Review: Frank Miller's "The Spirit" Has Spirit

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Spirit (2008)
Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of stylized violence and action, some sexual content and brief nudity
DIRECTOR: Frank Miller
WRITER: Frank Miller (based upon the comic book created by Will Eisner)
PRODUCERS: Deborah Del Prete, Gigi Pritzker, and Michael E. Uslan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bill Pope (director of photography)
EDITOR: Gregory Nussbaum
COMPOSER: David Newman

SUPERHERO/ACTION/CRIME/FANTASY

Starring: Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Dan Lauria, Sarah Paulson, Scarlett Johansson, Jaime King, Stana Katic, Paz Vega, and Louis Lombardi

The Spirit is a comic book character created by the late Will Eisner. From June 2, 1940 until October 5, 1952, The Spirit appeared in a 16-page comic book that was inserted into newspapers the way the comics section, the coupon pages, and Parade magazine, etc. still are. Some readers called it “The Spirit Section.” In late 2008, Eisner’s hero finally made it to movie theatres in The Spirit, a film written and directed by a comic book creator turned movie director, Frank Miller. Among Miller’s creations is the graphic novel, 300, which became a worldwide hit movie in 2007.

The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is the guardian of Central City, but before he was a masked man, The Spirit was a cop named Denny Colt (Macht). Seemingly murdered in the line of duty, Denny escaped death and continued to fight crime, working outside the law as The Spirit. He fights crime from the shadows, and his war takes him to the city’s rundown warehouses, to deep in the damp catacombs beneath the city, or to the windswept waterfront, among other unsavory places. No place is too high, too low, or too dangerous for this masked crusader.

His most fearsome adversary is The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), a loud and flamboyant kingpin of crime with a penchant for mass murder. The Octopus plots to destroy Central City and to conquer the world, but first he needs to augment his powers with the legendary Blood of Heracles. On its way to Central City, the vase containing the blood falls into the hands of an old acquaintance of The Octopus, Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), who also has a past with The Spirit. Now, The Spirit must face both The Octopus, who is determined to finally kill him, and Saref, the woman who once broke his heart and who may now break him.

Visually, The Spirit is dazzling, even brilliant at time. The shimmering colors, the extravagant costumes, and the lavish sets, as well as the shifting environments and complicated landscape that is the vibrant Central City. The characters are generally good, especially The Spirit and Dan Lauria’s Commissioner Dolan; Eva Mendes’ bombshell Sand Saref stands out among all the movie’s female characters. Sam Jackson’s Octopus is somewhere between edgy-meets-whacky and too over the top.

The Spirit was generally panned by critics and fans and was a box office failure. I think this film is too visually adventurous, and it is certainly experimental and daring in blending the cool static graphics of comic books and the basic compositional visual style of Film-Noir with cutting edge cinematography and computer enhancement and effects.

The film’s problem is that there is a disconnect between Frank Miller’s storytelling, in particularly the screenplay, and how the actors perform that story. On the technical end of the film, Miller seems to have gotten what he wanted. Directing the narrative and the actors’ performances and writing are the problems. The plot is okay and is quite straight-forward. The execution of the plot as a narrative is the problem. The story is awkward and has too many weird and/or unnecessary digressions. Quite a bit of dialogue is either too mannered or too stylized and when the actors perform the dialogue it sounds awkward and staged.

Still, The Spirit is too gorgeous to be considered a bomb or a failure. Its lustrous colors seem natural, almost organic compared to the look of Sin City and 300, two movies adapted from Frank Miller comic books. Focusing on what is good about The Spirit suggests that Miller has a future as a movie director, because this movie is just too visually alluring and too imaginative to be lumped in with truly bad movies.

5 of 10
B-

Monday, April 19, 2010

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World Premiere of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" Remake, April 27th

Warner Bros. Pictures News: Save the Date for World Premiere of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET Tuesday, April 27


--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warner Bros. Pictures:

WHAT:
Red carpet arrivals at the world premiere of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET on Tuesday, April 27th at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

WHO:
From the film: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy, Rooney Mara, Thomas Dekker, Connie Britton, producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, and director Samuel Bayer. Celebrity guests to follow.

WHEN:
Tuesday, April 27, 2010

WHERE:
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, 6925 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood


Crew Arrivals: 5:00PM
Celebrity Arrivals: 6:00PM
Screening: 7:00PM

About the film:Nancy, Kris, Quentin, Jesse and Dean all live on Elm Street. At night, they’re all having the same dream—of the same man, wearing a tattered red and green striped sweater, a beaten fedora half-concealing a disfigured face and a gardener’s glove with knives for fingers. And they’re all hearing the same frightening voice…

One by one, he terrorizes them within the curved walls of their dreams, where the rules are his, and the only way out is to wake up.

