How can they find the world's most wanted war criminal when the C.I.A. can't? [by actually looking]
A young journalist, a seasoned cameraman and a discredited war correspondent embark on an unauthorized mission to find the no. 1 war criminal in Bosnia; they find themselves in serious jeopardy when they are mistaken as a CIA hit squad and their target decides to come after them.
Genre(s): Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Thriller, War
Runtime: 101 minutes
Rating: 7.0/10 (10,909 votes)
Release Date: 3 September 2007
Country: USA, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Languages: English, Serbo-Croatian
Company: Intermedia
Sound: Dolby Digital, DTS
MPAA: Rated R for strong language and some violent content.
Director(s): Richard Shepard
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Producer(s):
Bill Block - producer
Alejandra Cárdenas - line producer: Mexico (as Alexandra Cárdenas)
Paul Hanson - executive producer
Bo Hyde - executive producer
Mark Johnson - producer
Sascha Konzack - co-producer
Scott Kroopf - producer
Alex Litvak - co-producer
Adam Merims - executive producer
Kendall Morgan - co-executive producer (as Kendall Morgan Rhodes)
Martin Schuermann - executive producer
Philip Schulz-Deyle - line producer: Germany
Writer(s):
Richard Shepard - (written by)
Scott Anderson - (article "How I Spent My Summer Vacation")
Cast:
Terrence Howard - Duck
Richard Gere - Simon Hunt
Gordana Vukres - Girl at Awards Ceremony
James Brolin - Franklin Harris
Sanela Seferagic - Sexy Assistant
Damir Saban - Gert
Aleksandra Grdic - TriBeCa Loft Girl
Jesse Eisenberg - Benjamin Strauss
John W. Falk - Journalist #1
Scott Anderson - Journalist #2
Music: Rolfe Kent
Bill Block - producer
Alejandra Cárdenas - line producer: Mexico (as Alexandra Cárdenas)
Paul Hanson - executive producer
Bo Hyde - executive producer
Mark Johnson - producer
Sascha Konzack - co-producer
Scott Kroopf - producer
Alex Litvak - co-producer
Adam Merims - executive producer
Kendall Morgan - co-executive producer (as Kendall Morgan Rhodes)
Martin Schuermann - executive producer
Philip Schulz-Deyle - line producer: Germany
Writer(s):
Richard Shepard - (written by)
Scott Anderson - (article "How I Spent My Summer Vacation")
Cast:
Terrence Howard - Duck
Richard Gere - Simon Hunt
Gordana Vukres - Girl at Awards Ceremony
James Brolin - Franklin Harris
Sanela Seferagic - Sexy Assistant
Damir Saban - Gert
Aleksandra Grdic - TriBeCa Loft Girl
Jesse Eisenberg - Benjamin Strauss
John W. Falk - Journalist #1
Scott Anderson - Journalist #2
Music: Rolfe Kent
October 4th, 2008
beautiful film. As to the usual one, the usual negative comments whichtalk about a classical film some years 80 which everyone does not likeit to the nostalgic ones are met.Sure Heros that this film had to havea judgment in this site. In fact reviewers' good part has put a highvote to the previous episodes. Because this contrast? I know thereason. Since assumptive reviewers' good part favorably sees the pastand as the past is "better" than the present they have given severalcredit to the preceding episodes being still the last episode moreexplosive and spectacular. At this point should reject also the oldepisodes but there are here two weights and two measure.In fact alsocinema masterpieces have been criticized and denigrated. Good part somereviewers of this site belong to the very bad reviewers. Better thinkseparately with its head.
November 2nd, 2008
**SPOILERS** Somewhat muddled war drama involving a major cable networkTV war correspondent Simon Hunt, Richard Gere, who suffered a mentalbreakdown on the air while reporting a massacre of Bosnian Muslims inthe little town of Polji. One of those slaughtered by the rampagingSerbians was Simon's pregnant Bosian girlfriend Marda, KristineKrepela.
Now with the war in Bosnia over for some five years Simon has gottensecret information to where the Serbian leader Boghdanovic aka the Fox,Ljubomir Kerekes, who was responsible for the Polji massacre is hidingout :In the woods outside of Celebici on the Srpska Montenegro border.With a five million dollar reward on his head Simon is determined toboth get Boghdanovic dead or alive and get both the cash and revengefor the murder of his future wife Mavda.
