The Hunters (2013 TV Movie) User Reviews

Not quite enough

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 26 December 2013]

Brothers Paxton (Robbie Amell) and Tripp Flynn (Keenan Tracey) find their parents (Michelle Forbes, Dan Payne) have gone missing, and they're in a secret society of Hunters who track down legendary artifacts for safe keeping. The brothers and friend Dylan (Alexa Vega) have to track down a secret artifact and save the Flynn parents.

There are some good actors working here including the great Victor Garber. But I'm not sure the material is up to it. While the premise of a secret society is interesting, it's been done better elsewhere. This feels like a TV movie pilot hoping for a series pickup.

I get that they're trying to be a different looking thriller. People with crossbows look silly unless they can explain they're some kind of magical crossbows. The production isn't big enough to get the look right. The action isn't strong enough to be exciting. The CGI is lesser TV level. Everything is just slightly not quite enough.

Waste of Talent and Resources

[joeywyss · 4/10 · 7 June 2014]

Well you can't blame the failure of this film to take off on the cast, because they were a capable and experienced cast, even the younger actors. However, they are given absolutely nothing to sink their teeth into. Everything about the flick is just watered down and meandering. If this had been a Disney or Hub flick it would have worked, or even if upgraded to a full blown fantasy flick, it would have worked, but it feels completely like this is a first draft and not a full fleshed film. The script is thin with stick figure characters, clotted with toss off explanations to move the story and beyond cliché plot points (the Asian assassin was almost painful to watch). Everything it had going for it is wasted.Complete and total lack of backstory. It would have been great to know how Tripp's techie skills and Pax's fighting skills had previously reared their heads, it was screaming for some actual examples of the fairytale items in modern times, and someone with a much cleverer wit to punch up the one liners. It seems like the money ran out somewhere, but there was no going back to get a good finished product. The cast did what they could with what they had.

Cute but cheesy and left some to be desired

[jml1988 · 6/10 · 5 February 2020]

I love the idea of this but I thought they could have gone way farther with the plot, maybe even multiple movies. Half the movie was running and fighting instead of clever traps and artifacts.

If you haven't seen it, you're not missing much

[grandmastersik · 3/10 · 12 May 2014]

From the very opening, this had TV written all over it.

The locations imply that production values were good, but the actors, outfits, make-up, etc., all said that there was a second-rate production team behind it (nobody seemed to sweat or get dirty hiking through jungles, for instance, and these little details really take a viewer out of a tale on a subconscious level).

As for the plot: well, it's a very TV-series-pilot affair, with villains who shoot their own henchmen in the backs for no apparent reason (and with crossbows(!) that I imagine were hidden away inside a bra) and action that is neither gritty nor pops off the screen as impressive - actually, think of the kind of bland fights from Xena and just know that they were better...

I suppose that really, this film was aimed at children/young teenagers, so I wasn't the target audience, but from an adult's point of view, there's nothing new and what there is has been done better a hundred+ times already.

Don't do it.... don't expose yourself to utter rubbish

[hamish-jon-mclean · 3/10 · 20 January 2015]

Other reviews say "Indiana Jones meets the librarian"... and frankly that's an insult to the librarian..

Indiana Jones has cheese in it as its a cheese burger and an essential ingredient in its composition, but this movie "THE HUNTERS" is lacking actors, direction and a decent script. Its trying to be a hamburger and all it has to offer is stale bread.

It feels 'made for television' and the special effects (I wont call it CGI because it looks worse the 1977 Star Wars episode 1.)

Bottom line is don't watch it. Even if you think 'I'd really like to watch an adventure movie' please don't. I'm trying to help you!

Low budget Indiana Jones meets the librarian knock off

[stefan1429 · 4/10 · 31 August 2014]

this is fun to watch if you like adventure movies like "The librarian" and "Indiana Jones", the acting is terrible but it is entertaining nonetheless.

I recommend watching "The librarian" instead but if there is nothing else to watch on your play list go ahead and give it a go.

like i said before, the acting is terrible and the writing poor. The choice of weapons by the villains is also questionable, Crossbows? and why does Interpol have a terrible German accent? The children are written extremely poor and snobby.

On to another review Stefan

Lacking a little

[dragonheart5500 · 7/10 · 22 January 2014]

I picked up this movie not knowing anything more about it than the short description on the back of the jacket. That being said I thought it sounded interesting, I pick up a lot of movies like this I'm not always as lucky as I was with this one.

The movie was rich with subplots and the main plot itself was quite good. The idea that the items from fairy tales are real and that there is a secret society that collects and protects them without using them is intriguing. The acting was adequate and actually surprising better than anticipated. The locations were nice and went well with the script, not overly staged. I throughly enjoyed this movie!