But when one of their number dies a violent death, they soon realize that what happens in their dreams happens for real, and the only way to stay alive is to stay awake. Turning to each other, the four surviving friends try to uncover how they became part of this dark fairytale, hunted by this dark man. Functioning on little to no sleep, they struggle to understand why them, why now, and what their parents aren’t telling them.

Buried in their past is a debt that has just come due, and to save themselves, they will have to plunge themselves into the mind of the most twisted nightmare of all… Freddy Krueger.

New Line Cinema presents a Platinum Dunes Production, “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” a contemporary re-imagining of the seminal horror classic, starring Academy Award® nominee Jackie Earle Haley (“Little Children,” “Watchmen”) as Freddy Krueger. The film is directed by award-winning music video and commercial director Samuel Bayer (Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”), marking his feature film directorial debut.

A talented ensemble of young actors play the teenagers now taking on Freddy Krueger, led by Rooney Mara (“Urban Legend: Bloody Mary”) as Nancy, Kyle Gallner (“The Haunting in Connecticut”) as Quentin, Katie Cassidy (“Taken,” TV’s “Supernatural” & “Melrose Place”) as Kris, Thomas Dekker (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) as Jesse, and Kellan Lutz (“Twilight,” “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”) as Dean.

The parents of the Elm Street kids are played by a talented supporting cast featuring veteran actor Clancy Brown (“Highlander,” “The Shawshank Redemption”), Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”), and Lia D. Mortensen.

Bayer directed “A Nightmare on Elm Street” from a screenplay by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer, story by Strick. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is based on characters created by Wes Craven in the 1984 sleeper horror hit of the same name. That film went on to become one of the horror genre’s longest-running, most successful and innovative film series.

The film is produced by Platinum Dunes’ Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, whose company has enjoyed tremendous success with a host of re-imagined horror franchises, including “Friday the 13th,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” and “The Amityville Horror.” The executive producers are Mike Drake, Robert Shaye, Michael Lynne, Richard Brener, Walter Hamada and Dave Neustadter, with John Rickard serving as co-producer.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET has been rated “R” by the Motion Picture Association of America for “violence, disturbing images and some sexuality.”

http://www.nightmareonelmstreet.com/

New Line Cinema presents a Platinum Dunes Production, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, being released on Friday, April 30, 2010 by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

"Review: "Sin City" Crazy Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 56 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Frank Miller’s Sin City (2005)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – R for sustained strong stylized violence, nudity, and sexual content including dialogue
DIRECTORS: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller (with special guest Quentin Tarantino)
WRITER: Robert Rodriguez (based upon the Sin City graphic novels created by Frank Miller)
PRODUCERS: Elizabeth Avellan, Robert Rodriguez, and Frank Miller
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Rodriguez
EDITOR: Robert Rodriguez

CRIME/ACTION/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Nick Stahl, Powers Boothe, Rutger Hauer, Elijah Wood, Rosario Dawson, Benicio del Toro, Jamie King, Devon Aoki, Brittany Murphy, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carla Gugino, Josh Hartnett, and Michael Madsen

Robert Rodriguez, director of films like Once Upon a Time in Mexico and the Spy Kids franchise, really wanted to direct a film adaptation of comic book creator Frank Miller’s series of graphic novels, Sin City. Miller, who blew up in the 80’s with by revitalizing and reworking Marvel Comics’ Daredevil and DC Comics Batman character in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, had already said “no” about a dozen times, according to Newsweek magazine, with Rodriguez being the 12th.

However, Rodriguez wouldn’t give up. He invited Miller to Austin, TX for what was supposed to be a test shoot, but what was really Rodriguez’s opportunity to show Miller what he already done in pre-production to make the film look like Frank Miller’s Sin City and not Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City. Rodriguez had already shot a short piece, an adaptation of a Miller Sin City short story “The Customer is Always Right,” with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton playing the roles. Miller was convinced, and the footage reportedly also amazed the actors whom Rodriguez wanted to cast in the feature film when he showed it to them.

The film, Sin City, (or by its full title Frank Miller’s Sin City) is literally the comic book. This isn’t a film adaptation of a comic book character like the Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman franchises. This is a movie as a comic book – a frame by frame (or panel by panel, in the case of a comic book) transfer of pictures from a comic book onto film and translated into moving pictures and a film narrative. Let it be called Rodriguez and Miller’s Sin City, and, thus far, it’s best movie I’ve seen this year.

