red-blooded male would do: get her drunk on sake and takes her to bed.Īll goes swell until she tosses him out of her room saying they can never met again.¿ See what he doesn't know is that Chen is a high price call girl who knows there's a hit out on her and that he was her one last fling before a trip into the great beyond.Īnd sure enough not two minutes after he leaves does a clan of ninjas called The Makato, led by the evil Kinjo (John Lone), show up ready to strike.¿ As he prepares to take her head, Chen manages to convince Kinjo to show her his face just as Racine returns and all hell breaks loose resulting in Chen¿s death.īut Racine somehow survives and being that he is the only person who has ever seen Kinjo¿s face, he must be taken out and fast.¿ But thanks to a kindhearted ER doctor, Racine gets aid from Takeda (Yoshio Harada), a master of Kenjutsu and descendant of a great samurai family.¿ However Takeda¿s motives may not be entirely honorable. ![]() Let alone a GOOD sword-swinging epic? THE MOVIE But did you ever think you¿d see the star of Highlander in a sword-swinging epic where he wasn¿t a master swordsman? ![]()
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