That being said, I truly felt that the idea behind this script deserved MORE. More everything, it left me feeling like I really wanted the next movie but yet felt more like the budget of a TV show. I think this could be an enjoyable main stream series of movies if there were just more meat to it. I mean, why do they carry crossbows instead of guns? I don't want to give too much out I'm just trying to make a point. This is a good movie but the story line has a lot of potential if they could just give it a little more soul.

had potential but was terrible.

[ottoskorzeny-53649 · 3/10 · 3 January 2018]

Not going to waste as much time on review that i wasted watching it. dont know where to start, but after first 10 mins i was disappointed. the story had promise, but just didnt make it happen. if you see it for $1 in the bargain bin at the used dvd store, pass it by.

Cute film, made for TV

[greenem7 · 7/10 · 16 November 2023]

Cute film for a Made-for-TV movie. Basic premise is a group of Hunters who track down fairy tale artifacts in order to protect them and the world from their powers. Film rated PG, no cursing, no nudity, some fight scenes but no gore or blood... perfect for younger viewers. Read that it aired on Halmark which is a bit odd as it's not their usual romantic fare.

Acting is decent with some familiar faces and a few new ones; though the acting is a little cheesy at times, but then again the script isn't much of a stretch to act with and the story is somewhat formulaic. No real special effect to speak of other than the occasional glowing objects.

The film reminds me of a pilot setup for a possible series; somewhat like 'Warehouse 13' (search for mythic objects) or 'The Librarians' and a bit perhaps with a little 'Once Upon A Time' in future scripts. While the movie was released in 2013, could easily be picked up again now in 2023 with a fresh cast as a series with new story lines.

So, if looking for something a bit mindless or to entertain the kiddos for a Saturday afternoon, 'The Hunters' at 1.5 hrs might just fit.

Really?

[dx_baby · 1/10 · 26 December 2013]

All I can say is after commercials I had to watch the thrilling scene of the two young beautiful people trying on tuxedos and evening gowns. Not since Predator have I been so tense. PS. Should not be called The Hunters, but rather The Hikers as they spend most of their time doing that. Blond chick is hot, that's about it. Even Asylum could do this better. Let's see, a few more lines are required about this blockbuster, I would suggest not actually watching it or they might make a sequel called The Hunters II, The Quickening. Then it will equal the worst sequel of all time (you figure that one out). The hiking scenes do have some awesome hiking though, the director certainly watched Peter Jackson's extended 15 hour LOTR to see how the master of hiking movies does it.

Fun!

[brookenichole-98054 · 8/10 · 21 April 2020]

I really liked The Hunters. It was fun and action packed with just a little bit of romance. All the actors and actresses were really great and made the story carry well. The story was interesting with the whole fairytale stories coming into real life situations. The characters weren't even annoying and flowed naturally. However, it isn't perfect. The whole thing with the bad guys carrying crossbows and not guns confused me. I thought it was odd how they wouldn't take any shots at any of them. At least someone should have gotten hit to make the stakes higher. Also there were times when I was confused at how they got out of places, or solved a problem. And lastly, the part where Alexa's character is taken just didn't feel right. I mean she can fight obviously but she acted so helpless with guys who held crossbows. But, I still really liked this movie a lot and I think it deserves more credit.

Looking for spray cheese

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 21 February 2018]

I knew I was in trouble when the DVD opened up with previews for "Space Camp." This is the story of a family of Indian Jones types who hunt artifacts from fairy tales, legends, and history. In this story they introduce the characters as they search for the shards to the broken mirror from "Snow White." The film had promise in the beginning with exotic scenery, but then quickly switches to exotic places like Boston. The plot was a bit confusing as the shards were hidden so they couldn't be found, so they go find them before the bad guys can find them...making it easier for the "Krugen."

There is one scene where we see a bathtub Porsche filled with blue Walmart reusable bags which had me shaking my head. Does Walmart really need the product placement? The film was an "Eh-Okay" production, most likely a company composed of Amazon reviewers. Who gives themselves a title of mediocrity? Oh, they're Canadians. My bad.

I haven't figured out why no one used a real gun. They used single shot arrow-guns instead, which are bulkier. The acting was so-so. Alexa Vega, the eye candy wasn't convincing as the best lines were written for Tripp (Keenan Tracey) something parents name their kids when they conceive on acid.

Kids might like it. This is similar to "The Librarian" series which I thought was infinitely better.

I'm not exactly sure what I just watched

[FTo1 · 3/10 · 16 January 2016]

OK first off, it wasn't totally awful. It was rather foolish. The production design was, well, nonexistent. The art direction was dreadful. That being said, there are some somewhat good performances from the actors. I mean a mediocre actor can even pull off something worthwhile with a fabulous script. By the same token, not even the most accomplished actor can do much with a terrible script.