The film adapts three of Miller’s Sin City graphic novels, which are set in and around Basin City or, as it’s better known, Sin City. The Hard Goodbye features Marv (Mickey Rourke, in prosthetics), a tough-as-nails, nearly impossible to kill street fighter/killing machine, who is out for revenge for the killing of a hooker named Goldie (Jamie King), who showed him a good time and the only touch of kindness he ever received. His search leads him to Kevin (Elijah Wood), a psycho serial killer who moves and bounces around like Spider-Man.

The second is The Big Fat Kill, which finds Dwight (Clive Owen), one of the few Sin City good guys, trying to help the hookers of Old Town, after they unknowingly kill Jackie Boy (Benicio del Toro), a cop – a corrupt cop, but still a cop, and his posse. Killing a cop will end the truce that’s protected the ladies of Old Town via a deal that keeps the mob and the cops out of Old Town, as long as the cops are paid off and the girls never kill a cop, even one who gets rough with them. Now, Dwight has to keep evidence of Jackie Boy’s death a secret (by making sure his body, and then later, his severed head, not get into the wrong hands). Dwight’s lover and leader of the Amazonian prostitutes, Gail (Rosario Dawson), and a ninja super ho named Miho (Devon Aoki) assist him, but they find themselves up against a ruthless one-eyed (the other is a gold ball) mob henchmen named Manute (Michael Clarke Duncan).

The final vignette is That Yellow Bastard, which is actually split in two. One part plays before “The Hard Goodbye” and “The Big Fat Kill” and the other closes the main section of the film. In the first part, Hartigan (Bruce Willis), a good cop with a bad ticker saves Nancy (Makenzie Vega) an 11-year girl, from Rourk, Jr. (Nick Stahl), a raging pedophile and the son of the powerful Senator Rourk (Powers Boothe). Although Hartigan saves the girl, his partner (Michael Madsen) shoots him down to keep him from killing Rourk, Jr.. In the second and closing installment, Hartigan ends up in prison on trumped up charges because of the senator’s influence. After getting out, he has to protect the grown up Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) from Yellow Bastard (Stahl), who is Rourk, his skin made yellow by the special medical treatments given to repair “the damage” Hartigan did to him in the first segment of Bastard.

Rodriguez, who insisted that Miller get a co-director credit (which forced Rodriguez to leave the Directors Guild of America because co-directors who aren’t siblings is a no-no), shot this film entirely before a green screen. The only things that are real are the actors, the objects they touch, and the cars they ride in. Everything else was digitally inserted later using special effects, such as in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. The result is a digital painting in stark black and white with dashes of vibrant color – a red dress, gold hair, a yellow-skinned bastard, etc.

But is this movie good? It’s as good as it is groundbreaking. For all it’s visual flair and the fact that it really looks like a comic book brought to digital film live, the story and the characters are also riveting and engaging. I couldn’t’ take my eyes off the screen. This is power slap to the face like Pulp Fiction and The Matrix, where you get the hard-boiled crime story that enthralls in the former and the eye-popping and mind-bending technical explosion of the latter. Hell, this is better than The Matrix and Sky Captain. Comic book geeks and aficionados, hard core action movie junkies, and the young male demographic will likely love this; this mean baby of a movie was born for them. Anyone else who likes the daring in cinema and can stomach the strangest art films can also handle this, even if they, in the end, don’t like it.

Sin City does seem to run on a little too long, but even this minor quibble is for the best. It gives the large cast (that was anxious to star in this maverick project) more film time in which to shine. There are some truly good performance here – Stahl, Rourke, and Owen for sure. How can a true fan of movies miss this? Yes, it’s vile and almost pornographically violent, but violence looks great on the big screen. Besides, the opportunity to see Jessica Alba’s gyrating dance, Rosario Dawson’s super duper fine ass, and Jamie King’s breasts of a goddess are worth it.

9 of 10
A+

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Review: "Ninja Assassin" is Strictly for My N.I.N.J.A.S.

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 23 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Ninja Assassin (2009)
Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody stylized violence throughout, and language
DIRECTOR: James McTeigue
WRITERS: Matthew Sand and J. Michael Straczynski; from a story by Matthew Sand
PRODUCERS: Grant Hill, Joel Silver, Andy Wachowski, and Larry Wachowski
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
EDITORS: Gian Ganziano and Joseph Jett Sally

ACTION/MARTIAL ARTS

Starring: Rain, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles, Shô Kosugi, Rick Yune, Joon Lee, Anna Sawai, Yoon Sungwoong, Kylie Liya Goldstein, Sung Kang, and Randall Duk Kim

It’s not Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, nor is it a Bruce Lee movie. However, if you want to see a ninja movie in which the clichés and bodies pile up in a mass of gore and severed limbs and heads, then, Ninja Assassin is just for you (and me).

