Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Tommy Lee Jones | ... | L.T. Bonham | |
Benicio Del Toro | ... | Aaron Hallam | |
Connie Nielsen | ... | Abby Durrell | |
Leslie Stefanson | ... | Irene Kravitz | |
John Finn | ... | Ted Chenoweth | |
José Zúñiga | ... | Bobby Moret (as Jose Zuniga) | |
Ron Canada | ... | Harry Van Zandt | |
Mark Pellegrino | ... | Dale Hewitt | |
Jenna Boyd | ... | Loretta Kravitz | |
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Aaron DeCone | ... | Stokes (as Aaron Brounstein) |
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Carrick O'Quinn | ... | Kohler |
Lonny Chapman | ... | Zander | |
Rex Linn | ... | Powell | |
Eddie Velez | ... | Richards | |
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Alexander MacKenzie | ... | Sheriff |
After a spate of grisly murders performed in an almost ritualistic way, the experienced survival expert and former military instructor, L.T. Bonham, is summoned to track down the elusive and shockingly familiar killer: one of his best pupils, Aaron Hallam. Holed up in the wet and tangled wilderness of Oregon's Silver Falls State Park, Aaron--now a tormented and delusional killing machine--will soon come face-to-face with his grizzled mentor, in a no-holds-barred hand-to-hand combat. Suddenly, age; experience; strength, and the feral will to survive, blur the line between a hunter and his prey. Now, who is the hunted? Written by Nick Riganas
The movie is pretty well-produced overall, though there are a couple of glaring editing goof-ups (the knife being dunked into water, for example.) And the fact that it's clear Jones and Del Toro are doing much of their own stuntwork in the fighting sequences (and other places) is pretty impressive.
However, there is really nothing of substance here that will make you remember the movie long after you've seen it. While the action gets bloody at times, the actual struggling around is only okay at best. The Jones and Del Toro characters are thin, with little background revealed about them, and they don't have that much dialogue. There are some interesting themes that start to peek out, but they are simply not expanded on. (Like: Why didn't Jones' character answer those letters he got? You have to hear the explanation from director Friedkin on one of the DVD documentaries!) Ultimately, the movie becomes a simple-minded action movie, of the mentality of many direct-to-video movies.
A P.S. to Hollywood filmmakers: If it is heavily snowing in British Columbia, it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that at the same time it would be sunny and warm in Oregon! The weather patterns in both places are more or less the same!