Needing help Simon somehow manages to get his former news photographerHoward the Duck, Terrance Howard,and young Harvard graduate the hotshot and wet behind the ears Benji Strass, Jesse Eisenberg, to help himtrack the Fox down.
Simon and his crew get side stepped at every turn in trying to trackdown the Fox not just by the Fox's loyal and dedicated bodyguardsheaded by psycho ax killer Srdjan, Goran Kotic,but the CIA itself. Itsoon turns out that the Fox had made a deal with both the US and itsNATO allies to keep out of trouble, and stop murdering people, and thusend up keeping himself from standing trial for his numerous war crimes.
****SPOILERS**** As things turn out Simon by not leaving the Fox aloneends up getting kidnapped by him together with Howard the Duck andBenji. Just as the Fox's henchman Srdjan is about the decapitate Simon& Co. the CIA lead by Dylan Baker come to their rescue and at the sametime letting the Fox flee the scene. Not at all satisfied in havingtheir necks from being severed Simon at the insistence of Howard theDuck, who was at first not all that impressed in Simon's whacked outplan, go back to Celebici to get the Fox and bring him to justice.
The Fox caught, as one would expect, while he was out in the woods foxhunting by Simon & Co. is dropped off at the village of Polji with hishands tied behind his back where the local population, who's loved oneshe had massacred five years ago, take out their vengeance andretribution on him. Lucklily for us in the audience we were speared, byit all being out of camera rage, to just what kind of vengeance andretribution the villagers matted out!
Despite the Fox's deplorable criminal record he actually came across abit sympathetic in that he gave those who had him done in, Simon Howardthe Duck & Benji, a lot more leeway then they gave him.
Like most war criminals who were or are in the pay of the CIA the Foxwas given full immunity for criminal prosecution from that secretagency until Simon & Co. showed up, in Celebici, to start makingtrouble for him. Simon and his friends should have been a bit more intune to what they were doing in that now, after doing the Fox in, theymay well be targeted by CIA hit-men for messing up their cozyarrangement with the Fox. And last but not least the five milliondollars on the Fox's head that they think their going to get may wellget them a hail of bullets when they naively attempt to pick it up!
November 18th, 2008
After solid 'The Matador'(brilliant Brosnan), Richard Shepard decidedto direct a movie that is about catching war criminal in Bosnia. I mustsay that this is a very brave project and I salute Mr.Shepard ondemanding to shoot the entire movie on places were its plot happens(alright there is no Serbia but it's clear why) and not in CzechRepublic (it would be much much cheaper). What is great about this oneis obvious critic to USA (advertise in papers and phone number that youcan call but only from America…), UN (they're actually not doinganything;great scene when our main characters talk with Indian guy withdonuts), NATO, EU, The Hague, secret services and everyone who arepretending that they're catching war criminals. Three journalists foundout where is 'The Fox'(actually character of Radovan Karadjic who iscaught few months ago) hiding and all secret services couldn't do thatin 5 years (they obviously didn't want to). What I also liked is theend when Simon, Duck and Benjamin surrender 'The Fox' to people of townhe bombarded and destroyed. In real life those people were hunted,killed and raped and no one couldn't do anything about it, nor greatAmerica, United Nations, no one. That is greatly described in movieslike "No Man's Land" but "The Hunting Party" is American movie so I'm abit surprised by the level of truth there is in this movie. Because ofthat I'm willing to pass over some minuses like thin script or veryfast ending. Also the direction of Shepard is very good just like theacting. Gere & Howard are great together and those humor parts aren'tfaked so there is chemistry between them. I must say that TerrenceHoward is better then Richard Gere in here but Gere always gets away ona charming card. 5 minutes of Diane Kruger as Mirjana are great justlike the role of my country-men Ljubomir Kerekes as 'The Fox'. So ifyou want to watch a movie that presents only the facts then you have towatch this movie and maybe learn something about the war on theseareas. War is now behind us and I think that this crew enjoyedthemselves on beautiful locations like Sarajevo, Zagreb or at theAdriatic sea.