Ninja Assassin focuses on an outcast ninja named Raizo (Rain). An orphan, he was taken from the streets as a child and brought into a ninja clan. There, Lord Ozunu (Shô Kosugi) gave him the name “Raizo” and transformed him into a trained killer in the service of the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. After a terrible incident, Raizo leaves the Clan and vanishes. Now, living in Berlin, he waits for his former brethren to come for him, and he prepares to exact his revenge.

Meanwhile, also in Berlin, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) has stumbled upon a money trail linking several political murders to an ancient network of untraceable assassins from the Far East. In spite of the discouragement she initially receives from her superior, Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles), Mika digs into top secret agency files to learn the truth behind these murders, which leads her to the Ozunu Clan. Mika’s investigation, however, makes her a target of the clan, which sends a team of killers, led by Raizo’s rival, the lethal Takeshi (Rick Yune), to silence Mika. Although he saves Mika from the first attack, Raizo knows that the Ozunu will not rest until both Mika and he are eliminated. Now, Raizo and Mika begin a deadly game of cat and mouse in hopes of finally bringing down the elusive Lord Ozunu and his ninja assassins.

There are things that Ninja Assassin does well and a number of things it doesn’t do that well. The acting is average to mediocre, defined mostly by clunky dialogue, although Naomie Harris (best know for her roles in the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies and also, 28 Days Later) is fair. The Asian cast is pretty good. Rain, a South Korean pop star, as Raizo is charismatic, and Shô Kosugi as Ozunu is dynamite.

The fight scenes are superb; they’ll be magic candy to the ninja-lovin’ kid in you. Too many of them are stage in darkened settings, however. Much of the drama is horridly written; the exceptions are the flashbacks about Raizo’s time training with the Ozunu Clan, which are actually quite good. That aside, what fans want are cool fight scenes, and Ninja Assassin gives us a fight scene just about every five minutes. The hacking and slashing; the severed heads, limbs, and torsos; and the blood sprays will make some viewers wince. I did, but I’ll take many brutal fight scenes in my ninja movie, especially when the alternative is poorly done character drama.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, April 17, 2010

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Eden of the East Trio at Anime Expo 2010

Anime Expo® 2010 Announces Eden of The East Trio as Official Guests of Honor

Anime Expo® is pleased to announce today that the Eden of the East trio, Kenji Kamiyama, Satoru Nakamura and Tomhiko Ishii, will be official Guests of Honor at its July convention. Anime Expo, the United States’ largest anime and manga convention is scheduled for July 1 – 4, 2010, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Mr. Kamiyama, Mr. Nakamura and Mr. Ishii will take part in autograph sessions, meet-and-greets, and attendee panels.

The three gentlemen come to Anime Expo in anticipation of the FUNimation Entertainment release, Eden of the East. The U.S. Premiere of the TV series will be screened exclusively to Anime Expo attendees throughout the event. Creator and director, Kenji Kamiyama; animation director, Satoru Nakamura; and producer Tomohiko Ishii, are proud to represent the Eden of the East creative team through their Guest of Honor appearance.

Kenji Kamiyama is an accomplished anime creator, director, artist and writer. Some of his most well-known roles include director for Eden of the East, director for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, writer for Blood: The Last Vampire, and animation director for Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade.

Satoru Nakamura has made his mark on the anime world through his involvement with several popular anime titles. He is most known for his role as animation director in Eden of the East, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Library War, Gurren Lagann and Angel Cop.

Tomohiko Ishii is excited to attend Anime Expo to promote his work as producer of Eden of the East. Mr. Ishii has also worked as producer for Sky Crawlers, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.

Kenji Kamiyama, Satoru Nakamura and Tomohiko Ishii join Anime Expo’s 2010 line-up along with voice actor Kyle Hebert, animation director Toshihiro Kawamoto, seiyuu Yuu Asakawa, J-rock band Sophia, and anime director Shinichi “Nabeshin” Watanabe. To stay updated on all of the latest Anime Expo 2010 news, follow us on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook and check us out on YouTube.

To register for Anime Expo 2010, please visit our website.


About Anime Expo®
Anime Expo is located in Los Angeles and is the nation’s largest anime and manga convention. The Expo serves to foster trade, commerce and the interests of the general public and animation industry. This event serves as a key meeting place for the general public to express their interest and explore various aspects of both anime and manga, as well as for members of the industry to conduct business. AX 2010 will be held July 1 – July 4, 2010, at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Southern California. More information can be found at www.anime-expo.org.

