The Hunting Party (2007)

Memorable, crazy movie

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) and his cameraman Duckie (Terrence Howard) take great risks to report on wars around the world. In 1994 Bosnia, Simon blows up on the air after anchorman Franklin Harris (James Brolin) asks the wrong questions. Simon is fired while Duckie is promoted to be a cameraman back in America. Five years later, Duckie is following Franklin to cover the peace process in Sarajevo. They are joined by a network vice-president's son newbie Benjamin Strauss (Jesse Eisenberg). Duckie is surprised by Simon who is reduced to reporting for minor foreign news agencies. Simon has a lead on Serb war criminal Bogdanović with a $5 million bounty and convinces Duckie to join him. Strauss eagerly joins up on the hunting party.This is a brilliant black comedy and gonzo reporting thriller. The tone does go all over the place. To me, that's the charm of this movie. It feels a movie through the unstable mind of Simon Hunt. All three actors deliver the goods. There is also questions about the reality of the story. It's definitely not a balanced take on the Bosnian civil war. However it's not completely out of bounds. The wild back and forth between serious and comical adds to my appreciation of the surreality of a civil war.

Classic Serbophobic movie, sometimes very silly.All world forces in the world can not catch Dr. Radovan Karadzic,but Richard Gere can.In the end even beat him.Ha,ha,...In reality Dr. Radovan Karadzic is real intelligence person comparing Richard Gere.It is very interesting that Gere accept acting such silly movie. The movie point is to collect Muslim tension to Serbs,instead the real problems such is Israel,Iraq and Afganistan occupation,war crimes in Lebanon,...This film will be forgotten very fast,because of his short-term purpose.And probably will not be accepted by international audience.People are not stupid ,to believe in low cost budget films.Anyway ,time will give answers.

Making successful movies on civil wars is always a difficult task demanding dedication to the idea of objectiveness and complexity needed for artistic perception of madness that surrounds the tragedy of such conflict. This movie fails on so much levels that it can hardly be enumerated. Firstly, the script is so simplified and shows deeply misunderstanding of not only Bosnian, but probably any civil war conflict at all. In order to make a distinctive movie you must firstly avoid stereotype on solely bad and good guys, because that this is not a comic book, but real life in all of its cruelty and sorrow.The peoples of Bosnia have been living for centuries together and have the same genetic origin. This is important to say, because this movie shows one people as ugly bunch of cavemen including even children. There are words in the script that the main characters must be careful when they leave Bosnian capital Sarajevo because they enter into the land of raping and murdering. Thus we have a superhero dressed as a reporter who faces with the biggest horrors in the Earth in his efforts to find and capture the villain and the movie clearly suggests us that all of this people are villains and that there is no difference between them at all. With such a bad script acting stays irrelevant. The acting is in the service of propaganda unworthy of beautiful art of film making.

This movie boldly claims that it's all being based on true events but like (too) often is the case, this just wasn't true at all. It's all only very merely loosely based on the story of a couple of journalists, which wasn't as spectacular as portrayed in this movie but still was sure far more interesting though.Not hard to see what this movie its problem is; it's far too over Hollywoodized. The three main characters are portrayed as brave heroes, who even risk their lives to capture a war criminal and put an end to a conflict that has been going on for years and years. What arrogance and stupidity. They get themselves into all kinds of predicaments. They get followed, shot at, kidnapped and even the CIA gets involved with their operation. Am I watching a true war drama or a James Bond movie here? It was especially ridicules how they let the Fox be almost directly responsible for the death of Richard Gere characters's girlfriend, while also walking away and staring like a true villain.The character the Fox is never named by his true name but it should be pretty obvious that he was supposed to be Radovan Karadžić. Even the actor that plays him is made to look just like him. I can understand why they changed the character's name though. If they named him Radovan Karadžić people would had known that our 'heroes' wouldn't succeed in capturing him, since Karadžić was still a free man at the time. When the named him just the Fox they knew that some audiences might still have been left in doubt and suspense. But also this is an example of the Hollywoodisation of this movie. It's too busy thinking and worrying about things from a marketing perspective and it doesn't spend enough time trying to tell a good, true story.This movie would had been so much better and more interesting if it was put into the hands of a director who wanted to tell the story in a true, honest and straight-forward way, like perhaps a director like Michael Mann would be capable off. It's a story that really deserved- but also needed some more depth and background. This movie doesn't give you any information or background about the whole Yugoslav wars and its aftermath. It's also a reason why a whole bunch of people, such as for instances Serbs and Bosniaks, feel offended by this movie. It's not a movie about their conflict, pains or emotions, it's a movie about brave heroic Americans, barging in to save the day.But no, also when you look at this movie from a different perspective, so without having in mind that this is supposed to be based on true events, this just isn't a very engaging, interesting, or entertaining movie to watch. It's quite weak in its approach and directing, since it doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind if it wants to be serious and tense, dramatic, or a fun, silly movie. Sometimes it works and blends in well all together for other Richard Shepard movies but just not this time around really. It also makes the entire point that this movie tries to get across not work out properly at all.It attempts to make a point about it how ridicules and fishy it is that after so many years neither a person like Radovan Karadžić or Ratko Mladić got found or caught and could walk around and life freely, while when a couple of journalists attempt to find Karadžić they succeed in only a couple of days. It is of course right about this point but it just doesn't let it come across as anything strong or something that sticks and provokes. I don't think this movie made any people really think about these things and I'm pretty sure Karadžić himself will actually laugh at this movie when he watches it in his cell. It makes the movie even a bit painful, especially when at the end the movie openly and somewhat aggressively questions why Karadžić, Mladić and Bin Laden never got found and caught, three persons who all by now are either caught or killed.OK so on a positive note, I liked some of the acting in this movie. Especially Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg were good in their roles and it was also good to see that they shot this movie at the actually countries the events within this movie took place at, also mostly starring people from those regions in the supporting roles. Too bad that the story and all of its events aren't as authentic and realistic. Completely irrelevant movie, that fails to deliver with either its drama or entertainment. I still didn't hated this movie as much as I probably make it sound right now but it still is really not a movie that I would ever recommend to anyone.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/