January 7th, 2009
It gets more and more disturbing as Hollywood masters the art ofpropaganda, calling onto seasoned actors and putting all the effortinto making it work. As we all know there are at least two sides toevery conflict and this movie's best is only a formal hint at that.Countless WW2 movies have finally shown us that a war movie shouldnever portray the matter in black and white. To rip a piece out of thenever-ending Balkan tragedy and to present it so blindly andpreposterously cannot serve any other goal than political. Put againstthe recent "liberation" of Serbian Kosovo with joint Alban-NATO (as in:US-backed) efforts the movie looks even more frustrating, as we nowhave the motive: if you liked this movie then the next time you hearthe word "Serbian" you _might_ get an eye twitch and the next time anAmerican president (*doh* the UN, the UN of course) decides to slice upa foreign country called Serbia for the good of "democracy" or whateveryou _might_ notice a righteous grin on your face. Peculiarly, in "TheHunting Party" the Serbska Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is evenmisspoken as Serbia once.
Oh and by the way, Kosovo now hosts the largest US military base inEurope.
PS: War criminals aren't just those with the "kalashnikov" in theirhand, shooting and raping women. Sometimes a signature is as bad asthat.
January 23rd, 2009
I am really disappointed with the result of what could have been agood, interesting and decent movie. At first glance, 'The HuntingParty' resembles a low budget movie (a cheap hodgepodge as the resultof a naive and unconvincing plot), but then you clearly realize it is apoisoning political pamphlet which promotes the need for andjustification of revenge: if the alleged war criminal cannot be caughtby officials (NATO, CIA, local police etc.) and prosecuted he mustsomehow be kidnapped and delivered by the three brave and righteousAmerican journalists (sic!): not to the legal forces (the journalistsdecided to lose a fairly high remuneration of 5 mil. $), but directlyto the furious victims because, as the movie suggests, lynch law is theonly justice for some people. Blood for blood, that is what promotesthis movie in 2007! And, when the victims (Bosnian Moslems) get theirmost wanted enemy (we see what they are about to do with him), thestory can end up with nice, nostalgic and peacefull tunes of a typicalBosnian folk song, sevdalinka. I read all the comments posted here andam not fully agreed with all of you who judged the movie as wasting oftime. In fact, we have something worse here – a very good example ofcrooked and professionally unscrupulous film-making covered up byseveral high-sounding names such as Richard Gere. I only feel sorry forhim: this movie is not only well below his acting standards buthopefully below his professional and personal ethics! It is enigma forme (is it indeed?) why he had taken the role at all?
February 23rd, 2009
Richard Shepard's "The Hunting Party" is supposedly based on an Esquiremagazine article. Scott Anderson's account about the encounter ofjournalists a few years after the war in Bosnia ended, is the basis ofthis film that for some reason, doesn't quite get the viewer'sattention, perhaps because of the subject matter which never elicited alot of sympathy from the American public. After all, this was anunpopular war with a recent happy conclusion when the real "Fox" fromthe movie, or Radovan Karadzic, was captured not too long ago.
The story is a bit far fetched, but we went along for the ride havingno preconceived ideas. What seemed to be an adventure film, doesn'thold our attention, perhaps because the story has been done before,much better, one must add. The main character, Simon Hunt, is a manwith an agenda. He has seen the horrors of the fighting first hand. Heis made a victim of the struggle when he lost the woman he loved by theFox, when he comes to late to do anything to prevent her tragic death.Together with his old camera man and the son of a vice-president of thenetwork which he worked for, he sets out to capture the fugitive guy,acting on his own theory to get the Fox and getting the million dollarsbeing offered for his capture.
Richard Gere's Simon is an unlikely hero, as the washed upcorrespondent that did the ultimate sin while on camera, something hisformer network didn't take too kindly. Now, unemployed, he has to freelance in that part of the world that saw violence during the war.Terrence Howard, who is one of the best actors of his generation, hasnot much to do. In a way, he feels compelled to help Simon because ofthe remorse he feels. Best of all is Jesse Eisenberg, who turns out asa surprise at the end.
Mr. Shepard, who wrote the screenplay as well, proves he is not assuccessful as he was with "The Matador". One wishes him well with anynew projects.