About the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation
The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to popularize and educate the American public about anime and manga, as well as provide a forum to facilitate communication between professionals and fans. This organization is more popularly known by its entertainment property, Anime Expo®. More information can be found at www.spja.org.

Yahoo Movies' Must-See Films

Yahoo! Movies Releases New List of Top 100 Must-See Films

List Identifies the Modern Classics of This Generation

Yahoo! Movies, one of the leading movies websites, today released the second of the site’s annual movie lists, “100 Movies to See Before You Die: The Modern Classics.” These classics are the movies that shaped pop culture over the past 20 years, offered the most quotable lines, and worked their way into this generation’s heart and memory. The full list, compiled by Yahoo! Movies’ team of editors and experts, is available at: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/100-movies-to-see-before-you-die-modern-classics.html

Unlike other authoritative lists, this list does not focus solely on American films — over 20 percent of the “Modern Classics” are movies from abroad, including signature films from Hong Kong and France. A few of the films also appeared in Yahoo! Movies’ first “100 Movies to See Before You Die” (http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/100-movies-to-see-before-you-die.html), a list compiled for movie buffs and encompassing films worldwide from all time periods in cinematic history, but the modern classics list focuses only on the movies of the last two decades that became classics instantly or in a short time.

“This is the list you print, hang on your refrigerator, and slowly check off as you experience what it is that makes these films stand out,” said Sean Phillips, Yahoo! Movies’ executive producer. “Whatever the genre, these films represent the best of cinema over the last twenty years.”

Well-known movies from the 1990s on the list include “Dazed and Confused,” “Pulp Fiction,” and “Schindler’s List,” The list also includes lesser-known films, such as “Elephant,” “Trois Couleur: Rouge” and “Old Boy.”

Ang Lee, Joel Coen and James Cameron made the strongest showing as directors, with three films from each director making the cut, including “Sense and Sensibility,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “Avatar,” respectively. Likewise, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Kevin Spacey, Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, and Kate Winslet led in the acting category.

With Yahoo! being at the center of people’s online lives, the list is ideally constructed for Web users. It can be searched chronologically, and movies.yahoo.com offers in-depth commentary and expert analysis on many of the chosen films.

Review: "The Hunted" - White Ninja for Dummies

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 68 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Hunted (1995)
Running time: 111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody ninja violence and some sexuality
WRITER/DIRECTOR: J.F. Lawton
PRODUCERS: John Davis and Gary W. Goldstein
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Conroy
EDITORS: Robert A. Ferretti and Eric Strand

DRAMA/MARTIAL ARTS with elements of a thriller

Starring: Christopher Lambert, John Lone, Joan Chen, Yoshido Harada, Yôko Shimada, Mari Natsuki, and Michael Warren

J.F. Lawton wrote two very successful movies – the hugely popular film Pretty Woman (which sent Julia Robert’s career into orbit) and Under Siege (the action film that briefly put Steven Seagal on the A- list), and he created the TV series V.I.P. Thus, he may never be remembered for the film he wrote and directed in the mid-90’s, the so-so Far East martial arts drama/thriller, The Hunted. It’s the story of an American businessman (Christopher Lambert) who witnesses the assassination of a prostitute(?) and earns the ire of her assassin, Kinjo (John Lone), a ninja killer with a rep of legendary proportions. His self-appointed protector is Takeda (Yoshido Harada), a samurai whose family has a centuries old grudge against Kinjo’s clan.

The film is combination of a few things, none of them very well done. Half the film is a low rent martial arts drama and revenge story that borrows Asian customs in the sort of half-assed way syndicated television series do. Basically, an American filmmaker makes a thoroughly mediocre version of what a Hong Kong, Chinese, or Japanese director would make. The other half of the film is a crime drama. A critic in the midst of reviewing the Coen Bros. Miller’s Crossing once said that every American director who aspires to greatness has to do a mob movie or movie about organized crime. This is Lawton’s attempt at it with ninja’s replacing the Irish, Jews, and Italians of American mob pictures.

The really offensive thing about this film is that Paul Racine, the American played by Lambert (of Highlander fame), ends up saving the day. After nearly two hours of grinding an ancient grudge between Japanese clans, the Westerner ends up the last man standing, and he gets the Japanese girl. I have to admit that I really liked this film the first time I saw it, except for Racine coming out on top, which is politically correct in terms of making big bucks at the American box office. Upon second viewing, I realized that this is a tepid flick that goes on for too long. Although it has lots of potential and a few interesting scenes, The Hunted struggles just to be an average flick.

3 of 10
C-