The premise was old. The script was really thin. The dialogue was silly. There was no character development. The direction was disjointed. I am pretty sure this was a TV pilot, especially with this choice of cast. Some of the rather cliché scenes support this notion as well, like the closing scene. Please! Every single TV pilot since the 70s has had a similar scene.

It's not a complete waste of time...no. I would recommend DVRing it and FF through most of it.

Could have been a lot better

[rahulr-50637 · 2/10 · 27 November 2015]

The basic story-line is good but it has holes the size of the Grand Canyon.

In the beginning, 2 Hunters (Husband and Wife team) go hunting for an object (a shard of the mirror from the snow white story) in Thailand and are betrayed by their new partner. Both hunters try to cross a valley on a single rope and harness at the same time but the line is cut. Most mysteriously the Husband goes missing and at the end of the movie he sends an SOS from Peru!!! How was he transported from Thailand to Peru? And why was the Wife not transported with him?

Their 2 sons are told of their family business of Hunting by the elder one's ex-girlfriend (she is also a Hunter). The 3 go on a journey to find the shards.

The children find the location of a shard in a cave. They find water flowing down a open Snake head statue into a basin and for some reason figure out that the water flow is "broken" and that they need to stop the flow of water to find the shard. The water flow mysteriously stops when the elder of the 2 keeps his hand in the snake's mouth. Now the basin has a vase. Instead of one of the other 2 extracting the vase, he gets it out with both hands. How come the vase didn't disappear when he removed the hand stopping the water flow.

The story has a "filthy rich" villain who has only 3 henchmen.

The Hunters motto "Find and protect, but never use". In the end the Wife destroys the mirror, which is a bummer. Why did you start searching for it in the first place and then continue searching for it if all you do is destroy the object in the end. I think that if they had just stopped searching for more missing pieces of the mirror and turn their efforts to regaining the shards taken from them in the first place, they could have served their motto better.

Poor direction sums it all.

No Challenge. Makes Treasure "Hunt" seem BORING

[michael-young1984 · 1/10 · 3 August 2014]

Spoilers Below. But if you want QUALITY, then you won't care.

The Hunters is a TREASURE Hunter movie. Imagine Spy Kids, Disney's Snow White & 7 Dwarfs, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Lara Croft movies, and clichés you would expect from Scary Movie - combine them all an you have "The Hunters".

At first the movie was interesting, then it was OK, then it started showing pointless drama, tons of convenient plot points, numerous clichés, and every point where there SHOULD be a booby trap, there isn't a single one! Well there is, but its so damn slow that even your legs were broken & you had to crawl your way out, you'd STILL make out. The bad guys were obvious, the good guys overpowered sidekicks to batman, and they made every puzzle seem so easy that "Legendary Treasure Hunter" feels self-proclaimed than earned (even though its "secret").

If you hated Lara Croft, Indiana Jones & the plastic skull, and Spy Kids, then watching this will be torture. Seriously. AVOID.

Truly awful infantile trash

[mervyn-thomas-1 · 1/10 · 28 December 2020]

Came to this conclusion after tolerating about 20 mins at which point we gave up

A dull, disjointed mess

[TheLittleSongbird · 2/10 · 17 August 2015]

The Hunters did have good potential. The cast was decent, and the basic story could have been really interesting if executed well and with nice ideas, regardless of how original or not it is. The big problem however with The Hunters is how it had all this potential, and didn't do anything with any of it.

It has a couple of things that it did do right. The scenery is very nice and exotic. Michelle Forbes brings command and winning energy to her role, the only person in the cast to scrape by with any kind of dignity.

On the other hand, aside from the scenery it does agreed look like it was intended to be a very low-budget TV pilot, and it also feels it. It's drably shot and choppily edited in the action, while the special effects looked unfinished, props were sparse or inappropriate (a lot of the weapons in the action come out of nowhere) and costumes failed to give a sense of time and place. The rest of the acting, despite the talent is poor, especially with the annoyingly amateur performances from the children, while Victor Garber has seldom been more wooden. The movie is flatly directed, generically scored and the action suffers from choppy editing, pedestrian and far from fun or suspenseful choreography and unmotivated performing of it.

The script and story are the biggest failures with The Hunters. The script is paper-thin, and some of the one-liners from particularly Tripp are out of place and irritate more than they amuse. The story structurally is every bit as thin with some very dull pacing as a result of trying to stretch out the running time, and even worse it is disjointed from trying to take on too many elements and doing little with any of them ( especially with the fairy-tale elements). There's no tension, suspense or fun as a result of playing the adventure and suspense too safe and by-the-numbers, which makes the adventure parts as far from thrilling and entertaining as you could go. The characters are stereotypically cardboard, and very hard to care or root for.

