The Hunting PartyMovie Reviews

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So-so

Avg. Critic Score: 54 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

Iffy for 16+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

83

Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman
What makes The Hunting Party an original, gonzo treat is the way that Shepard plants the movie's tone somewhere between hair-trigger investigative danger and the from-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire glee of a Hope/Crosby picture. Read full review
75

Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea
Throw in some business with the CIA, add a small army of Serbian thugs and a mysterious Croatian beauty, and The Hunting Party picks up speed, careening through the forests where the Fox may or may not be hiding out. Whatever fate awaits, it can't be good. But it can be fun. Read full review
75

USA Today | Claudia Puig
When a movie is a hybrid of this sort, it can be tough to strike just the right tone. Mostly, The Hunting Party manages. Read full review
70

The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt
Writer-director Richard Shepard assembles all the elements for a dark suspense comedy only to lose his way in a surfeit of plot mechanics and unlikely behavior. Read full review
70

Variety | Robert Koehler
Alternately glib, superficial and amusing, pic vainly attempts to absorb some degree of Serbian irony into a story that's unavoidably lessened by its privileged American vantage point. Read full review
50

Boston Globe | Ty Burr
Genocide is hard to decorate with the trimmings of dark farce. The Hunting Party wants to get at political truths through audaciousness, but it keeps bumping into that problem of taste, only to back down. Read full review
50

Washington Post | Desson Thomson
Truth be told, none of it is actual living, and all of it is secondhand re-spinning of such better movies as "The Year of Living Dangerously" and "Welcome to Sarajevo." To use an antiquated newsman's cliche: Get me rewrite. Read full review
40

The New York Times | Manohla Dargis
A misfired, misguided would-be satire. Read full review
40

Los Angeles Times | Carina Chocano
Black comedy becomes funnier as the action becomes darker and more perilous, but The Hunting Party fails to locate the absurdity in the central situations and goes for midget jokes instead. In the end, you're not sure if you're supposed to be watching "The Three Amigos" or "Hotel Rwanda." Read full review
25

San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle
A complete bust, but the ways in which it fails are interesting. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for The Hunting Party on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Hunt for war criminal full of violence, language.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this Richard Gere action dramedy takes place primarily in violent war zones (Somalia) and post-war zones (Bosnia) that are hotbeds of brutality. Both in the present and in flashbacks, scenes are filled with explosions, shooting, careening cars, and people being wounded and killed. One war criminal wields an axe with particular ferocity and threatens the heroes during a torture scene; a particularly horrific, bloody flashback shows a dead pregnant woman whose baby has been cut out of her. Expect lots of language (particularly "f--k"), some cleavage shots and bare breasts, and frequent smoking and drinking (with some minor drunkenness), with some discussion of drugs.

Families can talk about how the media portrays reporters. Do TV shows and movies make journalism seem like a glamorous career? How realistic do you think that is? What do you think reporting from a war zone is really like? Families can also discuss journalists' responsibilities. Do they have a moral or ethical duty when they see terrible violence or crimes? If so, what is that duty?

The good stuff

Positive messages: Journalists lie, cheat, and steal in order to get their stories (though they adopt a self-satisfying morality by the film's end). Peace monitors and police studiously avoid confrontations. War criminals get away with murder and rape.

What to watch for

Violence: Film opens in a war zone, complete with shooting, explosions, gunfire, blood, injuries, and hectic camerawork; the following war scenes are more of the same. An especially horrific scene shows a pregnant woman dead, her fetus ripped from her belly (very bloody). Several discussions of rape and murder. One of the fabled killers has a special "killing axe," which he uses with gusto. In a torture scene, victims are hung from ceiling, knives and an axe are brandished, and there's a lot of hitting and yelling. Villains hunt fuzzy little foxes in the woods. In the final scene, it's suggested that the villain gets his "just desserts."
Sex: Women's cleavage and naked breasts are occasionally visible; Simon shows his naked bottom (as a goodbye). Duck's professional success is indicated by his casual liaisons with women (kissing and more breasts visible). Frequent sexual slang ("balls," "p---y," "dick," "c--k"); discussion of sodomy.
Language: Lots of tough-reporter talk, including lots of "f--k"s (at least 75), as well as "s--t," "ass" and "a--hole," "bitch," "damn," "hell," "bastard," "jerkoff," and "c--ksucker." One use of "c--t." Some colorful phrasing ("he's bald as a turd").
Consumerism: Dunkin' Donuts, Chuck Norris (one of his movies appears on a couple of background TVs).
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Frequent cigarette smoking, in bars and under fire in combat zones. Simon appears drunk on camera and consequently loses his job. Multiple scenes show journalists drinking (beer, brandy, other liquor) in bars, with interview subjects, and with collaborators. Benjamin appears drunk and stumbling. References to Quaaludes and opium.

Common Sense Media An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.