All in all, a dull, disjointed mess apart from the scenery and Forbes. 2/10 Bethany Cox

poor clone of others successful adventure series

[jasnuevo · 4/10 · 11 November 2021]

Main characters are not as likeable as Indiana Jones or Lara Croft and the story is not specially good either so the result is just a poor clone of others successful adventure series. End is horrible because it only lays out ground for a second movie which, given the quality of this first movie, is quite doubtful it will ever be made.

Decent Movie

[amgonyea10 · 8/10 · 22 July 2015]

Wow people are incredibly critical for what was a TV movie. It was a good movie. It might not have been the best I've ever seen. But it was solid enough.

It had good actors. The plot and character development could have been more, but you can't expect perfection from a TV movie.

It had suspense with a certain amount of surprise. Decent direction, good special effects.

The movie ended with me wanting more.

To all the people saying the story has been done before.... sure there's similarities. Once Upon a Time, Indiana Jones, The Liberians, Warehouse 13, etc. But most stories have been done before and redone into something else. This story was original enough that it was boring.

Good performances don't stand a chance

[neil-476 · 5/10 · 19 June 2016]

Two brothers discover that they are hereditary Hunters, and end up searching for shards of the magic mirror from Snow White.

This must have looked good enough on paper to be greenlit, but something went wrong on its way to the screen, and it wasn't the cast, who are fine.

The script is lacklustre, the action is dull (there are a number of Indiana Jones-lite sequences which offer no thrills at all), the production values are underwhelming and, despite a pleasing friction in the dynamic between the potentially romantic couple, there is little chemistry between them. And the film is filled with illogicality and nonsense.

This was not very good.

Indiana Jones cheese

[meangreenlabonte · 3/10 · 13 August 2016]

Harrison Ford wouldn't be able to save this film. This was a cheap version of Indiana Jones but with no Indiana Jones. I think the film was going for clever and amusing but didn't quite get there. Robbie & Alexa are likable in anything they're in. They are pretty and pleasant and keep the film somewhat watchable. They also have good chemistry. This film could've been good if it had better writing & less cheese. The story wasn't too good either. I really couldn't get passed the ridiculousness to enjoy the movie. At least Robbie is cute and Alexa has good hair. This was a huge waste of Victor Garber's talents. I'm surprised he's in it as well as Robbie and Alexa. The mom acted too much like Jane Wayne. The villains could have been a little more intimidating versus Three Stooges like. There was definitely no reason for the good guys to be scared. All in all I did get through it so I gave them a solid 3 which is better than a walk away one.

cheaply made movie

[isaacsian-26631 · 1/10 · 7 September 2019]

I don't write reviews on movies but this movie was so stupid and cheap that made me write this. horrible story, looks like the director has mind of 4 year old baby because the way the movie is made and is predictable

Worst 'action' film evah!

[myselfdoglover · 1/10 · 13 April 2015]

This film takes what used to be an interesting idea and makes it sooo boring.

First, the three main ideas have been more than done before

• fairy tales are real - Once Upon a Time anyone?

• relic hunters that discover items with magical properties... Come on! Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, the TV series Relic Hunter etc...

• teenagers with issues finding themselves on their quest to save the world

The whole plot line is silly:

• Some group of bad guys might be after this powerful item broken into 5 pieces (4 shards and the mirror) so the good guys go and find it for them?!

• Then, hot-chick-who-can-kick-ass-but-can't-use-products-until- Pantene-saves-her-from-split-ends appears just at the perfect moment.

• The hunters left clues and maps to find the shards in the first place!

• The boys discover the 'big' family secret and then go and spill the beans to their family friend. Know the meaning of SECRET?

• The impressive hunter, the Mum, can't think of how to make a sound when her children are in the other room? And she manages to untie herself only hours later in what seems a very strange move.

I stopped watching at the incredibly boring and silly 'cat' fight in the hanger ...

I tried to watch but not bad

[crolemberg · 1/10 · 22 October 2016]

Not recommend watching.

Oh really!!! Not recommend watching.

too bad, I tried to watch, but not bad ..

cast and terrible script, weapons are a joke ...

the idea of ​​the film is good, but unfocused and low budget, leasing It seems that they are always on the same site, the fights are very bad, summarizing the movie and bad and bad more deserve less than 1 vote ...

Not recommend watching.

They tried but failed. and I think it was done in a single weekend.

lousy actors are there who can act and children and his girlfriend left the direct twilight missed the werewolf and vampire top models

I tried to watch and I had to stop after 25 minutes of bad movie

and really do not recommend watching.

Truly bad Relic Hunter knock-off

[timrossminister · 4/10 · 24 February 2020]

What happens when someone finds all the edits from Relic Hunter and The Librarians in a Hollywood dumpster? Answer, someone mashes them together with an awful script, two-dimensional characters and a predictable plot and calls it The Hunters. I have to be honest, I gave up a long way before the end, so maybe it picked up.